When you think of personal branding, you might envision celebrities, entrepreneurs, social media influencers, and politicians. However, anyone can develop one–including you.
When crafted correctly, a personal brand can quickly get you noticed by employers and accelerate your career. If you’ve been wondering how to build your brand but need help figuring out where to begin, here are five reasons why you should get started today.
Become an Expert in Your Field
Establishing yourself as an expert in your industry is a great way to get ahead in your career. One way to accomplish this is by creating an online presence that communicates your values and helps your audience connect with you as a person. For example, LinkedIn allows you to share updates about your career, interests, and information about your life professionally. Whatever you bring to the table is on full display, and you will have the opportunity to highlight what you do.
Employers want to hire people who are passionate about their work and employees who are engaged with their jobs. The way to convey this to interviewers is by talking about your experiences: past projects, volunteer work, or any other extra-curricular activities that helped get you where you are now. By sharing these stories with recruiters and future employers, they’ll see that they can trust your interest and expertise when they hire you.
Show Off Your Skills
A personal brand is a marketing tool highlighting what makes you stand out when applying for jobs. By showcasing your unique skills, experiences, and values, you can demonstrate your suitability for a role. For example–if you’re good at getting people to work together smoothly and collaborate effectively, this can be shown by having peers comment on your skills as a personal reference or pointing to a particular collaborative project you worked on.
Your personal brand is also a way to showcase the most important skills to employers. For example, suppose you’ve written about your experience learning different things in restaurants. In that case, an employer might see that as a sign that you’d be great with customers or other employees who could be challenging to work with. You’re also showing them that even though you might have yet to have direct experience working in their industry, you would still be great at it.
Emphasize Yourself as an Asset
When you apply for a job, it’s not just your skills that matter. Employers also want to know if you’ll fit in with the rest of the team, and they want to see if you’ll bring something extra to the table. It could be a personal passion for serving the community or a desire to tackle the job with a creative flair, but employers want to see that you’re not just looking for a job—you’re looking for an opportunity.
Employees with a strong personal brand tend to be seen as assets by their companies. The best way to get noticed by potential employers is to present yourself as an asset. Doing so will demonstrate your ability to bring value to their company. For example, suppose you are great at communicating in challenging situations, which is an asset because it shows that you can keep calm in stressful situations. In that case, your goal is to turn this into an opportunity to discuss how valuable that ability is to a company.
Opportunities Will Come to You
A personal brand represents yourself but also how you want others to perceive you. It’s what makes you unique and what employers look for when hiring new people to join their teams. Once you develop a solid personal brand, opportunities will naturally flow your way. If you’ve been keeping up with your brand on LinkedIn, for example, posting blogs, commenting on articles, or just updating your profile, employers will notice, and more and more will start to reach out. The key is to keep yourself at the forefront of employers’ minds.
A personal brand is an essential part of any job search. And it’s something that you should spend time on regularly. Suppose you establish yourself as someone with a specific skill set or expertise in an industry. In that case, employers will know that you’re self-motivated and competent for the position—that is, if you take the time to build a personal brand that communicates just that.
Builds Confidence
As you grow and develop a strong personal brand, you’ll find it pays off in a variety of ways. Your confidence will grow as well, whether through lucrative contracts you negotiate or awards you receive. This will help boost your visibility and reputation, which makes it easier for people to remember who you are and who want to work with you. The more successful you are in your career, the more confident and well-respected you’ll become at work.
You can compare it to being a celebrity in your industry; when you show up at events and functions, people will start recognizing you before introducing yourself. Essentially, your brand will begin speaking for itself. It gives others a certain amount of confidence in working with you because they know who you are and what they can expect from the partnership—and it allows them to make an informed decision about whether they want to engage with you professionally or socially.
Finally, as a consumer, you know you’re willing to pay more for a recognizable brand. You’ll pay double the price for a Starbucks coffee, although you can get something similar at the drive-thru down the road. Personal branding is no different; if you want to stand out from the crowd and be recognized for your talents and skills, you have to be willing to put in the effort to build a personal brand for yourself.
About EG Workforce Solutions
We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.
But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.
Businesses often overlook the back office, but it provides a crucial support system for growth. The back office includes non-client-facing services—including administration and support personnel in departments such as accounting, IT, supply chain, HR, and internal communications—that drive almost 50% of a business’s operations. As the workload grows and your company expands, consider outsourcing certain positions. A stable, in-house office can support your company; an outsourced back office can help you grow and thrive. Here are three benefits your company can enjoy from outsourcing certain positions.
