Is Your Employee Benefits Package Competitive Enough

Is Your Employee Benefits Package Competitive Enough An attractive benefits package is a great way for employers to compete for high calibre employees, but what employee perks are considered the most enticing to today’s job seekers? Our latest salary and recruitment survey for our local region  shows that benefits are playing an even greater role within the candidate decision-making process. We have seen an upward trend in organisations choosing to review the benefits offered as a way to attract and retain high-calibre employees. This has been particularly evident within sectors facing candidate short markets, as when there are more job opportunities available, candidates become more confident about moving companies and feel more empowered to negotiate better terms. Employees don’t choose to switch on salary alone and a recent national survey showed that benefits were still the third main attraction for job seekers, after salary and location. Another study by Capita also showed that 66 per cent of employees are more likely to stay with an employer which provides good benefits. The be all and end all? An organisation’s benefit package could be the deciding factor for an employee, especially if the salary offer is the same as a competing organisation. Yet many of the benefits that were often seen as adding real value are becoming increasingly common place. Health care schemes and gym memberships are becoming more prevalent and, 85 per cent of companies we surveyed are now offering flexible working hours and 70 per cent are providing some form of study or educational support. For decades, pensions used to be a key differentiator, yet with the Workplace Pensions roll out almost complete, more employers are beginning to offer enhanced pensions to entice new employees. Common appreciation Even relatively small-scale benefits can still carry a significant amount of weight for candidates. People spend the majority of their waking hours at work, and benefits which make a big difference to day-to-day life can be just as appealing. Recent research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development noted in this article  in ThisIsMoney.co.uk shows that among the most common benefits appreciated by workers are the low-key perks. It included examples such as having free tea and coffee available and being allowed to have online purchases delivered to the workplace. Organisations respond The 2016 Aviva Working Lives Report revealed that one in five employers are planning to increase spending on workplace benefits in the next 12 months and we are seeing organisations continue to look for innovative ways to update benefit schemes. Many employers are looking towards the modern day challenges faced by today’s workers for inspiration. For example, a London organisation has reported that it is now offering staff help to get on the property ladder as part of its benefit scheme. Other firms have decided to provide low cost personal loans for employees, offering better rates than those offered by banks, and making monthly repayments simple by deducting direct from payroll. Flexible benefits Another option is for employers to enable benefits to be tailored to individual groups of employees, as different incentives appeal to different people. A recent Employee Benefits survey reported by  Davidson Asset Management (DAM)  found that nearly three-quarters of workers would like to be able to adapt their benefits to suit their needs. The report also showed that there was a marked difference between what different generations wanted from their benefits package. More than two-fifths of millennials would value financial advice, but only 17 per cent of those aged 30 or over would appreciate this perk. However, 45 per cent of those aged 30 and over would like to see increased pension contributions, but this was only of interest to 22 per cent of millennials. While some benefit options will be attractive to a broad section of employees, but for lots of different reasons. For example, the opportunity to buy extra annual leave can appeal to parents as a cheaper option than paying for childcare during school holidays and also prove attractive to employees wishing to travel more or for those looking for more time to pursue passions or hobbies outside of work.     Money and meaning Other research also shows that the latest generation of graduates and young professionals are willing to sacrifice more financial-based rewards in exchange for meaningful work. Many Millennials are looking for jobs with a purpose, they want to feel they are doing something worthwhile, to work for employees who appreciate their contribution, who will support them to progress and to be part of an ethical organisation with responsible values. A culture of open communication and employee development, plus strong organisational values and vision, can be significant benefits for enhancing employer brand. One way in which employers can monitor whether they have a competitive benefits package which will help to attract and retain the best talent is by asking employees for regular feedback within a staff survey. Another option is to seek advice from a recruitment consultant. A good recruitment consultant will have their finger on the pulse of the industry they specialise in, and the local market, and will be able to provide valuable insight into any shifting trends in salaries and benefit packages.  

