The Pursuit of Workplace Happiness

The Pursuit of Workplace HappinessWorkplace HappinessThe Pursuit of Workplace HappinessWhat makes for a happy workplace? If you look at the results of recent surveys, you wont come away with a clear answer. But one thing is clear The happier you are at work, the more likely you wont be looking for another job. And it appears that the higher your salary, the more likely youre planning to stick around.A survey of 2,000 U.S. workers by workforce services provider Hudson and independent research firm Rasmussen Reports found that about 5 of every 7 employees (72%) would recommend their companies as good places to work, up 10% from a previous survey in 2005. But tucked under that bit of good news for employers are these warning shotsThe less a person earns, the less happy he or she is with the company. Most of the survey respondents said their companies value them as employees, and make conscious efforts to keep them happy so they dont leave. But those who earn less than $40,000 a year are more likely to answer otherwise.Less happiness = more likely to be looking elsewhere. Employees who are actively seeking new jobs are less likely to be happy with their current employers and more likely to answer that their employers arent bending over backwards to keep the hired help happy.Retention strategy? Whats that?? The first baby boomer just applied for a Social Security pension. Expect a lot more of that, which will make it tougher on companies to fill job roles as these new retirees begin their long, slow fade into the sunset. But 75% of managers surveyed said theyre not aware of formal employee retention strategies at their companies. If these companies havent begun to think about how to hang onto their hired help and the experience and institutional memory they provide, they need to, by looking at the things that can keep their workers happy. That ranges from compensation and benefits to management climate, work culture, opportunities for advancement, and work-life bala nce, which is a much higher priority among employees than employers, according to a recent survey by recruiting and staffing company Spherion.

8 stupid workplace rules that make everyone miserable

8 stupid workplace rules that make everyone miserable8 stupid workplace rules that make everyone miserableCompanies need to have rules - thats a given - but they dont have to be shortsighted and lazy attempts at creating order.I understand the temptation. As my company has grown, so has our difficulty maintaining standards. There have been many instances where someone crossed a line, and we were tempted to respond with a new rule that applied to everyone.But thats where most companies blow it.In just about every instance, upon closer inspection, we realized that establishing a new rule would be a passive and morale-killing way to address the problem. The vast majority of the time, the problem needs to be handled one-on-one by the employees manager.When companies create ridiculous and demoralizing rules to halt the outlandish behavior of a few individuals, its a management problem. Theres no sense in alienating your entire workforce because you dont know how to manage performance. I t makes a schwimmbad situation that much worse.Here are some of the worst rules that companies create when they fall into this trap.1. Bell curves and forced rankings of performanceSome individual talents follow a natural bell-shaped curve, but job performance does leid. When you force employees to fit into a pre-determined ranking system, you do three things 1) incorrectly evaluate peoples performance, 2) make everyone feel like a number, and 3) create insecurity and dissatisfaction when performing employees fear that theyll be fired due to the forced system.This is yet another example of a lazy policy that avoids the hard and necessary work of evaluating each individual objectively, based on his or her merits.2. Ridiculous requirements for attendance, leave, and time offPeople are salaried for the work they do, not the specific hours they sit at their desks. When you ding salaried employees for showing up five minutes late even though they routinely stay late and put in time on th e weekend, you send the message that policies take precedence over performance. It reeks of distrust, and you should never put someone on salary that you dont