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Companies That Provide Job Training May Earn Greater Employee Loyalty
There’s one thing that the United States Congress can agree on: the potential of job training. This summer, in a rare act of bipartisanship, Congress approved new legislation focused on increased funding for job training for US workers. The hope is that providing workers with more job training opportunities will help kickstart the US economy by getting more unemployed Americans back in the workforce. Congress isn’t alone in seeing job training as a beneficial tool. A new study from a team of European researchers found that job training may also be a good strategy for companies looking to hire and retain top talent.
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Facial Piercings Can Still Hurt Your Chances of Getting Hired
Although piercings and tattoos are more common than ever in America, research suggests that they may still hurt your prospects of getting a job. Despite the mainstream popularity of body art, many people still see facial piercings as unprofessional and unwelcome in the workplace. In a recent study, behavioral scientists James C. McElroy, James K. Summers, and Kelly Moore of Iowa State University found that even among college students, facial piercings still carry stigma that can affect whether or not someone gets hired. In hiring, managers may see people with facial piercings as a poor fit for a job because facial piercings may be associated with negative personality traits.
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Better Self-Control May Pay Off for Older Workers
A recent study finds that older workers may have an advantage over their more youthful colleagues when it comes to one key skill—self-control. Psychological scientists Markus M. Thielgen and Guido Hertel of University of Münster and Stefan Krumm of the Free University Berlin found that older workers were better than younger workers at exercising self-control in the workplace, which gave them an edge in coping with challenging work environments. Some of us are motivated by a passion for our careers, while others show up to work in the hopes of a bigger paycheck or a corner office.
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Can Electronic Monitoring Improve Employee Performance?
“Your call may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.” We’ve all probably heard this message after dialing a call center before, but have you ever really thought about whether anyone was actually listening in? In an effort to enhance employee performance, organizations like call centers are increasingly using technology to electronically monitor their workers on the job. With electronic performance monitoring, or EPM, supervisors can continually track and analyze an employee’s workflow in real time. When call centers use EPM technology, supervisors are able to review recordings of calls, as well as listening into calls as they happen.
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The Upside of Rivalry: Higher Motivation, Better Performance
How do great rivalries in sports and business drive the performance of the competitors? A recent study provides some answers.
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Everyone Wins When Employees Have More Control at Work
Most workers would love to have more control over their jobs. For some that would mean leaving early to pick up the kids, while for others it could mean taking on more challenging projects. A recent study finds that allowing employees to play a more active role in customizing their jobs may be a win-win for both workers and managers. These kinds of informal agreements between individual employees and their supervisors are known as idiosyncratic deals, or i-deals.