Is Your Personal Brand Going to Make You Obsolete - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Is Your Personal Brand Going to Make You Obsolete - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Caution: Is your personal brand going to drive your success throughout your working life, orat some pointis your brand going to make you obsolete? Today, thanks to Dan Schawbels pioneering efforts, a lot of attention is paid to building personal brands. An equal amount of attention is paid to addressing the issues involved in maintaining personal brands. But, what happens if your personal brand wears out? The question bears attention, as were living in a time of unprecedented rapid change. Is there a chance you may become hostage to a brand that no longer performs for you? Branded for Life The question came up yesterday, while I was reading Branded For Life, an article in the October 1-7 Bloomberg Business Week. Branded for Life chronicled the lives of 3 successful character actors, Smiling Bobthe Enzyte Man, Joe Isuzu, and the Dell Dudewhose personal brands become wrapped-up in the companies they represent. As the article describes, although the money was good, the actor behind a successful brand character enters a state of existential limbo. He is famous, yet anonymous. His face is everywhere, yet his name is largely unknown. However, when the campaign is over, chances are, no other brand will hire him.He will have successfully acted himself right out of acting. Authors and brands Authors frequently run into this type of problem. In most cases, however, the benefits of writing a book to build a personal outlive the brand. The benefits authors gain during their period of greatest earning and productivity, immediately following the publication of their book, are powerful enough to outweigh any negatives that might occur in the future. This is especially true when authors use their new visibility and the rewards of their obvious expert position to master new life-changing habits and skillslike speakingthat they can transfer to new projects down the road. Nevertheless, many authors do become hostage to the brands by their first book. Jay Conrad Levinson will forever be associated with the Guerrilla Marketing brandno matter if he could write a damn fine architecture book, or provide a new perspective on World War Two.  Trade publishing doesnt reward genre jumpers, i.e., business authors who want to write mystery stories, or mystery authors who want to write books about marketing. I found the sledding tough when I tried to move beyond the graphic design for non-designers brand that I was associated with following the success of Looking Good in Print: A Guide to Basic Design for Desktop Publishing. It took a while for me to move beyond my initial brand. When book title becomes more than a book title If youre an author, I encourage you to  be very careful in choosing the title of your first book. For better or for worse, the title of your first book is likely to become your brand! Paradoxically, the more successful your book becomes, the more youre locked into the genre! The danger, of course, is that your brand may go out of style! Not so long ago, for example graphic design books occupied two bookcases, floor to eye level, at the Portsmouth, NH, Barnes Noble. Now, the design books are mixed in with photography, craft, and architecture books. Whats that mean for my next book proposal? Well, it looks good, BUT, design books arent selling anymore! is likely to be a publishers first response. All brands face the threat of obsolescence But, in todays world, its not just authorsfew of us are immune from the threat of obsolescence! As Dan Pink pointed out in his landmark 2006 book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, outsourcing and technology are undermining all types of formerly safe fields. (Often, for example, an xRay of your arm, taken in your local hospital emergency room, is read by a radiologist in Asia, etc.) So, what can we do to protect our brands? Ultimately, it seems the only protection for us is to be as genuine, simple, and consistent as possible when choosing, building, and maintaining, our personal brands: Genuine. Being the best radiologist, or lawyer, or souffle chef in Sullivan County is no longer enough! We cant afford to confuse expertise with personal brand.   We have to go beyond the obvious, surface layers and identify what is at the heart of our personal brand. We need to identify the essence of our character, and develop it, rather than cloaking our identity in skills and currently-desirable attributes that may quickly go out of fashion. Simple. And, as the parade of recently-introduced books about Apple and Steve Jobs shows, we have to simplify our brand and learn to trust simplicity. The simplicity of Apples approach to design may be obvious, but its just about impossible for other companies to   duplicate because Apples approach comes from within. Other companies may try to graft-on specific brand attributes, i.e., thinness, intuitive operation, etc., but decorative design doesnt last. Consistent. The final way to protect our brand is to consistently act upon it, so were living up to our brandwhile improving it as we go along. Taking action As we enter the fourth quarter of 2012, perhaps we all should audit our personal brands and analyze whether or not our personal brands are genuinei.e., goes deep enoughsimple, and consistent to project our value to the end of our working lives. What do you think? Is your personal brand safe from obsolescence? Share your thoughts as comments, below Author: Roger C. Parker encourages you to create an IdeaTracking content dashboard to harvest the good ideas all around you.  Use his online form to ask questions about writing and publishing.