trust.When companies are unnecessarily strict in requiring documentation for bereavement and medical leave, it leaves a sour taste in the mouths of employees who deserve better. After all, if you have employees who will fake a death to miss a days work, what does that say about your company?3. Restricting Internet useThere are certain sites that no one should be visiting at work, and Im not talking about Facebook. But once you block pornography and the other obvious stuff, its a difficult and arbitrary process deciding where to draw the line.Most companies draw it in the wrong place. People should be able to kill time on the Internet during breaks. When companies unnecessarily restrict peoples Internet activity, it does more than demoralize those that cant check Facebook it limits peoples ability to do their jobs.Many companie s restrict Internet activity so heavily that it makes it difficult for people to do online research. The most obvious example? Checking the Facebook profile of someone you just interviewed.4. Banning mobile phonesIf I ban mobile phones in the office, no one will waste time texting and talking to family and friends, right? Ya, right. Organizations need to do the difficult work of hiring people who are trustworthy and who wont take advantage of things.They also need to train managers to deal effectively with employees who underperform and/or violate expectations (such as spending too much time on their phones). This is also hard work, but its worth it.The easy, knee-jerk alternative (banning phones) demoralizes good employees who need to check their phones periodically due to pressing family or health issues or as an appropriate break from work.5. Draconian e-mail policiesThis is a newer one thats already moving down a slippery slope. Some companies are getting so restrictive with e-m ail use that employees must select from a list of pre-approved topics before the e-mail software will allow them to send a message. Again, its about trust.If you dont trust your people to use e-mail properly, why did you hire them in the first place? In trying to rein in the bad guys, you make everyone miserable every time they send an e-mail. And guess what? The bad guys are the ones who will find ways to get around any system you put in place.6. Stealing employees frequent-flyer milesIf theres one thing that road-weary traveling employees earn, its their frequent flier miles. When employers dont let people keep their miles for personal use, its a greedy move that fuels resentment with every flight.Work travel is a major sacrifice of time, energy, and sanity. Taking employees miles sends the message that you dont appreciate their sacrifice and that youll hold on to every last dollar at their expense.7. Pathetic attempts at political correctnessMaintaining high standards for how peo ple treat each other is a wonderful thing as we live in a world thats rife with animosity and discrimination. Still employers have to know where to draw the line.Going on a witch-hunt because someone says Bless you to another employee that sneezed (real example) creates an environment of paranoia and stifled self-expression, without improving how people treat each other.8. Shutting down self-expression (personal items and dress code)Many organizations control what people can have at their desks. A life-size poster of a shirtless Fabio? I get it thats a problem. But employers dictate how many photographs people can display, whether or not they can use a water bottle, and how many items theyre allowed to place on their desks. Once again, its the ol If I could just hire robots I wouldnt have this problem approach.Same goes for dress codes. They work well in private high schools, but theyre unnecessary at work. Hire professionals and theyll dress professionally. When someone crosses the line, their manager needs to have the skill to address the issue directly.Otherwise, youre making everyone wish they worked somewhere else because management is too inept to handle touchy subjects effectively.Bringing it all togetherIf companies can rethink their policies and remove or alter those that are unnecessary or demoralizing, well all have a more enjoyable and productive time at work.Travis Bradberry is the coauthor of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and the cofounder of TalentSmart.This article originally appeared onLinkedIn.