Reduce Operating Costs
Outsourcing can be an efficient way to streamline your business and reduce costs. Several business areas might benefit from outsourcing back-office operations, including IT, compliance, or payroll. Outsourcing services often have lower labor costs because of fewer overhead costs and employees. Hiring people in-house means paying salaries, equipment, software, training, office space, and more. Outsourcing eliminates these ongoing costs.
This type of cost-cutting could be especially attractive to a growing company whose workforce remains relatively stable but realizes outsourcing services will significantly boost its bottom line. For example, when you outsource your IT functions to a company specializing in this area, experts handle all your information technology needs. This frees up your time to focus on your core competencies without being bogged down with issues related to servers, data storage, software, hardware, and other challenges. This benefits different departments by freeing them up; they no longer need to worry about repairing a broken laptop or installing new software.
Improve Productivity
Core business functions such as payroll and accounting are essential but can also be time-consuming and repetitive. Employees who take hours out of their day to perform these tasks can’t be used for more productive things. Outsourcing specific jobs can also free up your employees’ time to concentrate on more critical aspects of their work, improving productivity. For example, you outsource administrative support. In that case, this can help other departments by freeing up your employees’ time to try new ideas without worrying about specific everyday office tasks.
When a company outsources payroll, employees get to spend less time doing it themselves, and they have more time to do other things. They can work on different parts of their jobs or even volunteer for something else entirely. A company can use its freed-up resources in many ways: expand into new markets, improve internal processes, or increase productivity. Employees may also be happier to focus on more critical parts of their jobs if they know that payroll is taken care of by someone else.
Leverage Quality Talent
Finding the right talent for your team can be challenging when you’re a growing business. Searching for new hires, interviewing candidates, and managing their onboarding process can take up valuable time. Fortunately, outsourcing your back-office functions can help you find quality talent. It can help with both scalability and flexibility as you grow by giving you access to a large pool of candidates who trusted recruiters have screened.
When you outsource your payroll, human resources, and accounting processes, you are tapping into an experienced team of professionals to take care of all the functions related to these aspects of your business. Expert teams of the outsourcing partner will take care of all these activities efficiently. For example, they’ll find the best candidates for each opening and get that candidate’s paperwork processed, so everything runs smoothly on their first day on the job.
When a company outsources its back-office functions, it can benefit in many ways. However, not all businesses realize that outsourcing provides a crucial support system for growth. Leveraging and partnering with the right back-office outsourcing provider can help you cut costs, increase productivity, and get quality talent.
About EG Workforce Solutions
We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.
But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.
February is recognized as Black History Month and is an opportunity for businesses to reflect on strategies and initiatives they’ve implemented to create an inclusive workplace. Here are four ways your company can celebrate Black History Month.
Recognize Diversity Year Round
For decades, Black History Month has been a time to recognize and reflect on the achievements, traditions, and contributions of African Americans. While highlighting it and being intentional in celebrating Black History during February, it’s essential to be inclusive year-round. If BIPOC individuals feel just as seen and valued in September as they do in February, you know your inclusion efforts are working.
To create a more inclusive environment, companies can offer everyone professional development and growth opportunities. Some simple steps they can take include holding company gatherings highlighting diversity within the organization, participating in sensitivity training, offering mentorship programs, and creating employee resource groups. These efforts will help BIPOC individuals feel seen and valued all year long while also providing opportunities for employee interactions, increasing their feelings of inclusion and belonging in their workplace.
Get Everyone Involved
Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the BIPOC community and their culture. It is also a time to educate others about their challenges and to encourage empathy, proximity, and connection between different racial groups. Getting everyone involved in your organization’s Black History Month activities is essential for building a diverse and inclusive workplace culture.
Inclusive practices can include facilitating a virtual Black History Month program your team can attend from anywhere or promoting African American culture in company events. Provide opportunities such as publications written by BIPOC individuals, shows that highlight the Black experience, or hosting a panel discussion to get the dialogue started to educate your entire team on the importance of celebrating Black History.
Focus on DEI
It’s always a good time to revisit diversity and inclusion goals. To tie into Black History Month, you could highlight key moments in African American history or organize a volunteer effort to support a local Black-focused charity. You could also hold a town hall meeting to solicit suggestions from staff members or establish new metrics for measuring your DEI goals. Remember that celebrating other cultures and ethnicities that are part of your organization’s makeup is just as important! Events like this at your company can help make DEI efforts successful because everyone will feel like the organization values their background.
