January 2013 - Fresh Concepts Skip to main content

Job Satisfaction: Necessity or Luxury?

When unemployment rates are uncomfortably high and profit levels flat, businesses may inappropriately reason that surveying employees about their job satisfaction is a luxury that only mega-corporations can afford. However, research tells us that job satisfaction is correlated with greater customer loyalty, better safety, lower absenteeism, and lower turnover rates.  And while some employers understand […]

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Finding Your Path

“Find the thing you do best in the world, and success will follow.” While growing up this was the advice my parents gave when I frequently asked how I would ever be able to decide upon a career. I was a young grade-schooler at the time but regardless, this advice seemed farfetched. Had my dad […]

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How Employees Succeed – Grit

  Paul Tough’s book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character is not just great reading for those who are interested in finding answers to the educational questions that plague our country, it’s fantastic reading for those who are curious about predicting employee success. In fact, I’d be thrilled if Tough’s […]

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Here’s to Saying Thank You from the Bottom-Up

Saying thanks to a colleague or boss is pretty straight-forward and easy. Writing a note of thanks can be a bit trickier but is not overly taxing. Right? Then what’s holding people back? Research indicates that only 10% of adults say thanks to a colleague every day, and just 7% express gratitude daily to a […]

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Ways to Have “Fun” at Work in 2013

Frequently, I hear people talking about the need to make work fun. It’s hard not to agree; however, the reality is that most jobs bring a variety of tensions – deadlines, problems big and small, and issues that challenge us both cognitively and emotionally. Since fun at work may be an elusive mirage for most […]

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