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Celebrating the Colors of Unity and Joy - Orabase Solutions

Wishing you all a colorful and joyous Holi! May this festival of colors fill your life with vibrant hues of happiness, love, and prosperity. https://www.orabasesolutions.com

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Leaders are challenged as they navigate and strategize toward a big picture that is unfamiliar. Creating and fostering culture can seem abstract and intangible in this new paradigm—primarily when many aspects of employee experience are rooted in working together in the same office.

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Celebrating Women's Day with Empowerment and Equality - Orabase Solutions

Celebrating the strength, grace, and resilience of women everywhere! Happy Women's Day from Orabase Solutions. Today, we honor the incredible contributions and achievements of women in shaping our world. Let's continue to empower, inspire, and uplift each other. https://www.orabasesolutions.com/

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Happy Gandhi Jayanti - Orabase Solutions

Remembering the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, on his birth anniversary - #GandhiJayanti. 🇮🇳 Let's honor his legacy of peace, non-violence, and unity. His principles continue to inspire positive change worldwide. Take a moment today to reflect on his teachings and strive for a better tomorrow.��️ https://www.orabasesolutions.com

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Healthy Hearts, Happy Lives World Heart Day

Let your heart be the rhythm of a healthy life! World Heart Day, let's pledge to prioritize heart health. Stay active, eat well, and spread awareness. Together, we can beat cardiovascular diseases!

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Happy International Yoga Day - Orabase Solutions

Yoga is a powerful natural state that can inspire you in many ways. “When you perform yoga, you establish a connection between your body and mind and become more aware of yourself. Happy Yoga Day to you.”

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Five trends that have emerged following the talent war in the IT sector

The world’s economy is witnessing a Fourth Industrial Revolution, whereby organizations and their processes have moved online. As we emerge from the impact of the pandemic, the needs and demands of employees & employers and, therefore the future of work, has transformed marginally with an unprecedented hiring boom or what it has been known as - Talent War. The IT sector today presents, a tight job market with countless opportunities and evolved employee expectations such as flexible hours, hiring bonuses, and attractive incentives. The hiring process as well has evolved, right from video interviews and remote onboarding to increased demand for gig laborers and data-driven strategies. Creativity is at its peak when it comes to methods used by organizations to imbibe values and enable new talent to adapt to the company culture including a blend of self-paced learning and instructor-led live classes through video mediums.

Here are five key trends that can have surfaced in the industry which will continue to impact organizational behavior in the days to come.

Higher need for new-age skills

New-age technologies, after a period of experimentation, have evolved into the mainstream for most organizations. Keeping up with this, there has emerged a sudden demand for talent with hot skills. Confirming this, the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), an apex body of temporary workers industry in the country has highlighted the sudden elevation of demand for digital skills, particularly Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Cloud Computing, Information Security and Blockchain. In addition, while cybersecurity has always been a critical component for IT organizations, with the increase in remote working, its importance has escalated three-fold to ensure the security of their workforce and data. As a result, cybersecurity skills have become a key parameter while hiring.

Emerging demand for freshers

Since laterals are more expensive to hire, companies are now tilting towards freshers, which would help to addresses the issue of high attrition and the challenge of salary inflation. A recent report by Teamlease Employment Outlook has stated that the growth rate of intent to hire freshers has seen a 32 percentage point rise, with junior-level hiring leading. A major portion of these freshers are sourced from small cities are provided digital training before being deployed on projects.

Increased demand for contingent labor

Following the uncertainty that 2020 brought it, gig workers across the length and breadth of the country are now seeing a ray of sunshine. While before the pandemic, the demand for gig workers was restricted to blue-collar jobs, today this demand has moved to white-collar jobs as well. With growing adaption towards remote working, organizations are identifying with the idea of engaging with a freelance talent for their marquee projects.

The rise of fully remote and hybrid working models

In the pre-covid era, remote working was not sympathetically by organizations as it was expected to cause a loss in productivity and efficiency. However, the one and a half years spent under the large-scale experiment of working remotely proved to organizations that work from home can be even more productive in many cases. Several employees, as well, who have got the taste of working from home while managing their household responsibilities and spending more time with their families are demanding WFH or hybrid working models. A recent survey by Indeed shared that 46 percent of job seekers preferred remote working over a hybrid work model. Employers however preferred a hybrid approach at 42 percent. Therefore, instead of viewing today’s work-from-home world as a temporary phase, many organizations are embracing it as the way of the future. For jobs that demand physical presence at some times, organizations are exploring the idea of hybrid working models which grant employees flexibility as well as experience the physical culture of the workplace.

Hiring beyond geographies

Finally, with remote and hybrid models of working becoming a permanent practice amongst organizations, we see the talent pool for corporations of all sizes, cutting across geographical boundaries that existed earlier. Randstad India revealed a trend of borderless employment opportunities, where employees have been exploring the idea of working for a company abroad but remotely. Therefore, today the world is now the new talent landscape for organizations. As a result, the experience, recommendations, and skill sets that an employee comes with are of prime importance, while the location of where they are based can be overlooked. This largely widens the pool of talent and deeply benefitting both organizations and employees.

