What Excuses Have Held You Back?

by Debbie Ruston

 

Regardless of whether we are talking about business, relationships or dieting, many people are accustomed to buying into their own excuses.   Why is it that someone can state they want to achieve something, yet, when it comes to taking action, they don’t follow through?

 

-They were not committed in the first place – There is a difference between wanting something and actually committing to it.  You can want to lose weight, but unless you are willing to implement proper eating and exercise, you will not reach the goal.   This must be something an individual is willing to do for as long as it takes.  That is commitment. Continue reading

WorkLife – How to Make an Impact in Onboarding

By Stephanie Shaw

 

Onboarding, or organizational socialization, is a topic that can seem somewhat daunting for companies to embrace. Going beyond the simple employee orientation, onboarding ensures that new hires feel welcome and prepared, while giving them the confidence, trust and freedom to succeed in their new position. Most companies have some form of onboarding practice, but it is often regarded as tactical, rather than a strategic endeavor in the talent management process.

 

The Aberdeen Group, an organization that conducts business research, found in 2013 that companies are interested in re-evaluating their onboarding strategies. They found the top reasons for revamping onboarding practices were to improve new hire productivity (68 percent), engagement (67 percent) and retention (51 percent). Aberdeen also found that 90 percent of organizations believe that new employees make a decision on whether to stay at a company within the first year. This means employers need to make a great first impression and have a full year to make sure their top talent stays. Continue reading

It’s time to break down the silos

by David Poole

In the BPO industry, there’s a lot of talk about breaking down silos. However, the counter-intuitive truth of it all is that the BPO industry also creates silos.

Traditionally, BPO has been transaction-based, and limited to a specific service offering or function – like Collections or Accounts Receivable. Yet horizontal back office processes such as Finance and Accounting (F&A) and Procurement exist in every customer life cycle. As well, there are also a number of processes and sub-processes that support every customer interaction. Continue reading

The Case for Women on Boards – SXSW 2014

 

 

 

 

One morning at SxSW, Jody Greene moderated a panel with three bay area powerhouse women, Trish Costello, founder of Portfolia, Theresia Gouw, founder of Aspect Ventures and Fran Maier, founder/chair of TRUSTe. Each having been previous entrepreneurs, now investors and board members of public companies. The conversation was multifaceted on the topic from the viewpoint of board members and entrepreneurs. Continue reading

Stop Blabbing About Innovation And Start Actually Doing It

By Aaron Shapiro

These days, every established company is at risk of having its industry–and its own business–disrupted by a startup. Cognizant of this, companies devote a lot of time to talking about how important it is to innovate. But here’s the truth: most companies can’t innovate because everyone is paid to maintain the status quo.

This is the single biggest reason companies fail to do anything new or exciting. You and everyone else are maxed out making sure your company is doing what it’s supposed to do; innovation is what the weekends are for. Continue reading