How To Define Corporate Culture

How To Define Corporate CultureHow To Define Corporate CultureHow To Define Corporate Culture Charney, Social Media Engagement ManagerCompany cultureis a lot like meetings and memos its an inescapable, and inevitable, part of the employee (and candidate) experience. But with the rise of social media, virtual employees and global teams, new business paradigms mean that when it comes to communicating culture, its anything but business as usual.At its core, every companys culture is defined by its workforce, from CEO on down. Your company culturewill be created accidentally or on purpose, says Kirsten Ross, President of Focus Forward Coaching, LLP. Your culture is your team machine, she adds, it either works efficiently or it has a lot of malfunctions.Thats why fit is so important to talent acquisitionand development but what does it take for employees, their managers, executive leadership and customers to engage with, and thrive, within a unique company culture?Meghan M. Biro, CEO of T alentCulture, suggests that for HR professionals and executive leadership, culture is often a top down directive. Yet its the front-line employees who truly define the corporate culture within the organization. With the growing ubiquity of social media tools and technologies, they do so externally as well.The good news for employers and talent managers when it comes to reinforcing and even reinventing workplace culture, social technologies represent a powerful tool. If leveraged properly, it can help companies gain the winning edge when it comes to acquiring candidates and retaining top talent.Here are some of the top corporate culture considerations and strategies to leverage social media that can help transform your workplace culture into a competitive advantage.1. Conduct a Social Media Corporate Culture Audit While you may think you understand your employer brandand employer value proposition, look to social media for mora of the story.Monitoring social media channels like Twitt er and Facebook, along with discussion forums like Glassdoor.com and Quora can help identify some of the recurring themes and conceptions associated with your company culture and employment brand.Comparing these comments with your employer branding materials and value proposition is an important first step. Listening to what the marketplace is saying (if its saying anything at all) also provides the evidence and insights necessary to build a business case and gain internal buy-in. A social culture audit should also help you identify the most active, and influential, voices who are discussing your workplace culture online.2. Tap into the New Water Cooler Corporate culture is no longer a centralized, uniform concept, given the increase in global teams, multi-national workgroups, and in many companies, increasingly siloed or specialized business units and functions. It has become the amalgamation of often dozens of drastically different workplace experiences and expectations.Analyzing how these experiences differ across the enterprise can help you identify internal best practices that can be replicated throughout the company and highlighted in internal and external communications.In the past, this sort of data was culled through anonymous employee surveys. In the new age of talent management, social media platforms present a virtual water cooler where employees can communicate about their unique experiences and perceptions of your companys workplace culture.Start by creating a destination, whether on an internal platform like Sharepoint or a secure external social network, where access is limited to employees. Populate a few questions or conversation starters, (e.g. Suggestions for Improving Efficiency, How Can We Improve Internal Communications? etc.)Employee disengagement and dissatisfaction is largely driven by the perception that leadership and HR doesnt value their input and feedback. An internal social network is one way to show that youre listening and act ively engaging around issues that matter to their employee population.Of course, this sort of forum is only as effective as it is interactive. Be sure to monitor and respond to employee comments in a way thats consistent with the companys social media, employee communication and privacy policies.3. Empower Employee Evangelists Just as internal referrals can be effective means of employee sourcing,your employees can be powerful advocates in conveying and amplifying your corporate culture and employer value proposition.While the message of almost every career site or corporate collateral espouses some form of our people are our greatest assets, actually highlighting these employees and letting them tell their own story, in their own words, sends a powerful message that goes beyond buzzwords.Some HR and recruiting professionals block social media in the workplace, believing that it makes employees more visible, and thus susceptible, to talent poaching.In fact, empowering top talent not only sends a powerful message externally that individual employees are valued and recognized. It also acts as a powerful employee retention tool. An employee who actively advocates your corporate culture effectively links their personal brand with your employment brand, creating a social media win for everyone.Legal Disclaimer None of the information provided herein constitutes legal advice on behalf of Monster.