Concluding, as organizations continue to venture on the road to digital transformation, a digital mindset is critical to generate a strategic talent supply that is future-ready. Adapting is key to thriving and therefore organizations must stay agile. As it is said, depending on the route you take, you can pivot or perish!

This Article Original Source is From : https://www.peoplematters.in/article/employee-engagement/five-trends-that-have-emerged-following-the-talent-war-in-the-it-sectors-31040

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Since I can’t build a wall around our talent, here’s how I’m reducing turnover

As the CEO of a tech company for 15 years, I have seen employees come and go for many reasons. But in the last four months, we have seen more turnover than in the previous two years combined. We’ve lost nearly 20% of our 50-person team. It’s putting a lot of pressure on our existing employees.

What’s driving this? During the current labor shortage, many talented workers now have unprecedented opportunities to increase their salary by making the leap to another company. Nationally, the labor force has been reduced by 3.5 million people — a level not seen since the 1970s — and employees have more negotiating power than almost any time in recent history.

With big employers looking for remote talent across the country, they can sometimes offer salaries 20% to 30% higher than what we’ve traditionally paid as a small company based in a smaller market.

To stave off the threat of talent poaching, which has long been a factor in the tech world, we’ve invested heavily in our culture and staff. Even before the pandemic, employees owned 40% of the company through an employee stock ownership plan established in 2016. But to make sure our compensation package stays relevant, we’ve tweaked it continually through the pandemic.

One of our biggest moves was to redirect some of the money we’ve traditionally set aside for employee development to help team members pay student debt, recognizing that many aren’t as inclined to take professional development courses as in recent years and there were lots of unused professional development dollars in the budget. After months of pandemic life, people didn’t have the time or desire to go to professional conferences, and many of those conferences weren’t happening anyway.

We were allowed to redirect the funds because of a little-known provision of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that we learned about when some of our team members saw a tweet about it. Employers are allowed to pay off up to $5,250 a year in student debt for employees without having to treat it as income from 2020 to 2025. This started a one-year program but was extended in December 2020.

To make sure the program was relevant to our company, we did a staff survey before rolling it out. We learned that out of our 40 to 45 employees, 20 said the reimbursement program would have a positive impact on them. That gave us the confidence to move ahead.

We started the program as a pilot, offering $1,200 in reimbursement to each employee per year. When that worked out well, we doubled it to $2,400 per year. It’s a way for us to stand out as an employer: Only 8% of employers had student loan repayment plans as of 2019, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

There is a bit of setup involved in running a program like this. You need to run an educational assistance program (EAP) that complies with Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code. And the program must benefit all employees equally — not just one group of employees. To makes sure those who didn’t have student debt could avail themselves of the funds, we continued our professional development program simultaneously. Any employee can submit for the reimbursement of professional development expenses from the same pool of money.

Fortunately, it did not take long to get set up. Once we did the research, it took us less than a month to draft our policy on the student loan reimbursements, publish it and let employees know about it.

To roll out the program, we announced it during a weekly video meeting with our staff. We made the application process very simple, asking employees to fill out a basic one-page form. To get reimbursed, employees have to submit a copy of a student loan bill from the past 12 months that showed how they made their loan payments. We cut them a check as reimbursement.

So far, the feedback on this program has been very positive. Many employees in our industry are on the younger side and struggling with mountains of student debt. Student debt forgiveness is something our employees need.

There is another benefit to the program: Tax savings. Employees can save on their federal tax and their share of payroll taxes. We, in turn, save on payroll taxes and also receive a compensation deduction equal to the amount of reimbursement we provide.

Although we’re bullish on student loan reimbursements, we recognize that this benefit, alone, isn’t enough to help us stay relevant and win the war for talent. The only way to know what matters to them is to listen to them, so we spend a lot of time doing that.

In response to concerns about the cost of living, we are now looking at programs like retention bonuses and 10-year bonuses. The challenge for a small company like ours is finding the money to support these bonuses. Most of our customers sign one- or two-year contracts, so we’d likely have to raise rates to add programs like this. And even if we do raise rates, it will take a while to see the effects in our budget.

Still, we’re willing to look for creative solutions. We want our employees to know we will take good care of them. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it ensures they can contribute their best to our company and aren’t distracted by concerns like whether they can afford to fill their gas tank to get to work.

My hope is that ultimately, once employees settle into working for us, we’ll be able to attract and hold onto the best talent by offering something that has nothing to do with money or benefit but has become more important to many people during the pandemic: A sense of belonging and purpose.

A job is more than just a job here. In a small company like ours, every person on our team counts. And in a small city like the one where we’re located, every employer matters to the community. By offering a workplace where smart people can come together to exchange ideas, enjoy each other’s company and make a difference outside of the pressure cooker of Silicon Valley, we hope we’ll keep attracting people who are looking for those things.