The Blending of Corporate and Personal Branding on Twitter - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The Blending of Corporate and Personal Branding on Twitter - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about how personal and corporate branding are starting to collide. Im not very surprised that people are questioning personal branding as it relates to overshadowing their corporate brand.   This was all bound to happen as some point because corporate and personal brands have the same exact features on social networks and are subject to the same rules and scrutiny.   Both people, companies and products get the same standard page on social networks like Twitter.   Since a corporate brand must interact with its audience through people (employees), individuals have to claim, use and monitor their corporate Twitter accounts. Out of all the social media tools right now, Twitter is not only the hottest one, but the one with the most business uses.   For instance, it can be used for customer service, for PR and for lead generation.   After much discussion, today I want to analyze how companies are using Twitter and try and figure out how personal and corporate brands can function together on the service. How corporate and personal brands use Twitter Corporate branding: Brands like GoDaddy and Comcast are using Twitter as a customer service vehicle.   When customers are having issues with their service, they just use the @ sign and the corporate Twitter handle to complain, which is answered by a person behind those accounts.   This is a good system for people who hate calling for support, especially if theyre already on Twitter.   Then there is Sodexo (and EMC does this too), who promotes their employer brand and offers jobs through Twitter.   There are also companies that are using Twitter to just republish or push out articles, such as the NY Times and WSJ.   There are even some companies that are using accounts just for products or product launches. Personal branding: People have many uses for Twitter, depending on who they are, what theyre associated with and their role in society. For instance, Jimmy Fallon uses Twitter to promote his new late night TV show, while MC Hammer uses it to promote Dancejam.com, his dance video site.   Then theres P Diddy, who uses it because he has the biggest ego on this planet and craves the attention.   There are those who are looking to promote themselves to become micro-celebrities and others who are either supporting their company, their consulting business or are just plain doing it for fun (social reasons). 4 top examples analyzed I did a quick scrape of the Twittersphere to find four great examples to show you the mix of personal and corporate brands on Twitter.   Please remember that everyone is still experimenting, including me, so this is just something to think about and ponder. Scott Monty / Ford Scott uses his personal brand name as his account for Ford.   I know he has other accounts with Ford brand names, but his primary one is his own name.   The good thing about this approach is that people in the social media world already know Scott Monty and hes done an amazing job building a community over the last however amount of years, earning his spot as the ford social media guy.   There is a major downside to this approach though that Ive been thinking about.   Since hes using his name, every time he gets retweeted or someone wants to communicate with him about Ford, his name is being passed on and not his companies.   Also, when he leaves Ford (hes bound to at some point in the future, either to retire or move to a new position or company), his personal brand will transfer, but Ford will lose all that equity hes built up on his personal Twitter account (# of followers).     Im not saying Scotts strategy is good or bad, but its certainly a good one to discu ss.   Hes a friend of mine and has paved the way for most of us in this space, so I thank him. Frank Eliason / Comcast Frank is a pretty smart man to be the first person to humanize Comcast and earn insane press mentions and celebrity status for what hes done on Twitter.   He uses the Comcast brand name in association with cares, which is smart because people will keep seeing that name and really think Comcast cares (even if they dont ?? ).   He really brands himself on the Comcast page using his picture (avatar) and bio, along with a custom page with more of his information.   The good part about this is that it feels like a real person is helping you when you have problems.   The bad part is that the account might not be successful in the future without Frank because people connect with him more than Comcast. Jennifer Cisney / Kodak Jennifer is Kodaks chief blogger and Twitterer.   She uses the Kodak brand name as a handle and mixes her picture with the Kodak brand name, which is a very unique way of co-branding a Twitter account.   The Kodak brand takes priority over Jennifer if you observe her background and profile, which is a good thing.   She uses the account to push out press releases, corporate news, her latest blog posts and more.   The negative aspect about this approach is that it doesnt scale and as more and more people blog of Kodak and her role switches, this account wont make much sense anymore. EMC / Dan Schawbel I didnt think it was fair to analyze three other brands without scrutinizing my own.   Ive setup, controlled and managed the EMC corporate brand on Twitter, and a few other accounts that I helped start, such as @EMCCareers and @EMCWorld.   The brand is 0% EMC corporate branding and has no signs of personal branding.   It isnt a communication vehicle, just like the NYTimes and WSJ and others.   The original goal was to push out press releases on Twitter because the media was already on there, as well as other influencers.   In the future this may change, but for now, it doesnt make sense for me to Tweet about EMC products because I dont have any knowledge in that area.   Id rather remain more anonymous because its a 1-way account and doesnt need a face.   The cons are that it will take longer to grow and that its seen as anti-social in the social media world. Conclusion I cant give you a real solution here because I dont think anyone has figured how to personal and corporate brands can play nice in social media.   It really comes back to having goals set for the account before you establish it, build a list of followers and constantly get your name out there.   If youre the corporate Twitter person, leading with the corporate brand name is extremely important, especially because youre getting paid!   If you arent the corporate Twitter person in your company, but have an account, then you can do whatever you want, as long as youre still   best representing your company.   At the end of the day, we all really need to take a second look at how were positioned in relation to our affiliations on social networks in general, not just Twitter. How are you branded on Twitter? Get ready for Me 2.0 on April 7th! With millions of people losing their jobs and college graduates struggling to get entry-level positions, my new book called Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan) is the solution to all of your problems.   With a proven 4-step process for building a powerful brand, harnessing the power of social media technologies, this book will put you in the drivers seat in your career, help you realize your full potential and achieve your dreams.   Me 2.0 has been already written about in the WSJ, Miami Herald, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur and more.   It has been endorsed an incredible 34 times, by the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, Daniel Pink, Keith Ferrazzi, Marshall Goldsmith, Jay Conrad Levinson, Robert B. Cialdini and more. If youre a blogger and would like a sneak peak at this book or a journalist interested in receiving a copy, please email me at dan.schawbel@gmail.com.     I hope you all enjoy Me 2.0 and look forward to your feedback.