Average Teacher Salary By State - How Much Educators Earn in the US

Average Teacher Salary By State - How Much Educators Earn in the USAverage Teacher Salary By State - How Much Educators Earn in the USThere are more than 3.5 million teachers working in public and private elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the United States. Their goals are the same- instruct students in a variety of subjects and help them apply those concepts- but the average teacher salary varies significantly from state to state. Teacher Salary Disparity In the US Those who become teachers do so to share their knowledge with children and ultimately prepare them for careers or college. They do not do it for the money. However, everyone needs money to live. While teachers, in general, make less money than others with the same education (at least a bachelors degree and usually a masters), those working in some states earn considerably less than those employed in others. For example, in New York, which has the highest average salaries, elementary school teachers avera ge earnings are $80,540, middle school teachers earn an average salary of $80,940, and high school teachers average earnings are $83,360 (2017). Contrast this with Oklahoma, the state with the lowest average teacher salaries. Elementary school teachers there earn an average salary of $40,530, middle school educators average earnings are $42,040, and those working in secondary schools make $41,880. The disparity in teachers salaries has nothing to do with their job duties- teachers working in New York State have the same ones as those educating students in Oklahoma. They have similar schedules as well. Teachers spend about seven hoursin the classroom each day from Monday through Friday. They also meet with parents before and after school hours. Teachers spend time outside the classroom, including evenings and weekends, preparing lesson plans and classroom activities.Traditionally, in schools that are open 10 months a year, teachers get eight weeks of summer vacation, as well as a co uple of weeks off for winter and spring breaks.Those who work in schools that are openyear-round usually work for nine weeks at a time with three weeks off between sessions. Teachers who work in states where salaries are lower have even bigger battles to fight. The per pupil expenditures are usually insufficient there as well, according to an article in USA Today (Frolich, Thomas C. Teacher Pay States Where Educators Are Paid the fruchtwein and Least. USA Today. May 16, 2018). Lack of resources in their schools and classrooms make their jobs that much more difficult and is a leading cause of stress among teachers. They face challenges such as larger classes and a lack of up-to-date educational tools such as textbooks and classroom technology. Many teachers who work in schools with limited funding spend a portion of their own salary to buy classroom supplies. States With the Highest Average Teacher Salaries (2017) Elementary School New York $80,540California $77,990Connecticut $ 77,900Alaska $77,030District of Columbia $76,950Massachusetts $76,590New Jersey $69,500Virginia $68,460Rhode Island $67,990Maryland $67,340 Middle School New York $80,940Alaska $79,430Connecticut $78,990Washington, DC $74,540Massachusetts $74,400California $74,190Oregon $73,630New Jersey $71,450Virginia $67,770Illinois $66,630 High School Alaska $85,420New York $83,360Connecticut $78,810California $77,390New Jersey $76,430Massachusetts $76,170Virginia $69,890Oregon $69,660Maryland $69,070Illinois $68,380 States With the Lowest Average Teacher Salaries (2017) Elementary School Oklahoma $40,530South Dakota $41,570Arizona $44,220Mississippi $44,230West Virginia $45,530North Carolina $45,690Idaho $47,630Arkansas $48,110Louisiana $48,310Florida $48,340 Middle School Oklahoma $42,040South Dakota $42,520Arizona $43,670West Virginia $45,000Mississippi $45,320North Carolina $45,690Arkansas $49,130Louisiana $49,250Alabama $49,630Florida $49,780 High School Oklahoma $41,880South Dakota $41 ,980North Carolina $46,370Mississippi $46,370West Virginia $46,560Arizona $48,050Idaho $48,540Alabama $49,790Kansas $50,470Louisiana $50,700 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics National Employment and Wage Estimates, May 2017) Many Teachers Struggle to Make Ends Meet There have been several news stories- brought to light during the 2018 teacher protests for better pay and school funding that took place around the country including in West Virginia, Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Oklahoma- about teachers having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. After spending their days in the classroom, many spend their nights working in jobs that dont require their professional expertise. Others leave the profession entirely. Some find other careers that take advantage of their education degree. Others retrain for unrelated occupations. There are side hustles teachers can do that take advantage of their training. They include working at summer camps, tutoring, selling worksheets, lesson plans, or other materials they developed for their classrooms creating curriculum for publishers proctoring exams like the SAT or ACT and teaching adult education classes. Those in districts that offer summer school programs can also earn extra money by signing up to work during that time.