Will they get competitive benefits and compensation? Yes. But those things ultimately are part of a total experience that we will continue to put a lot of thought into, so we can keep our company thriving and growing.

This Article Original Source is From : https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/17/since-i-cant-build-a-wall-around-our-talent-heres-how-im-reducing-turnover/

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The Impact of 2021 on the Talent Marketplace

If you thought 2020 was the year the talent market would experience its most significant disruption, you might want to brace yourself. As it turns out, 2021 is proving to be a year like no other as companies look to get back on track, but struggle to find the talent they need amidst a sea of potential candidates.

Part of that trend is being fueled what we now have begun referring to as “The Great Resignation”. Whether it’s to pursue new opportunities or take a new course in life, people all over the world have been handing in their notice. Some are leaving for a new job in a market that has become increasingly competitive and allows workers with the right skills the ability to make some demands they may not normally be able to make.

Others are leaving the workforce entirely, whether that’s to pursue their dreams, simply take some time off or focus on their responsibilities as a caregiver.

Finally, many in traditionally low paying industries have made changes, identified areas of opportunity for themselves, and begun the process of acquiring skills to That talent isn’t necessarily being replaced any time soon and in many cases, it will be tough for employers to entice them back without a substantial revamping of what’s on offer.

Pre-vaccine and the world beginning to reopen, LinkedIn research showed that 74% of workers were essentially “sheltering in job”, meaning they’d arrived at the conclusion that the smartest thing they could do would be to hang tight and wait until the crisis had passed. Six months later, the crisis continues but the limitations on life do not courtesy of millions of people receiving vaccinations.

While it doesn’t mean you can’t get the virus or its variants, vaccines have proven effective in lessening symptoms and significantly decreasing the need for hospitalization if someone does become sick. Between the vaccinated and those who have had COVID and survived, a substantial portion of the population appears ready to leave lockdowns in the rearview for good and they’re seizing the day when it comes to what they want from work, their home lives and everything in-between as part of that.

With turnover rates plaguing businesses of all sizes, the smaller fish in the pond tend to lose out to the biggest, those who can offer larger salaries and a name on a resume many candidates associate with success.

Rewind the clock a little more than a year and it seemed talent acquisition teams were on the bench, waiting for the pandemic to subside so they could figure out what comes next. When it came, many struggled to react as talent began moving in every direction.

Overcoming Turnover

The natural inclination of many talent professionals when it comes to combatting turnover is to think about retention and engagement. Last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that overall employee tenure was around 4.1 years, a number that has been declining in the wake of the pandemic and the perspective it has provided people.

For younger workers, it’s often talked about how it’s even less, with 2.8 years representing the average tenure. To stem the tide of exits and help set the right tone for relationships with new recruits that hopefully will remain for years to come, HR professionals have five key concepts to set goals around.

Development

Employees want to learn new skills, new concepts and to make themselves future ready. They want to belong to organizations that push their development with intentionality in an effort to make them successful wherever they go. Investing in your people is likely to help you keep them around and in the process take the edge of that turnover rate. Technology can help identify their skills, areas of opportunity and potential paths forward, but ultimately it’s a conversation between humans that will help drive the best results.

Career Path

What are they developing for? There are a variety of roads forward for any employee, but helping them identify one they want to pursue, creating clear steps for progression and a training program to get them there makes people feel valued and provides a deeper sense of purpose. Career mapping is an evolving art as data science and artificial intelligence play a greater role, but in some ways, simply showing the intention of investing in the employee can go a long way.

What Matters Most

Every employee will have different needs and the value of the employer-employee relationship should be built around that. One employee may have a pre-existing health condition that requires a certain level of healthcare benefits. Another may have an elderly parent living with them and require higher levels of flexibility and another may simply value time off or compensation above all else.

Engage employees on what they want most from an employer and work towards an individualized program that will meet their demands. Doing so shows that you care about them as a person and value their contribution enough to attempt meeting their needs.

Labors of Love

People are better at what they do when they’re engaged in something they feel passionate about. The thing they are passionate about may not always be a viable option for them, be it for financial reasons or skill level, but there may also be ways to tie that passion into their work and help them develop around the things they love. Doing so makes their workday easier, more engaging and creates a sense of fulfillment that may otherwise be lacking.

Alignment

While all of that sounds nice, there is one cold-hard fact that will remain at the end of the day. Jumping through hoops to keep talent on board has to align with a business goal. Keeping people whose ambitions and desires in no way line up with business goals is likely to still end an employee exit or ineffective performance. Make sure as you go through the different retention focused initiatives, you’re keeping the business and its goals at the center of the conversation.

This Article Source is From : https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/hr-talent-acquisition/articles/the-impact-of-2021-on-the-talent-marketplace

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Today is a day to feel proud of being a part of this great nation. May this spirit of freedom leads us all to success and glory in life. Happy Independence Day! https://www.orabasesolutions.com

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Five Steps To Using AI Technology To Solve The DE&I Talent Equation

According to McKinsey & Company researchers, there is a linear relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and better financial performance. But, we don’t have to take their word, as there’s an abundance of available data signifying the importance of a diverse workforce to financial performance and attracting candidates. No wonder so many companies are paying closer attention to diversity and inclusion goals.