How your Soft Skills can actually Win you a Job

How your Soft Skills can actually Win you a Job How your Soft Skills can actually Win you a Job As every jobseeker knows, you need to present a recruiter with your perfectly honed hard skills that make you a perfect fit for the role on offer. Without these technical skills under your belt, how on earth are you going to win the job of your dreams, right? It is no wonder that job candidates will craft their resume to reflect these skills and emphasize their technical skills above all else.   However, you should never underestimate the importance that recruiters are now placing on soft skills. In fact, the desire for soft skills has risen sharply over recent years to become a priority in the eyes of many employers.With this in mind, do you possess the right set of soft skills that could give you that winning edge at your job interview?Examples of important soft skillsYou need to be able to demonstrate how you have used your soft skills to resolve issues in a constructive way in the workplace.Employers are more concerned these days with creating a productive and happy workplace and promoting good mental health and well-being at work, and this is where your soft skills can come in to play in a positive way.You can give them an example of how you sorted out a conflict or disagreement with a co-worker, or used your good communication skills to appease an unhappy customer or supplier and turn around their experience into a positive one that saved any damage being done to the company reputation.A lot of soft skills can be developed over time with experience and wisdom. From an employer’s point of view, it can be easy to train someone to operate a software program for example, but not quite so easy to teach them how to handle a difficult or uncomfortable situation in the workplace. This is why your soft skills can come in very handy and could give you an advantage over someone else at interview who may have the exact same technical skill set and qualifications as yourself.Highlighting your soft skills in your resumeThis is why it is just as important to highli ght your soft skills in your resume as your technical skills or experience that makes you a good fit for the job. If possible, you should try to strike an equal balance between your hard skills set and your soft skills within your resume, but taking great care to choose the right soft skills that you possess that would catch the eye of and appeal to the recruiter. This can often be easy to do when the nature of the job makes it obvious about what sort of soft skills would be more desirable. For example, if the role involves dealing with the general public, customers or suppliers over the phone or face to face, then your communication skills and negotiating skills are going to be of great value to mention and highlight.It is interesting to note that according to the 2018 Skills Gap Report released by LiveCareer, nine out of the top 20 desirable skills are actually soft skills! These are results coming from current and recent listings and mentions in job adverts coming from major e mployers. So you can work out from this research alone that employers are placing a high priority on identifying soft skills when assessing potential job candidates.It also means that you will have a much higher chance of being invited into interview when you include all those highly sought-after soft skills that you possess in your resume. It also shows that employers are placing a much higher value on the potential of job applicants who can display evidence of good soft skills.So, what are these very desirable top nine soft skills that were identified in the report? They are:CollaborationCommunication SkillsCustomer ServiceLeadershipMulti-taskingOrganizational SkillsProblem SolvingTeamworkWritten CommunicationThe actual skills gap report set out to see if there was an actual skills gap in these area, or was it that the majority of job applicants were actually guilty of under-reporting their soft skills. Going back to when you create your resume, it seem almost automatic that you w ill want to list and highlight your hard skills to get across why you qualify for the job. But favoring hard skills over soft skills can in some circumstances risk losing you the opportunity of landing an interview.At the end of the day, employers are seeing both hard and soft skills in your resume, so by overlooking one in favor of the other may result in you not getting your foot in the door.How can I emphasize my soft skills?To make yourself a more appealing candidate for the job, take some time out to sit down and work out a list of your soft skills. Soft skills are not those that can be learned like hard skills, so are more intangible to define.Think along the lines of your communication skills, negotiating powers, reasoning and compromising skills, conflict resolution, empathy and good listening skills.Take a careful look through the job description. Identify and pick out those soft skills that would be very handy to have in this role. Try to think about what sort of soft skil ls an employer would be looking for in a candidate for a job like this. Check your soft skills list and match up those that are required or desirable for the role that you have identified. These are the skills that you should be highlighting within your resume.By including your soft skills in your resume you will be making yourself much more desirable to the eyes of a recruiter. previous article Free Professional Resume Sample | Smart Jobseeker next article Free Job-Winning Resume Template | Instant Download you might also likeHow to Write About Your Accomplishments on Your Resume

