5 Ways to Create A Fantastic Employee Culture

I hate the days when I'm about to leave work so stressed out and it feels like I've accomplished nothing. It's a great feeling though when you have a close relationship with your peers who tell you tomorrow's going to be a better day.

This is where I come to tell you that employee culture is just as important as customer satisfaction. 

When employees feel like they work in a loving, caring culture, the levels of satisfaction and team work skyrocket. When an employee feels accomplished and praised, they will show up for work more often and their attitude toward clients changes for the better. Here are five ways to start creating a fun and appreciative employee culture.

1. Start with the CEO
• To create a culture of appreciation, the CEO has to take charge and not look at the lessors as if they are peons.
2. Expectations must be clear
• Managers need to set clear expectations and be honest with employees when problems arise. No one wants a wishy-washy manager.
3. Managers need to be available
• A manager should be available to an employee 24/7.
• The manager should set boundaries for when the employee should contact them, but they should always be responsive when an employee does feel the need to speak
4. Build relationships with employees outside of work.
• Choose team building activities outside of work that most employees would enjoy! Show you're employees that you're not just the big dog that everyone is terrified of.
5. Make sure to pay attention to things happening outside the office
• Showing your employees you care is so easy
• If you're a manager, remember to send the anniversary card or congrats card if an employee is getting married or having a baby or a birthday. A little bit can go a long way!

These things and more will be the start to a great culture. Have fun and be professional!

Six Volunteer Events Your Company Should Consider

1. Animal Shelters. This is always a fun thing to do! Helping out some furry friends is always a great way to give back and have fun with your co-workers. You can also collect supplies like, paper towels, puppy pads, dog/cat food, leashes, and much more! Think about it and partner with your local animal shelter today!

2. Food Pantries! Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit committed to feeding hungry children. Volunteers hand-pack meals that are specially formulated and sent to more than 70 countries world wide. Start your finger exercises now!

3. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit that believes every person should have a decent place to live. Habitat for Humanity builds, renovates and repairs houses over the world using volunteer labor and donations. Stretch out your limbs and pack up your toolkit.

4. YMCA focuses on youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility. Y volunteers give men, women and children of all ages and walks of life the resources and support they need to be healthy, confident, connected, and secure.

5. United Way believes every country should have a good education, every citizen should feel financially stable, and every community should be healthy and strong.

6. National Night Out promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make neighborhoods safer, better places to live. Neighborhoods across the nation host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and other various community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events and visits from emergency personal and exhibits.

The list of volunteer events goes on and on. Why not get away from work and have some fun while giving back to the community!

5 Ways to Keep Your LinkedIn Up-to-date

Alyssa Bereznak, a writer for, Yahoo Tech, came up with five simple ways to keep your LinkedIn up to date. Bereznak has 10 plus years of professional internet use and has also worked for Vanity Fair.

As professionals, we all know how important LinkedIn is. Please tell me you have a LinkedIn. If not, pause your reading and sign up right MEOW! So many employers take advantage of your online resume. LinkedIn is a place to put all the extra things that you can't necessarily cram onto your paper resume. There are many great features to LinkedIn that a traditional resume does not contain. You can add projects, coursework, volunteer work, your resume, have people write you recommendations, and so on.

ONE

Have a good profile picture that shows who you are.

• But don't use a selfie
• No pixalated photographs
• Don't crop yourself from your friends
• Keep your assets to yourself
• Look happy :]

Look at this classy guy. He knows what's up.

TWO

Write a killer summary

• Use keywords, it makes you pop-up in search results
• Include:  experience, ambitions, what you want to accomplish
• Google Search. Your LinkdIn should be within the first three search results
• Include 40 words that seem substantial
• Discuss your life passions, interests and goals

EVERYTHING is awesome!

THREE

LinkedIn is your portfolio, add videos and graphics to show off your skills

• There's a cool button that allows you to add things, like videos, keynote presentations, PDFs of research projects and papers.
• It's a great opportunity to show-off things you've worked on
• Doing this is helpful if you're in creative industries where your artistic or design skills are valued
• Show everyone what your capable of.

FOUR

Are you a good person? Show it!

• A LinkedIn survey showed 42% of hiring managers said they feel that volunteer work is just as good as your work experience.
• Talk about the brochure you've designed for your friend's new business, or how many hours you put in at your local dog shelter, or how many kids you've helped by participating in Feed my Starving Children.

FIVE

To get endorsed, you must also endorse.

• When you have endorsements for certain skills your profile looks more impressive.
• Show people what you can do. What you're good at.
• Endorsements are easy, just visit the profile of the lucky human you chose to endorse, and normally there is a handy, dandy button that allows you to endorse that person for multiple things! (Now, hopefully, the favor will be returned!!)

Now that you have the basic skills to beef up your LinkedIn, go out into the world and endorse! Need more tips to keep your LinkedIn up-to-date, these websites are pretty awesome as well. 

1. LinkedIn Makeover
2. Improve Your LinkedIn Presence
3. 12 Resources to Improve

4 Ways to Integrate Instagram Into Your Business

#ThrowbackThursday

So you're looking to find a new way to integrate a new social media into your business. You may be thinking that this is "silly" and "a waste of time" and "how many things can I possibly do to promote my business?!". Well, Laura Wallis, a web navigator and online marketing consultant, knows a few ways to integrate Instagram into your business easy as pie! Wallis has over 15 years of experience in marketing and her goal is to help her private clients reach their goals for their dream business and life. If you want to read more about her, visit her website! Lets take a look at what she has to say about Instagram.

1. Create a strong bio section.

• You want to make your username part of your brand
• Make sure you're using the same image across every single one of your social media platforms
• Your followers like to be able to easily access your other social media channels
• Don't post "cross-content" (A Twitter post to Facebook, it doesn't work)

Call to action

2. Use a mix of images.

• You're going to want to put a face to your business
• Consumers like to buy from people, not businesses
• Don't be afraid to show people who you are!

3. Filter your pictures.

• Photos add personality to the mix
• There are A LOT of features on Instagram, you don't have to use them all at once.

4. Use fun hashtags!

• Examples:
• #throwbackthurdsay
• #flashbackfriday
• #mancrushmonday
• #womancrushwednesday
• Remember you are a business, and you can still use industry related hashtags to reach out to other business that are related to your industry! A little competition never hurt anyone!

 

5. Curiosities of social media.

• If your going to be on social media, you need to stay social, or people are going to lose interest!
• If you aren't tracking your analytics, you should be!
• Once you have you analytics, make sure to post when people are lookin'!

Mix these five things together and BAM! You've successfully integrated Instagram into your business. Where will you go next?