With emails in the palm of your hand, constant notifications, and working from home, the line between work and personal life can become blurred. Neglecting a healthy work-life balance can lead to increased stress, decreased productivity and engagement, and burnout. To ensure you maintain a healthy work-life balance, we’re sharing five tips you should be practicing.
Manage Your Free Time
Free time doesn’t mean available time. Just because you have an empty slot on your calendar doesn’t mean you must fill it with some type of activity – work or personal related. To achieve a healthy work-life balance, it’s crucial to manage your free time.
To effectively manage your free time, you must first identify what’s most important in your life. This list will be different for everyone, so make sure you’re really reflecting on your priorities and goals. Second, you must set firm boundaries so you can devote quality time to these priorities and goals.
Unplug & Set Boundaries
One of the biggest things you can do to help improve your work-life balance is to unplug and set boundaries. The pressure to be “always-on” is very real but leads to burnout faster than almost anything else. It’s crucial to unplug and set away from your work at the end of the day. If you’re working remotely, try leaving your computer in a different room or turning your phone email notifications on “do not disturb.” Taking time to unplug and recharge your batteries will help you be more productive and engaged when you go back to work.
Practice Self-care
Taking care of your body and mind are also vital to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Consider meditation, exercise, or doing something you enjoy just for you, like activities that encourage you to practice self-care.
Meditation is a great way to practice mindfulness and reduce stress, even if you’re only able to do 5-10 minutes of meditation at a time. Exercise is also a great way to practice self-care. Moving your body and getting your blood pumping releases endorphins, which help you feel happier and refreshed. Finally, but certainly not limited to, is to do something you enjoy just because you like it. This could be artwork, reading, journaling, hiking, really anything that brings you enjoyment.
Audit Your Habits
What habits do you need to start, and which ones do you need to stop? Audit your habits to identify areas where you have “time sucks” or “energy givers.” When you take the time to evaluate and audit your current habits, you’ll know which ones you should start or stop to help you achieve a healthy work-life balance.
Stop Multitasking
We all have a lot on our plates, and the responsibilities, duties, and obligations are only going to increase. It’s important to stop believing the lie that we’re all capable of multitasking. We can’t. When you’re constantly bouncing from task to task, you’re not giving anything one hundred percent—leading to you feeling like you have been busy but haven’t been productive, further leading to burnout.
Be intentional about how you spend your time doing tasks. If you’re working on a big project, consider turning off your email for an hour or two. If you’re taking care of children after working hours, don’t continue checking emails. When you intentionally focus on the task at hand, you’ll find your time management and productivity increases.
Work-life balance is more than just a “nice notion” or something that makes employees “soft.” It’s an essential piece of employee engagement. When you take the time to ensure you have a healthy work-life balance, you’ll be happier, more productive, and avoid burnout.
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.
Your resume is arguably the most important document in your job search toolkit. It shows the hiring manager your skills, experience, interest, and qualifications for the job. Having a resume that stands out, lays out the facts, and is error-free is an essential part of job searching. We’re sharing our ten resume writing tips to help you get hired!
Your Resume MUST be Error Free
There’s almost nothing that will lead a hiring manager to dismiss a resume quicker than finding an error. Whether it’s a grammar or spelling mistake, or is clearly dishonest or embellished, making sure your resume is error-free is mission-critical.
Before you submit a resume, you must proofread and edit. It’s also a good practice to run your resume through an online spelling and grammar checker, like Grammarly. We also recommend having a trusted friend, parent, or mentor proofread your resume as well. The more “eyes” you have on your resume before you apply for a job, the less likely you will miss a mistake.
Use an Online Template Tool
It’s not enough to simply type out your contact information and work history on a plain Word doc if you expect to land an interview. You’ll need to layout your information in a way that flows for the hiring manager who’s reviewing your resume. Using online template tools are a great way to achieve this. Word offers templates that will help you layout your information. There are also online tools with resume templates such as Indeed.com or Canva.com.
Include Your Contact Information
This seems obvious, but there is a right and a wrong way to include your contact information. Avoid using nicknames or unprofessional emails, and instead, opt for using your full given name and using an email address that reflects that. You should also make sure that the contact information you include is accurate. Don’t include a phone number or email address that you don’t use as obviously you’ll miss the call or email from the hiring manager trying to schedule an interview!
You should list your contact information near the top of your resume so the hiring manager can quickly locate it and reference back to it if they feel like you’d be a good fit for an interview.
Make Your Resume Easy to Read
Often, hiring managers are only spending a minimal amount of time actually reviewing a resume. They’re looking for the experience and qualifications that stand out in alignment with the job description. This means when you’re writing your resume, keep it simple and easy to read. Avoid flowery language or over detailing specific experience you’ve had – this is what the interview portion is for. Keeping your resume language simple, concise, and easy to read for a hiring manager will be more likely to lead to an interview.
Use a Professional Font on Your Resume
Please do not use Comic Sans when writing your resume. Stick with using a professional font such as Times New Roman, Helvetica, or Arial as these are easy to read and clear for a hiring manager who is scanning over your resume. You should also keep the font size between 10 and 12 points.