Introduction Paragraph Generator - How to Write a Personal Introduction

Introduction Paragraph Generator - How to Write a Personal IntroductionIf you are in need of a personal introduction, then an introduction paragraph generator can help. If you're writing for the internet, this is extremely useful. But it can be difficult to know what to write because so many people get angry or upset when someone does not respond to their emails or chats. This can make it tough to write your own personal introduction, but with a good introduction paragraph generator, you'll have a better chance at it.When you want to introduce others to someone, you want to do it with style. You don't want to come across as being rude. You want to make sure that you go into the communication with a positive and helpful attitude. When you create your own personal introduction, this makes it much easier to have a better first impression.When you are writing about another person's personality, their interests, or hobbies, there are a lot of things that you can say about them. But when y ou are writing for the internet, you have a much more limited selection of things to discuss. That is where an introduction paragraph generator comes in.Your topics are going to be short and sweet, yet memorable. In fact, you could even use these to start a sales letter to build up to a sales pitch. After all, you've got nothing to lose, so use them for great benefit.Writing your introduction will save you time and it will help you stay organized. In order to get the attention of your reader, you have to get their attention first. The introduction paragraph generator will help you to do this by saving you a lot of time.Because of this, you should consider using a personal introduction. You can use this to help you get started and to keep you on track. If you were to have a dozen people writing about you, you would want to learn more about each person before you came to the conclusion that they were actually interested in getting to know you. This will make your overall introduction paragraph generator easier to manage.No matter what you are writing about, whether it's a person a company, or an organization, there are a number of ways that you can use an introduction paragraph generator. You can use it to introduce yourself, or introduce yourself to others. It can be used for internet marketing, articles, blogs, articles, etc. You can even use it to help you sell a product or to start a business, just about anything.There are so many things that you can do with an introduction paragraph generator. Whatever your topic is, you can use it. Because of this, you are going to have a much better chance of getting what you want out of your writing. Instead of having a rough draft, you will have an organized and professional one.

Moral imagination - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Moral imagination - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog I found a very interesting article on Using Moral Imagination for irreplicable Strategic Advantage. Based on The Moral Advantage Model the author argues that there is a strategic, competitive advantage beyond the traditional two of low cost and differentiation. From the article: With agility, companies with moral imagination evolve their strategies and operational practices to changing worlds while simultaneously remaining steadfastly faithful to the values and purpose that define them. The key lies in using Moral Imagination to understand two dynamics. The first concerns the degree to which work satisfies the deepest human needs of employees and concerns the companys Values and Ethics. The second concerns the degree to which a companys product and service satisfies the deepest human needs of its customers and concerns the companys Strategy. I like the article both for its logic which is clear and compelling but also for the way it talks about moral choices grounded in clear strategic concepts and thinking. Read it! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

SMARP Employee Personal Branding - Jane Jackson Career

SMARP Employee Personal Branding - Jane Jackson Career Smarp  interview on the importance of employee personal branding recently. Click here to read original article  Experts advise companies to take an active role in employee development:  helping employees build their personal brand  can result in increased exposure and positive word of mouth, not to mention happier and more engaged employees.We asked four leadership and career development experts for their insights on how to support employee’s personal branding by asking them one key question:What are your top 3 tips for helping employees develop their thought leadership and build a strong personal brand on social media?Let’s jump right into their answers!Jane Jackson  â€" Career Management Coach, Author, Speaker, Blogger and PodcasterFor employee engagement, it is essential for companies to ensure that employees feel like they are valued members and key contributors to the success of the business.My top 3 tips to help employees develop their thought leadership and build a strong personal brand on social media are:1.Value every employee as an individual with valuable insights, experiences and ideas to share.  