Immediately refresh your brain to restore high-level thinking

Immediately refresh your brain to restore high-level thinkingImmediately refresh your brain to restore high-level thinkingMental clarity can escape anyone.Surely even Einstein and Shakespeare had their moments. It happens.Its your ability to recover that matters.You can impact your brain function and cognitive abilities by making simple tweaks here and there to your daily routine.If you are looking to improve your concentration to perform better at work, or simply to make everyday life easier, you will find these ideas useful.It only takes a few minutes to completely clear your head and restore higher-level thinking.Recognise and name your state of mindAt our best, we feel calm, confident, focused, enthusiastic, and optimistic. Thats when were fruchtwein productive and get along best with others.At our worst, we typically experience self-doubt, impatience, irritability, defensiveness, and pessimism and we tend to lose focus.Most of us move along the spectrum between our best and our worst all day long, depending on whats going on around us.Ladders is now on SmartNewsDownload the SmartNews app and add the Ladders channel to read the latest career news and advice wherever you go.To maximize your output and make the most of your brain energy, its important to recognize your state of mind at any point in time.Naming your emotions tends to lessen the burden of being at your worst.The physician and psychiatrist Dan Siegel refers to this practice as name it to tame it.David Rock argues that when you are experiencing significant internal tension and anxiety, you can reduce stress by up to 50 percent by noticing and naming your state.In Your Brain at Work, David Rock says, Without this ability to stand outside your experience, without self-awareness, you would have little ability to moderate and direct your behavior moment to moment.He writes, You need this capacity to free yourself from the automatic flow of experience and to choose where to direct your attention. With out a director, you are a mere automaton, driven by greed, fear, or habit.Schedule blocks of time for different modes of thinkingOur brains have two modes. When you are doing creative work, learning something new, or working on your most important tasks, you are in the focused mode.Your brain assumes diffuse mode when you are relaxed, taking a walk, or daydreaming. Studies have shown that activity in many regions of the brain increases when your minds wander. Your brain solves its difficult problems while you daydream.Psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman argues that mind wandering serves multiple adaptive functions, such as future planning, sorting out current concerns, cycling through different information streams, distributed learning (versus cramming), and creativity.According to engineering professor Barbara Oakley, author of A Mind for Numbers How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra), in addition to this focused mode - which relies on your brains prefrontal c ortex - we also learn through a diffuse mode, rooted in the operations of a variety of different brain regions.In fact, the brain switches back and forth between these modes regularly.Barbara explains When youre focusing, youre actually blocking your access to the diffuse mode. And the diffuse mode, it turns out, is what you often need to be able to solve a very difficult, new problem.Schedule purposeful breaksAccording to research, the brain gradually stops registering a sight, sound or feeling if that stimulus remains constant over time. You lose your focus and your performance on the task declines.Studies have shown that workers are most focused and productive when following the rhythm of a work/rest ratio.When faced with a long creative problem, it is best to impose brief breaks on yourself. Brief mental breaks will actually help you stay focused on your task and improve your idea generation approach. A structured downtime can help you do your best work.We tend to generate redu ndant ideas when we dont take regular breaks. If youre hesitant to break away because you feel that youre on a roll, be mindful that it might be a false impression. Your brain needs downtime to remain industrious and generate better ideas.Your brain needs downtime to remain creative and generate its most innovative ideas.A growing body of evidence shows that taking regular breaks from mental tasks improves creativity and that skipping breaks can lead to stress, exhaustion, and creative block.Idleness is not a vice, it is indispensable for making those unexpected connections in the brain you crave and necessary to getting creative work done.If you are struggling to solve complicated problems might be better off switching to diffuse mode and letting their mind wander.Take proper breaks, often. Sometimes you just need a break - a chance to reboot the system.Take a walk. A few minutes stroll can increase blood flow to the brain, which can boost creative thought. Charles Darwin took lon g walks around London.Dickens wrote his novels between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. After that, he would go out for a long walk. He once said, If I couldnt walk fast and far, I should just explode and perish.Find time to doodle. Let your mind wander as you embrace pen and paper, again. Research shows that doodling can stimulate new ideas and help us stay focused. Make time to exercise. Exercise can give you mora energy and help you gain focus. Try this 7-minute workout.Embrace meditation. Meditation lowers stress levels and improves overall health as well as creativity. Take a nap. A number of studies have established that naps sharpen concentration and improve the performance.Completely clear your mind and begin again. Your next big idea depends on it.Dig deeperMy new course, Thinking in Models is LIVE. Its designed to help you to think clearly, solve problems at multiple levels of depths, and make complex decisions with confidence. Join a community of people on a mission to thin k clearly, work better, solve problems at multiple levels of depths, and make complex decisions with confidence Click here for details.This article first appeared on Medium.