Of course, all of this is nothing new, as the significance of DE&I was discovered by corporations more than two decades ago. So, why aren’t we seeing major improvements in this space? The answer is complex. First of all, companies can only ask employees to voluntarily self-identify and report their gender and racial information on job applications — however, fewer than 10% actually bother to do so. At an aggregate level, such information would help companies to identify diversity gaps and take corrective action, but demographic data can be scarce. One can understand why employees might not want to volunteer such information given the complexities and stigma around discrimination in employment against women, the disabled, minorities and various ethnic groups.

The good news is that technology can help solve this very problem using advanced AI algorithms and natural language processing (NLP) technology to identify employees based on names and locations. My company offers a DE&I algorithm, for instance, but business leaders can access this type of technology through various other platforms and plug-ins to work in harmony with any other tools. The results can provide breakdowns of gender and ethnicity, for example, at an organizational level with a high degree of accuracy (70-90% accuracy). Sounds amazing, right?

But, the question remains: How do you integrate such a robust capability into your existing talent acquisition technology stack to continuously measure your intake of talent in terms of diversity while also assessing the very talent sources feeding your pipeline?

Imagine as a hiring organization your goal is to increase the number of women in management. For the sake of this hypothetical scenario, let’s assume you have to rely on two talent sources — one from within (based on promotions) and one external source. AI can help hiring managers or department heads to track qualified women candidates through your organization’s existing pool of talent via your database of talent while also tapping external sources from suppliers. For illustrative purposes, this scenario is simple, but if you apply DE&I technology to every one of your talent sources, the benefits multiply immeasurably.

Of course, doing this effectively isn’t simple, but it’s well worth the effort. This process might even be less complicated than you think. It can be boiled down to five steps:

1. Identify your sources of workforce talent. Internal talent sources typically include employee referrals, a company career portal, internal recruiters, paid job boards and others. External talent sources include staffing suppliers, executive search firms, independent contractors and freelancers. Each of these is capable of finding qualified talent. But you won’t necessarily know what percentage of these candidates are both qualified and diverse.

2. Pool your talent sources into a single talent container. Once you’ve identified all of your talent sources both internal and external, it’s time to integrate them into a single data source, which I like to call a talent container. Simply put, your talent container is your database where talent from all sources is curated. This is critical to ensuring that no stone goes unturned during the talent acquisition process. After all, talent is your greatest corporate asset.

3. Enrich your talent container. Any talent pool is instantly enriched by applying various types of algorithms capable of parsing candidate data. This process requires multiple steps ranging from tagging candidates by skill set, geographic preference and fit to measuring candidate relevance by recent work history and other important factors. Adding DE&I to your algorithm based on the information available from candidate resumes to identify gender and diversity information, for example, simply adds an additional layer that’s critical to building your workforce.

4. Continue the enrichment process on a quarterly basis. After the initial enrichment process is over, the talent container should undergo business intelligence (BI) evaluation to create insights about the diversity of your candidates while also running a diversity analysis on each of your talent sources. This ensures accountability. Such a process should be repeated every quarter to measure the diversity and skills composition of your entire talent container. Of course, this information should all be mapped to your organizational talent and diversity goals. The analysis from mapping unveils the strengths and weaknesses of your talent pool within the context of organizational needs. This analysis empowers you to make necessary adjustments to your various talent sources to achieve your desired talent goals.

5. Monitor diversity across the entire talent pool. By constantly monitoring diversity levels within your talent container, you’ll uncover problems and issues before they become ongoing trends. The continuous monitoring of external talent pools and your existing workforce for both skills and demographics will enable you to create a diverse workforce that drives greater business results.

At the end of the day, the creation of a diverse workforce is much more than a necessary facet of a strong public image. It’s a critical business need for any organization hoping to compete in today’s global economy. Talent acquisition professionals must rise to the challenge. For HR professionals charged with meeting their organization’s diversity goals, it’s a tall order. But, I assure you that technology is more than up to the challenge and the results will speak for themselves.

This Article Original Source is From : https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2021/07/30/five-steps-to-using-ai-technology-to-solve-the-dei-talent-equation/?sh=277e9035969f

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How To Use Business Storytelling To Attract And Retain Talent

Rebecca is the HR Director for a uniforms wholesaler, and she has a frustrating problem. Employee turnover has been steadily increasing, and the resounding feedback from these exiting employees is they feel invisible and inconsequential at the company. Their work feels mundane and meaningless, and they don’t feel like their efforts are recognized. As she recruits new employees, Rebecca finds that the best candidates (among few) seem uninterested and don’t understand what contributions they can make at a faceless corporation that deals in scrubs and embroidered polo shirts. Maybe their industry isn’t the sexiest, but she doesn’t know what she can possibly do about that.