Employees are the ones who interact daily with customers and clients, understand their needs, and then work diligently to overcome their problems.Encourage employees to share their experiences and ideas in meetings and forums. Acknowledge and allow them to continually develop their communication, presentation and speaking skills by providing them with the opportunity to present their valuable knowledge in front of their peers, senior management, clients or customers.2. Encourage and empower employees to write articles on their areas of expertise and consider publishing them in the company newsletter and online platforms  â€" ideas that best reflect their professional knowledge and are in alignment with the company values.Suggest to employees to set up a personal blog where they feel confident in developing content that will demonstrate their thought lea dership. Make it a policy that opinions are heard and acknowledged as points for debate and discussion.3. Empower employees to provide their own insights, ideas and suggestions within their areas of expertise, so that they can build their personal brand by submitting relevant articles and blog posts for inclusion on platforms such as company newsletters and LinkedIn Pulse.Not only that, they should also continue to build their brand as a professional in their industry by sharing relevant company and industry news from other influencers in their field on their social media channels, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Medium.By sharing not only their own thought leadership but also that of others in complementary positions, they can build their personal brands as influencers who not only create but also share content of value to readers.Karen Gately  â€" Author, Speaker, Advisor and Educator in human performance and leadershipReflect for a moment on what your social media post s say about you.What values and beliefs are reflected, and to what extent are people likely to regard you as being fair and reasonable?Reflect also on the value you are creating through the information you share.Build a reputation of being a person with intelligence and thoughtfulness by sharing information that others are likely to benefit from.Never lose sight of the permanency of online posts  â€" once you’ve said it, it’s impossible to take it back. Choose to have an unfounded rant and you’re likely to be judged harshly by the (at times) unforgiving world of social media.Mukul Deva  â€" Motivational Leadership Keynote Speaker and Coach on leadership, strategy, influencing skills, change management, innovation and high-performing teamsHistorically, respect and opportunity for learning, development, and growth are factors that keep employees engaged and motivated. With that reality clearly established, it is imperative that all organisations focus on the continuous developm ent of their personnel. In our work with dozens of organisations (governments, MNCs and not for profit), we help leaders to focus on some simple, yet very effective actions:Every leader has a one-to-one conversation with their direct reports, ideally monthly, and at the very least, every alternate month. During this conversation, they should specifically check if that person feels they are learning/growing  and  what training or upskilling they would find useful.Make such training available to the individual, whenever possible.Ensure that in addition to such individual training requests, suitable action is taken to ensure that people are overcoming new challenges, and hence learning new things.Encourage everyone to have a learning journey buddy   someone they can bounce ideas off, and who helps them stay committed to their individual learning needs.Lastly, and equally importantly, the most high-performing teams go through some form of joint training at least once every quarter.  Thr ee of these can be short, if time and budget are a constraint, but at least one of them must be over the day to ensure that teams get due pause for reflection, new skills, and getting to know each other better.Karen Leong  â€" Director of Influence Solutions, and author of “Win People Over â€" 75 Simple and Powerful Ways to Influence Anyone”In today’s highly competitive business environment, where “disruption” is the new reality, it is increasingly essential for companies to create a culture of pro-activeness, empowerment and innovation. Here are 3 ideas to help employees develop thought leadership:Create platforms for employees to train, speak and share ideas.  This can include a 5-minute skill sharing moment as part of regular meetings, encouraging people to volunteer their skills at formal training programmes, or representing the company as a speaker at events and conferences.Help people see the value of personal branding  â€" It will naturally help boost the organizati onal brand. To do so, make it as much about the people as the organization. Great ideas include celebrating individual and team wins on the organisation’s social media pages; featuring people who are doing meaningful work and making an impact in the organization.Leverage innovative ways to develop talent.  Known as an authority on influence, I regularly work to empower women leaders. One innovative way of developing women leaders is to match them to sit on the boards of not-for-profit organisations where they can hone their leadership skills and enable them to make an impact at the same time. This is also a powerful CSR opportunity boosting both the employee’s personal brand, and organizational brand.