Also, be aware of how much white space you have on your resume. If you have too much white space, your resume might look sparse or incomplete. Use appropriate margins between the page edges and spacing between paragraphs.
Include Only the Most Relevant Information on Your Resume
Like we mentioned previously, avoid adding too much detail or flowery language when writing your resume. You should include only the most relevant information on your resume because hiring managers do not have time to thoroughly read every word. While you may have an extensive work history dating back years, it’s likely that not all of this is relevant to the position you’re currently applying for. For example, if you’re applying for an office administrative position and you were a waiter/waitress ten years ago, you do not need to include that restaurant service experience on your resume if you have more recent and more relevant work experience.
Organization Your Resume with the Most Important Information First
You should organize your resume with the most important information listed first. Listing your experience, qualifications, skills, and accomplishments chronologically will help the hiring manager understand your career growth and how your background would contribute to the role you’re applying for.
You should also only include work experience, achievements, education, and skills that are most relevant to the position you’re applying for. Be sure to prioritize your most important information higher on your resume to draw attention to your key skills and achievements.
Use Active Language on Your Resume
Use active language when writing your resume. This means using “power words,” such as “achieved,” “eared,” “completed,” or “accomplished.” Active language communicates to the hiring manager what you’ve done in previous roles while also showing you’re continuing to grow and develop professionally.
Reference Keywords from the Job Description on Your Resume
Make your resume stand out by referencing keywords from the job description. The hiring manager will see them on your resume, and it’s more likely to lead to an interview. As you apply for jobs, you’ll need to update your resume for each based on the specific keywords you find relevant to your skills and experience.
Show Your Personality
You can show your personality on your resume by the way you design it or the language you use. However, it is essential to remain professional and avoid being too casual. Also, don’t shy away from sharing your interests if they’re relevant to the job or company you’re applying for. For example, if you love music and you’re applying for a position at a piano factory, definitely include that!
Your resume is the first step towards getting an interview, so making sure yours stands out and accurately communicates your qualifications is essential. Using the tips listed above to keep your resume polished will increase those chances of getting an interview and getting hired!
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.
Company culture is what defines the overall feel, environment, and “personality” of your business. It also is a significant factor in overall employee job satisfaction, performance, and retention. So, if you think all great company culture needs is a pool table, happy hours, or wearing jeans every day, we invite you to think deeper. While these are all certainly factors that improve and entice talent on the surface level, we will share what genuinely great company culture actually looks like. Here at EG, we believe wholeheartedly that culture eats strategy for breakfast, but for this to be fully true, your company culture must go deeper than just offering “perks.”
Your Company Culture Must Have a Foundation
Like we mentioned earlier, great company culture must go deeper than surface-level perks. While these perks are an important part of company culture, they do nothing if they do not have a foundation to ground them. The core aspect of company culture foundation is trust between employees and leadership.
Trust as a foundation is the best way to build a truly great company culture. Start building a foundation of trust in your organization by empowering your employees to set their own goals (with direction from leadership), recognize excellence in your team, communicate often, have transparent leadership, facilitate individual employee growth, and give your employees a voice.
Empower Employees to Set Goals
Letting your employees have autonomy over what they want to accomplish professionally, sets the expectation that leadership trusts their skills and abilities to contribute to the overall success of the organization.
Recognize Excellence
Research has shown that public recognition has the largest effect on trust when it occurs immediately after an employee meets a goal. Public recognition inspires others to try harder as well.
Communicate Often
Having frequent and open lines of communication may be one of the greatest single factors in building a foundation of trust. When employees can count on their leaders to not only clearly communicate their expectations as well as what is happening in the company overall, they are more likely to build employee trust and loyalty moving forward.
Practice Transparent Leadership
Transparent leadership goes hand-in-hand with communication. Leadership should be sharing as much information about the company as possible with their employees to continue building trust and loyalty. Keeping your employees aware and on the same page will help keep them motivated and productive.
Facilitate Individual Employee Growth
Leaders who recognize their employees are interested in personal and professional development beyond specific job-related development will have a competitive advantage over those that don’t.
Give Employees a Voice
Employees want and need the opportunity to give input into the projects they work on, who they work with, and how they work. This autonomy allows them to select projects that most closely align with their strongest skillsets and professional passions.
Trust is not optional for organizations that want to attract and retain the best people and achieve the best results. The impact of foundational trust in an organization include:
– Employees reported an increase in job satisfaction of 60%
– Were 70% more aligned with their companies’ purpose
– Employees felt 66% closer to their co-workers
– Experienced 40% less burnout from their work
Building a solid foundation for your company culture is the best way to create an environment that allows your employees to grow and flourish. Happy employees lead to more productive work and more profitable business! Using your core values and mission to drive your culture is essential to maintaining a healthy company culture that retains your top performers. Do you want to learn more about what good company culture actually looks like, reach out to us, and we’ll share a deeper dive using our over six decades of industry experience.
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.
With your team now remote, leaders face new challenges when it comes to managing their teams. Digital is the way of the future, but remote working without a strategy is bound to fail both companies and its employees. Here at EG Workforce, we’re sharing the tips we’ve acquired as our team has become entirely virtual.