This situation is common across the US right now. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 46% of small businesses have jobs open they cannot fill, and a whopping 89% of those businesses say they cannot find qualified candidates. Prudential found that among the approximately 1 in 4 American workers seeking to change jobs post-pandemic crisis, 42% graded their employers a “C” or lower for ability to communicate and foster employee connectedness. “Issues of communication and company culture were also top of mind among workers surveyed, and employers that worked to maintain both will find it easier to retain talent, the survey finds.”

Many companies fail to communicate effectively both with their existing employees—fail to inspire, connect, and empower them—and cannot present a compelling story of their organization to attract talented new prospects. These problems are solvable by adopting a storytelling approach.

Here are three key ways business storytelling can help inspire current and prospective employees.

1. Create meaning with company history.

The three-generations-old family business focused on personal excellence and pride. The innovative company started in a garage by two high school classmates reunited after ten years. The woman-owned or minority business enterprise founded in the wake of struggles for justice. The company that came back from bankruptcy with a brand new product.

Humans are wired for story and for creating connections among events and people. Consider our fascination with prophecies, coincidences, epics, cycles, and heroes’ journeys. Stories create meaning, and meaning drives buy-in.

What is your company’s story? I have previously outlined different types of story structures that help us connect, from tales of rags to riches to overcoming the monster. Finding the structure that fits your story allows you to draw a clear picture and provoke the emotions that build connection.

Your employees need to know your company’s history to feel a connection to all the work that has been done to get to the present point. It’s also essential to present that history to job candidates who are wondering who you are and why they should choose you.

2. Illuminate purpose in work.

Fast Company found that “CEOs who use purpose across their organization are more likely to see very practical perks when it comes to growth and long-term value creation.” Employees want to feel that their work matters and is contributing to something worthwhile.

Ninety-one percent of Patagonia employees report that their company is a great place to work, compared with 59% of employees at a typical American company. Among the reasons for their high rankings are reports that they “feel good about the ways [they] contribute to the community” and they are proud to tell others they work at Patagonia. These employees have a very positive story about their company and the purpose served by their work!

A CPG client of ours contracted us to help them find the right story to help recruit MBAs to their company. What worked? Stories about food—its comfort, nostalgia, and connection. Once the candidates realized their work would bring warmth and nourishment to people’s tables, it was a game changer in their perception of their potential career. The client’s conversion rate increased 20% with this storytelling strategy.

Rebecca’s uniform company has many stories to tell of their diverse clients—hospitals, family owned businesses, summer camps, and more. Her company can and should highlight those stories to bring purpose to employees’ everyday to-do lists. It should also show employees how the company’s success is a direct result of their hard, passionate work.

3. Paint the future in color.

Most employees are cognizant of their own professional needs and goals, and this should be incorporated in your company’s story. If you want your employees and prospects to paint you into their future, you must paint them into the company’s future with vision and clarity. Paint a future of opportunity, of growth, of positive change, of evolution—whatever you see ahead!

Individuals who see an exciting future with you are not going to stealthily update their resumes during staff meetings. If you know where you are going, if you have great plans, if you’re excited for your company’s future, you absolutely must build this narrative and communicate it often to your employees. It should also be part of the narrative told to prospective employees; make them excited to join you!

Who should be telling your company stories? Yes, it should be top leadership, and yes, it should be your HR team. But it should also be every employee of your company. Once you have formed and told your story and have a storytelling culture in place that brings narrative into your celebrations, low points, and times of upheaval, you’ve built a strong sense of history, purpose, and optimism to rally everyone together.

This Article Original Source is From : https://www.forbes.com/sites/estherchoy/2021/07/25/how-to-use-business-storytelling-as-an-hr-asset/?sh=3447d8bf3b9e

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Designing A Hybrid Workplace To Recruit, Retain And Engage IT Talent

The past year has transformed how and where we work, and many of those changes are here to stay. We’re not going back to the old way of doing business, with the IT team in the office 9 to 5, Monday to Friday.

The abrupt shift to remote work at the start of the pandemic introduced new challenges. It also opened up new opportunities for companies to design more flexible work schedules and hire without geographic restrictions. The pandemic put workers in the driver's seat. They can now be selective in the position they choose due to increased career opportunities.

What Does A Successful Hybrid Environment Look Like?

As the country starts to open up again, most companies — including tech giants Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple — embrace hybrid work options, where employees work some days from home and some in the office. Ideally, this model grants companies and employees the best of both worlds: the flexibility and focus of independent, remote work and the connection and communication of face-to-face office time.

Recent research shows that employees and executives support the move toward hybrid work, but there’s no clear blueprint for building it.

According to data from 2021 PwC and Microsoft surveys:

• Over 70% of employees want flexible remote work options to continue

• 65% of employees want more in-person time with their teams

• 68% of executives think people should be in the office at least three days a week for company culture, and 65% believe the office is essential for employee productivity

• 55% of employees want to work remotely at least three days a week, but 87% say the office is vital for collaboration and relationship building

What does the ideal hybrid workplace look like for your company? Begin by surveying employees and having one-on-one conversations about how they're feeling about returning to work. You can start down the path that seems best for your team and culture. Evaluate progress, and make adjustments as you learn and grow.