Bullet Points on Resume Features

Bullet Points on Resume Features Naturally, some bullets take longer than other people to attain. You only have to be careful of the alligators. Bear in mind that each business you apply for is different, and while you might be applying for the identical sttte, the title might differ for each one. A Key Skills section, on the flip side, is listed at the very top of a resume. In the event that you were recommended by means of a contact, nows the opportunity to mention it. In all likelihood, youll get caught, because it is going to be obvious you do not understand how to competently do your work properly. The absolute fruchtwein important point to take away from this is that selecting and understanding the proper skills for the location is the most significant thing. As it reminds you that it might be worth putting that additional time in your application (even in the event that youd rather be doing something else). A referral gets you placed on the cover of the pile, but sh ould you get a terrible resume full of mistakes, all of the work that you put in to find the referral wont matter. Before going for final resume preparation it is preferable to list down few critical points that you need your company to understand about you. If do not have any prior work experiences, you ought to compose a persuasive cover letter. Everything on your resume ought to be accomplishments-driven. The Fight Against Bullet Points on Resume An excellent sample manager resume will comprise keywords a number of times throughout the document. The strategic use of white space is just one of the most significant facets of the resume format since it makes the document much easier to read. There are a couple of diverse kinds of skill sections and formatting options which you need to think about when crafting your resume. Use 2 pages only in case you have several years of expertise and all of your accomplishments cannot fit on a single page. From this page it is possible to find sample resumes to secure you started. You dont ever want to use over two pages. Resumes crammed with an excessive amount of text in little font are not simple to read. Paper type Good high quality stock paper. Getting the most of bullet points will help your resume to be precise but make sure that the bullet points of a specific section end on such page itself. If you own a lot of relevant info, you could incorporate two or three sentences as an intro so that you dont go over 6 bullet points. Because bullets arent complete sentences, they need to not end with a period. Be certain that the points that youre fitting in bullets are restricted to two lines or maximum three other wise it will become a paragraph in place of a point. The work experience part of your resumethe part in which you describe your previous jobsis the most important part of your whole job application. If youve read through the work description, and youve realized you dont have a number of the core competencies to be able to do the job, this is the moment where you truly consider if youre capable of doing the job. The very first issue to do is to thoroughly read through the work description for each work application and to recognize the vital job requirements for each position. Dont forget to always present your very best self. In fact, many businesses are eager to take risks on employees which have the basic abilities and attitude to do the job. If youre asking for a position that demands an extremely particular set of skills like a technical or engineering job, then the employer will probably wish to realize that youve got the suitable hard skills first. Before you jump into writing down all of the wonderful talents youve got, lets learn somewhat more about what skills employers typically start looking for on a resume and see whether it is possible to incorporate any in your skills section. For instance, if the position youre applying for is for content marketing, but you ve never written online content, maybe you should find different jobs that fit your abilities. Hearsay, Deception and Bullet Points on Resume On top of that, bullets show your experience and abilities in a manner that stands out immediately. Its a great deal more effective if the very first bullet also offers an overview, be it on the sort of company you worked for, the reach of operations, the yearly revenue, or the quantity of clients served.Contact customer service managers to manage pricing difficulties and complaints. You need your resume catered to each particular company that you apply for. Take into consideration your own work experience, and where you are able to quantify it. Too frequently, job-seekers with 10 decades or more of qualified experience will attempt to cram all that experience into a one-page resume.

She Works For A New York City Company While Living In A Beautiful Seaside Town In Montenegro