Highlight Black History Month’s Theme
Black History Month is an excellent opportunity to celebrate the successes of BIPOC individuals, both past and present. This year’s Black History Month theme: Black Resistance, is meant to highlight the plight for the social justice of African Americans from historical oppression in pursuit of self-determination and equality.
By encouraging employees to share their experiences with oppression or discrimination, Black History Month’s theme can be tied to the workplace. This allows others to reflect on how far we’ve come as a culture and how far we have yet to go. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) designates annual themes for Black History Month, which are selected to reflect the organization’s mission of promoting education and scholarship concerning African American life, history, and culture in all eras.
Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements and contributions of the BIPOC community to society. During this month’s celebrations, the best way to incorporate Black History Month into your company’s ongoing efforts to improve diversity and inclusion is by focusing on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). One way of doing this is by recognizing diversity year-round, involving everyone in your company, focusing on DEI when celebrating, and tying in this month’s theme. By doing these things, you can ensure that Black History Month advances your workplace year-round.
About EG Workforce Solutions
We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.
But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.
Job-hopping is when an employee leaves one job for another within a short period. Some people job hop it because they are dissatisfied with their current position or don’t fit in with their coworkers and the company culture. Additionally, others leave for a higher position available or more growth opportunities at a different company.
In December 2022, LinkedIn and CensusWide surveyed over 2,000 U.S. workers about their professional plans for the new year. Of those respondents, 72% of Gen Zs and 66% of Millennials said they are contemplating a career change within the next 12 months.
While Millennials and Gen Z are often said to have a shorter patience span than other generations and may seek rapid career advancement, job hopping is more often the result of selective focus and the desire for growth. Younger workers want to explore careers and find fair compensation and work environments that provide the highest possible return on their job investment. Here are three reasons why Millennials and Gen Z job hop and how employers can retain this workforce demographic.
Flexibility of Financial Benefits
Millennials, Gen Z, and other generations have different priorities regarding how they approach financial benefits. The younger generation has unique circumstances that have shaped their view of the world, including their workplace priorities. For example, 401k plans have largely replaced traditional pension plans. A pension is an employer-funded retirement plan that, unlike a 401(k), can only be accessed by the retired employee.
A recent survey found 35% of Gen Z say retirement savings are a financial priority, and 48% of Millennials say the same. Both generations value the flexibility this offers because it allows employees to advance in their careers when ready. For example, if a worker leaves their job and rolls over their 401(k) into their new employer’s plan, the old account balance can be matched up to a fixed amount by the new company. This allows them to continue receiving the match from their employer at their new job while still saving up for retirement.
Employees are Disengaged
The Udemy Workplace Boredom Study found that Millennials and Gen Z are disengaged at work because they lacked opportunities to learn new skills, were not challenged or did not have enough to do. To grow, Millennials and Generation Z realize they need to seek opportunities in different companies if it’s not available in their current role. This has challenged employers as they adapt to these new workplace expectations.
Employers can combat employee disengagement by providing opportunities for professional development. These opportunities can include workshops, leadership programs, or other learning options to help employees grow vertically or laterally within the company. They could also provide time off for employees to pursue professional development, such as taking classes at local colleges or continuing their education through online courses. In addition, Millennials and Gen Z desire challenges in their roles. Therefore, employers should allow them opportunities to take ownership of projects or tasks, provide them with feedback and guidance, and give them a sense of ownership connected to the company’s goals.
Workers Expect More from Companies
Gen Z and Millennials have grown up with an awareness of the importance of mental health. Their generation has also witnessed a rise in the emphasis on work-life balance, which has led to a new outlook on how we work. Companies can support employees’ well-being by creating a culture that protects their mental health. This includes removing the stigma around taking sick days related to mental health, encouraging employees to talk openly about their well-being, and making it easy for those who need help to reach a professional.
In addition, younger generations want to feel like they are making a difference. They want to work for companies that emphasize community involvement. Companies should think about giving back to their community by joining charitable organizations or donating time and money towards various social justice issues within communities. By doing so, employees can feel good about the work they’re doing and give back to their community meaningfully.
Younger workers are more likely to job hop today than in previous generations. This is partly due to changes in retirement plans and benefits, a lack of employee engagement in the workplace, and the opportunity for more meaningful work elsewhere. Most significantly, Millennial and Gen Z individuals are not afraid to make a change to get what they want for their careers. These younger professionals are making changes within the workplace, and companies must keep up with them if they want to retain their talent.
About EG Workforce Solutions
We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.
But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.