The IT department at Service Express is in the midst of this process right now. Before the pandemic, our IT team was in the office 80% and 20% remote. After more than a year of working remotely, employees have proven they can succeed at home and in the office, achieving greater work-life balance while still completing everyday work.

Here are four important lessons we’ve learned along our journey:

Invest In Retaining Talent

Remote work offers the advantage of casting a wider net when hiring talent, but it also means competing nationally. This is a challenge for our company: a well-funded corporation can poach your best employees by offering a higher salary without changing their schedule or commute.

Invest in your employees, and focus on the "total benefit" of working at your company vs. competitors. For example, salary, health insurance, PTO, work-life balance and hybrid work are all critical parts of the total benefit. To ensure compensation is competitive, we research average local and national salary ranges and survey our people to determine what new benefits to offer.

Here are several tactics that have worked to keep our team engaged:

• Scheduling one-on-one strategy sessions, highlighting how employees' work contributes to the overall purpose and the vision of the company

• Focusing on employees' professional, personal and financial goals

• Offering room for growth in the company (and encouraging it)

• Providing teams with resources and removing obstacles

• Helping team members achieve their vision goals in the short and long term

• Encouraging our IT people to attend specific career training opportunities

• Placing a strong emphasis on professional development and certifications

Foster Culture Intentionally

Creating a “people-powered” culture is central to our company’s mission, but this has called for a new mindset while working virtually. If you’re on Zoom calls all day, culture won’t just happen organically. You have to nurture it intentionally. Dedicate time to promoting connectedness.

Develop many different channels for communication, from the CEO to team leads to individual employees. We organize different types of meetings, including weekly team huddles and all-company calls. We also have more informal opportunities for connection, like our internal communication page, The Loop, and our all-day Zoom Open Coffee Hour channel.

Understand Employees’ Ideal Balance

People are in different camps: some are eager to get back to the structure and social contact of the office, while others find working from home increases productivity and work-life balance. Send out a company-wide survey and have all leaders schedule individual check-ins with direct reports to gauge their feelings and expectations about returning to the office. What do they like best about remote or office work? What balance do they want from a hybrid workplace?

We found that our software development team is more productive in a hybrid model by tracking the estimated time it takes to complete routine projects. We think this boost is due to fewer distractions and questions and the flexibility to work whenever, wherever.

Identify Boundaries And Expectations

When designing your hybrid workplace, aim to be flexible but set clear boundaries and expectations so everyone can be successful. Do you want employees to be in the office a certain number of days each week? How do you plan to keep people connected? What do you expect from leaders managing teams?

We’re trying to find the right formula for our hybrid office, and our starting point is asking employees to pick where they’ll hang their nameplates. If they decide to hang it at the office, that’s where they'll spend the majority of their time and where we’ll invest in their work setup. It will be the opposite if it's at home, but team members will come into the office for specific meetings and in-person tasks.

We have survived a year of dramatic change, and we’re now on the brink of a brand new era of work. Take the time to design a hybrid workplace that values talent, develops culture and sets your company up for future success.

This Article Original Source is From : https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/07/15/designing-a-hybrid-workplace-to-recruit-retain-and-engage-it-talent/?sh=4695914345b1

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Happy Bakrid Eid Mubarak - Orabase Solutions

May this special day bring peace, happiness, and prosperity to everyone. Wishing you a very very Happy Eid al-Adha

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As Businesses Head Back To The Office, It's Time To Brush Up On Your People Skills

As we enter a new stage of post-pandemic business recovery and navigate an increasing number of fully vaccinated adults and new return-to-work guidelines, companies — maybe your own — are feverishly figuring out how to re-integrate associates into their office spaces.

Then, you pause and realize you are having an “aha” moment. You need to stop wearing shorts, you need to wear shoes and you cannot pause your Zoom call for an Amazon delivery. It is time to think about your face-to-face re-introduction to colleagues and prospects. Here are five tips for entering our new normal:

1. Actively listen: You cannot put up your profile photo like a video call to feign presence when you are in person again. It is time to sharpen up your listening skills. Active listening is both an art and a math. On the artistic side, you must commit to listening and turning off the automatic responses that your brain conjures up before your colleague is finished speaking. When we distract ourselves with self-talk and the next answer we’ll give, we are not listening; we are preparing to open our mouths. On the math side, you must personally commit to active listening with each conversation each day. There will be plenty of times you miss the mark and are not engaged, but if you focus on each conversation, your math adds up and eventually, active listening becomes part of your subconscious operating rhythm.