She Works For A New York City Company While Living In A Beautiful Seaside Town In Montenegro With the help of PowerToFly, Milena Kovacevic landed a dream job as a product manager for RebelMouse. We met up with her on a recent trip to New York where she filled us in on her strategies for remote work, how she communicates with her babo, and what it welches like running into Adam Sandler.You work for RebelMouse which is based in NYC while living in Novi Sad. Tell us a bit about your positionAt RebelMouse I am a Product Development Specialist working across many different departments and projects. I work with a very fast paced dynamic team. We are working on developing new features for the RebelMouse platform. I have been at RebelMouse for one year now. Its not my first experience with a remote team but its definitely the best Ive had so far. Even though we are so far away I feel like I really know my colleagues and I even call some of them my friends.Whats it like day to day working for RebelMouse?Its dynamic, very busy and yet super fun. I have a very good relationship with my boss, Megan Berry. I can ask her any questions I have and shes always there to help me figure something out. Thats so important when working remotely. You need to be able to ask questions to your boss no matter what the question is. Otherwise mistakes happen. Megan is super, super talented and I learn so much from her.My job is in project development. I work with designers to get a design for new ideas and then I work with developers to get the project coded and tested. Its exciting because every day I work on something new.What online tools do you use to keep in touch with the team? How often do you have meetings?Besides email, we do video calls over Skype and we do a lot of chatting via GChat and Slack. Chat helps us keep in touch all the time throughout the day and helps us deal with urgent things, but its also where we talk about our lives and get to know each other. I have three offici al meetings a week over Skype, two with teams and one with my manager. During those meetings we discuss things that we currently work on and tischset our priorities for the next sprint.Do you have tips for other people who work remotely?The main tip is to communicate openly with your boss/manager. They wont judge you for any question you have. And try to stay organized. I think that for our job the main thing is organization. Things are moving really fast, new tasks are popping out every minute but you have to stay focused on priorities.Where are you from originally? What town do you live in now?Im from Herceg Novi, Montenegro (pictured below) a small town located at the entrance of Boka Bay. I am currently based in Novi Sad, Serbia but Im located wherever I want to be because I work remotely and I love to travel. Thats the beauty of my job as it gives me the freedom to travel while I work. In the last few months Ive been to Zurich, Paris, Munich, Dublin and now New York.And finally , you are here visiting RebelMouse and NYC for the first time. How do you like it here?It was so unreal when Megan asked me to come to New York. At first I did not want to tell my friends and family because I was afraid if I said it out loud it would not happen. All my life I really wanted to see the New York from Sex in the City. We all had that period watching that show right? Its super fun recognizing locations from favorite movies and series. The other day I was walking with our CEO, Paul Berry, and we saw Adam SandlerBut mora importantly I get to see my colleagues in person. They are all very nice and we have a great time together. I could not ever live here though. Its way too congested and crazy. Thankfully I can work for a New York company from my home town and visit them whenever I have a chance.All photos courtesy of Milena Kovacevic One of the biggest challenges in almost all industries today is achieving gender parity. Gender diversity provides huge bene fits in the workplace. pWhile some industries have made significant advancements in gender diversity, some industries lag further behind... and the construction industry is well-known for being in the latter category. If someone says, construction workers, youll likely picture a group of men in yellow hard hats analyzing an architects plans or laying bricks on top of a scaffold. And men at work signs only help to reinforce this image.pThis stereotype is rooted in reality. When was the last time you actually spotted a woman on a construction site? Or hired a female plumber or carpenter? Your answer is most likely never. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statisticsreports that only 3.4% of the total of 8.3 million construction employees are women.pBut the construction industry has a lot more to offer than steel-toed boots and hard hats, and it needs women to help advance the industry in this era of rapid change. Here are 5 reasons why women joining the workforce or looking to make a pivot should consider a career in construction.h21. Fuel Innovation/h2pNot only is diversity the socially and morally right thing to do, but it is also actually an excellent business strategy. pResearch presented in the Harvard Business Reviewshows that diverse teams develop more innovative ideas. This is further supported by a study conducted by Gallupon the performance of gender-diverse teams versus single-gender teams, which found that the difference in backgrounds and perspectives led to better business performance and problem-solving. h22. Capitalize on Demand/h2pThe construction industry is currently experiencing a labor shortage. The industry itself is booming and projected to be one of the fastest-growing industries, with total spending projected to exceed $1.45 trillion in 2023/a. However, most construction companies are unable to meet the rising demand. pAccording to the Associated General Contractors of America/a, more than 80% of contractors are exp eriencing difficulties filling hourly craft positions that represent the bulk of the construction workforce.pAnd demand isnt limited to individual contributor roles. Given the industry boom, there are a number of open stable and high-paying roles (any project managers out there?) waiting for the right candidateh23. Leadership Opportunities/h2pAccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics/a, women compose only 7.7% of the total 1 million managerial positions in construction.br/pBut given the highly collaborative nature of construction work, more women in leadership roles would help drive innovation and enhance productivity.Furthermore, as a woman in construction in a leadership position, youd have the unique opportunity to drive change for the industry and make it a more attractive option for other women.h24. High-Income Potential/h2pSalaries for many skilled positions in construction are on the rise, making a construction career a prime choice for women looking for a high-paying job,p The 2018 Construction Craft Salary Surveyconducted by the National Center for Construction Education and Research revealed that salaries for many skilled craft areas are increasing. Project managers and project supervisors topped the list at $92,523 and $88,355, respectively. The next set of highest-paying jobs include those of combo welders ($71,067), instrumentation technicians ($70,080), pipe welders ($69,222), power line workers ($68,262) and industrial electricians ($67,269). Of the 32 categories of workers in the survey, 19 positions earned an average salary of $60,000 or higher.h25. Sense of accomplishment/h2p The construction industry can give employees a unique sense of achievement. Yes, the job is stressful and the work can be demanding, but nothing beats the feeling of being able to build something from the ground up. pHow many professionals in other industries can point at a school, a hospital, or a skyscraper and say I helped build that?pThe construction industry has a long way to go in combating gender bias and supporting women in the workforce, but given the current demand for workers, theres no better time to pick up a sledgehammer (figurative or literal) and smash the gender stereotypes plaguing the construction industry.