Leaders Must be Visible
Your team cannot be there best if their leader isn’t visible. Successful leaders of remote teams can retain positive relationships with their team, and the best way to achieve this is through remaining visible to their employees. A Gallup poll found that positive relationships among teams lead to higher employee engagement. Managing these relationships is easier in a traditional office setting; it is even more crucial while your team is remote. Without managers, team members, and even the organization’s leaders putting in the time and effort to foster relationships with their newly remote employees, it’s all too easy for those workers to feel isolated and left out. Isolated employees will burnout quickly and will not feel engaged in their work.
Leaders must make a conscious effort to remain visible to their teams and continue building their relationships with their employees. Leaders should be seen on camera over video, call their team members on the phone, over-communicate what’s happening, and set up regular check-ins with their team members.
There Needs to be Team Collaboration
Since your team is no longer sitting in an office together, it’s essential to keep the collaboration going digitally. Utilize tools like video conferencing, Google Docs, project management software like Monday.com, or chat tools like Slack to keep your team collaborating and working as a team.
Without team collaboration, your company’s efforts will either fall through the cracks or efforts will be duplicated, leading to less productivity and time wasted. Leaders should encourage collaboration by implementing team-centric tools like we mentioned earlier.
Always Use Video When Possible
With the lack of face-to-face connection, using video is a key component to remote team success. Instead of relying on just a phone call for your next meeting or check-in, leaders should encourage the use of video when possible. There are plenty of resources available for companies to use video conferencing, the most popular being Zoom, but you may already have access to video conferencing on the phone system your company currently uses.
Being seen on camera reinforces the connection between your team and leads to higher engagement and productivity.
Using video also allows leaders and co-workers to pick up on the nonverbal cues that occur. Research shows that up to 93% of communication is nonverbal. So while phone calls are great, they cannot make up all of your meetings and communications as video conferencing allows you to pick up on your team’s non-verbal cues.
Provide Face-to-Face Communication
Much like using video conferencing is important for maintaining employee engagement, it’s crucial for providing face-to-face communication. Leaders should plan to set up personal check-ins with their team members where they can communicate virtually face-to-face.
These check-ins provide the space to connect with your team deeper than a regular phone call can and helps strengthen the professional relationship between you and your employees. Face-to-face communication also reinforces that your company is still operating as it would (given the circumstances) in the traditional office environment.
Leaders Must Set Clear Expectations
Leaders must set clear expectations for their remote teams to eliminate as much uncertainty as possible and avoid any miscommunication. Each member of your team will have different ideas of what working remotely looks like, and it’s up to you as a leader to get everyone on the same page by laying out clear expectations.
You may want to mandate calendar sharing, project check-ins, or daily task lists. However, while these are great tools to help keep your team accountable, you’ll want to make sure you avoid becoming too much of a micro-manager. Research shows that employee productivity and engagement drops dramatically when an employee feels like they are being micromanaged, and this will lead to burnout quickly.
Be Hyper-Focused on Your Core Values
Now more than ever, your company should be visibly living out and hyper-focused on its core values. This time is uncertain and full of challenges and stressors beyond what a typical workday looks like. On top of worrying about how to adapt to working remotely, your team members will be stressed about what the future of the company looks like, their financial state, and of course, getting sick. If your employees have children, their home is also doubling as a school as well as an office.
To help their employees succeed while working remotely, leaders must show empathy and live out the company’s core values. Here at EG, we have 5 core values: Do the Right Thing, Value the Individual, An Attitude that Works, Red Hot Chili Pepper Urgency, and Healthy as a Whole. We are going above and beyond during these uncertain times to live out our values in the work we do individually and as a whole team.
Encourage Your Team to Set Boundaries
To avoid employee burnout, leaders must encourage their team to set boundaries. While people work from home, it can be difficult for people to know when to “turn-off.” When the office and home mesh into one, it can be tempting for your team to not power down their email of close-out projects at the end of the day. While this may seem like an exciting prospect to increase productivity, it will quickly backfire as your team will become overwhelmed and burned out.
Leaders should encourage their team to set boundaries between work and free time. Be sure to remind your team to take a lunch break as they would in a traditional office setting and to turn off their computer at the end of the workday. One tip is to have a separate workspace from the space you relax in, if possible. If your team member isn’t able to have a separate work area, encourage them to put their computer out of sight when it’s time to power down. Setting these boundaries to “turn-off” will lead to happier and more productive employees.
Trust Your Team
Finally, simply trust your team. You hired this team for a reason, and when they have the tools to succeed, believe that they will. When you have trust in your team, you will see better results and a higher level of productivity. A team with the right tools and trust from their leaders cannot fail, even while being completely remote!
Times are changing; we believe we will see the lasting impact of teams being able to work remotely outside of COVID-19. Companies will need to learn to adapt to this new normal, even if teams aren’t fully remote on the other side of these challenging times. Leaders and employees will need to work together right now to be successful while remote and build strategies for virtual work in the future.
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.