2. Remember that first impressions still mean a lot: When you consider first impressions, you may think about an interview or meeting someone for the first time. As we emerge from lockdown, you will be making new first impressions on people you have known for years, as well as people you’ve never met except over a video conference. As you contemplate your next set of first impressions, consider the clothing you will wear — is there a mix of WFH and office wear that will work? Also, consider your body language now that you are face-to-face and not on a flat, small screen. As you re-enter the in-person world, be cognizant of your first impressions with colleagues as well as prospects. Some of our soft skills may have deteriorated over the past 15 months, so consider how your next set of first impressions will be received.

3. Use open probes to actively learn: One of the most effective ways to gather data and sharpen your listening skills is with open probes. Attempt to leverage open-ended questions that allow your colleagues and prospects to know that they are important to you. Open probes allow you to listen, learn and really understand what is important to your prospect. “Did you have a good weekend?” is a closed probe, to which they may respond “no” and the conversation ends. “Tell me about your weekend” keeps the conversation going. Closed probes ask yes/no questions and lead to dead-end conversations. Pay attention to your closed probes and limit them. Use open probes to have more authentic conversations and build relationships with those you are speaking with.

4. Break the ice using the FORD construct: The most effective way I know to learn about people is to leverage the FORD construct as an open probe model. This is just a simple way to gather knowledge and move your process along with a prospect. FORD allows you to disarm a candidate, engage your active listening skills and truly connect. It revolves around family, organization, recreation and dreams. Each of these four simple, open-ended questions allow you to learn and eventually help the other person:

• “What is happening with your family”? (Family)

• “Tell me about your journey in our industry.” (Organization)

• “What do you do for fun?” (Recreation)

• “What do you want to do when you grow up?” (Dreams)

5. Maximize your time. For those of us in recruiting, it will be important to not fall back into poor habits that we may have had pre-pandemic. When we invest a significant amount of time trying to hire or recruit someone, we tend to want to make it work at all costs. Sometimes it is better to press the stop button. Evaluate how the relationship is progressing; are we close to a yes? Or is the candidate dragging things out while evaluating other offers? If the answer is yes, then move on. It may shock your candidate to action, it may not. Either way, do not invest more into a dead end. Your most precious asset is your time. After you make the decision to part ways, analyze the time spent. Was there something you could have done at the start to clarify the objectives or learn if the candidate was the correct fit? The most effective leaders review losses and adjust strategy — or pivot — and then move forward.

One important thing to note is that everyone’s return to the office will look different. Many of us will be phasing in our return to the office and working a hybrid work schedule. One thing I learned during the pandemic is that I do not need to meet with everyone face-to-face immediately, so my new practice is to hold every first meeting via video conference and then determine who I need to meet and focus on optimal candidates.

Secondarily, some of your colleagues may not be returning to the office given their personal circumstances. In this case, be proactive to engage and make them feel welcomed. That may mean regular remote coffee or lunch meetings; it may mean aligning new communication methods to share content and work product via the cloud. The key is to put yourself in the position of the remote worker while you are in the office — how would you like to communicate and be treated?

And, one last rule: Have fun! Settling into our “new normal” may take some time. Focus on these tips and have some fun now that we are no longer stuck at the kitchen table attending 10 hours of video calls a day.

This Article Original Source is From : https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2021/07/02/as-businesses-head-back-to-the-office-its-time-to-brush-up-on-your-people-skills/?sh=325871595813

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Decentralized Blockchain Networks Are Getting Ready To Disrupt Talent Markets

Decentralized networks, Cryptocurrencies, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, DIFINITY, etc., are incessant buzzwords in the media. However, behind the hype, numerous palpable applications are being developed using distributed ledger technologies like blockchain, which are expected to unleash new markets and operating business models; displacing the grip of the current near-monopolistic centralized businesses.

Internet behemoths like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc., are centralized aggregator- distributor platforms that collect, own, analyze, and monetize user data through targeted advertising, selling products and services. Their scale and near-zero marginal cost allow them to provision their platform services to the farthest reaches of the globe. Colossal ever-growing centralized repositories of data give them an asymmetrical advantage through "winner-take-all" benefits and near monopolistic power to garner superlative profits; and even control the social discourse and narratives. Most aggregator-distributor platforms get the user data for free, handsomely profiting from it, and have exclusive access and usage rights. In return, they deliver egalitarian experiences globally, resulting in exponential consumer/user acquisition through network effects.

In the incumbent centralized internet-based consumer market value chain, aggregators-distributors entrenched between the upstream suppliers and the downstream consumers/users pocket most of the money. For Q1, 2021, Amazon reported a profit of $8.1 billion; Google reported a profit of $17.9 billion; Facebook reported a profit of $9.5 billion; Twitter reported a profit of $68 million.

Emerging blockchain and crypto technologies are facilitating decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) data networking, thereby eliminating the need for central control and diminishing the value of aggregator-distributor platforms. These decentralized networks are engendering new revenue-sharing business models amongst the P2P upstream content/data creators and downstream content/data consumers by distributing more of the profits currently being monopolized by the entrenched centralized aggregators-distributors. Creators can now have the right to own and be compensated for their data through smart contracts that automatically pay based on pre-set terms.

In these new paradigm-shifting business models, profit sharing can be done through tokens received from businesses in lieu of network participation, content creation, work, and vesting. Tokens can serve as virtual shares that appreciate as the underlying business succeeds and can be a compelling incentive for adopting and vesting in the business platform. As a result, companies can quickly go from niche to mainstream through a fast-spinning virtuous cycle.

Blockchain networks operate through decentralized protocols. Validation and record-keeping activities are decentralized and automated by outsourcing to the platform's network users, thus eliminating a central controlling entity. Consensus mechanisms determine the current state of the ledger. Applications built on blockchain technology can create many new disruptive markets; i.e., recording/sharing of medical data, NFT marketplaces, music royalties tracking, cross-border payments, decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities, Real-time internet of things (IoT) operating systems, supply chain, logistics, voting mechanism, personal identity systems such as Social Security, original content creation, cryptocurrency exchange, real estate processing platform, talent networks, birth, marriage, and death records, vaccination records, etc. The NFT market surged 2,100% to $2 billion in sales in Q1 2021, and the DeFi market is roughly a $100 billion market.

With flexibility and independence becoming paramount, the Gig economy is becoming a global mainstay. According to an Intuit 2020 report, 80 percent of large US companies plan to use a flexible nontraditional workforce. In addition, Harvard Business Review has reported that approximately 150 million people in the US and Western Europe work as independent contractors. In an era of technological change, demographic shifts, and economic uncertainty, companies are looking into enhancing their competitive posture by building a flexible workforce.

Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the evolution of the workforce skillsets and is pivoting towards an "on-demand" model. According to a Gartner report, human resource professionals state that 58% of the workforce needs to acquire new skills post-pandemic. Additionally, emerging technologies, evolving business needs, and demographic shifts are transitioning the organizations' skill requirements, creating a perpetual talent gap. Companies can bridge these critical skill gaps using global talent pools by adopting a strategic, flexible "on-demand" workforce model.

According to a Harvard Business School and Boston Consultant Group study, more companies use and intend to use digital talent platforms to fulfill their talent needs and create a nimble on-demand workforce model. Digital talent platforms with technology-led solutions such as Toptal, Catalant, Upwork, and Fiverr, etc., act as a clearinghouse to match highly-skilled, capable, and experienced people to work in areas as diverse as sales/marketing, finance, legal, project management, logistics, innovation, and R&D.

Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can enhance talent acquisition for the on-demand workforce to the next level. For global job seekers, decentralized P2P network-based talent platforms can help build an immutable verified provenance for academic and vocational credentials, work experiences, references, intellectual property rights, professional certificates/awards, etc. Jobseeker provenance combined with AI can streamline existing laborious and error-prone recruitment processes through real-time automation of expert filtering, assessing, rating, and matching of job openings with candidates from diverse global talent pools. Machine learning and AI matching can limit biases (race, gender, age) and increase transparency during the recruitment process. The decentralized blockchain environment can cost-effectively provide a vetted pool of global talent for permanent, contract, and on-demand work by improving the matching quality.

Talent platforms can provide plug-in suites of HR services, such as recruitment, onboarding, payroll, benefits, training, accounting, compliance, and legal for the hiring companies and freelance gig workers. By offering these disparate functions through a unified decentralized platform, talent networks can substantially reduce HR management costs and provide a seamless experience for gig workers.

Decentralized applications (dapps) such as payment rails, DeFis, NFTs, staking, etc., acting as supporting services to the decentralized talent networks, can bring paradigm-shifting efficiencies and economic opportunities for all participants. For example, payment rails can allow users to make P2P cross-border payments. Likewise, DeFi capabilities, including lending, borrowing, trading, and staking, can enable users to get supplemental economic benefits.

Braintrust, a blockchain-based digital talent freelancer, connects technical and design freelancers with US companies via a bidding mechanism. When companies using the platform hire freelancers, they pay Braintrust 10% of the bid amount as a fee.

Bondex, a decentralized talent ecosystem, is built on a global professional network powered by AI and utilizing blockchain. Company will add services for network participants by drip releasing decentralized applications (dapps), such as payments rails and DeFi capabilities, etc. In addition, the company will share a portion of its revenue as a financial reward for participating and vesting in the ecosystem. "At Bondex, our users are not the product. They are real stakeholders in the growth and success of the talent ecosystem through tokenized revenue sharing mechanisms," said Ignacio Palomera, Bondex Chief Strategy Officer. Unlike the contemporary solutions and business models, Bondex's reward system uniquely provides economic opportunities to its ecosystem participants.

Through rich global P2P interactions, blockchain and crypto technology applications are ready to disrupt the talent markets and address the needs of the gig economy in the post-pandemic world.

This Article Original Source is From : https://www.forbes.com/sites/roomykhan/2021/06/27/decentralized-blockchain-networks-are-getting-ready-to-disrupt-talent-markets/?sh=62e3a1307612