#Millennials #EmployeeEngagement Links of the Week (Dec. 13-19)

This week we’re back to our bread and butter of articles about millennials and employee engagement. I’m particularly interested in financial management for millennials so article #1 from the WSJ was right at the top. Whether you’re a millennial or not, there’s some interesting insights in how financial insights are being shared today. Enjoy!

Where Millennials Go for Financial Advice (Wall Street Journal)

Some of the millennials Ms. Carr helps are saving money, she says, but tend to have goals that are somewhat immediate and lifestyle-oriented, such as finding the money to travel. “It’s not all about your accumulation of wealth,” she adds.

Generally – this isn’t just millennials – we’re very bad at prioritizing future well-being over current well-being. Companies mentioned in this article are trying to change that – in the financial world – for millennials.

Re-engaging With William Kahn 25 Years After He Coined Term Employee Engagement (Workforce)

Although a popular talking point now, the term “employee engagement” is relatively new. Professor William Kahn of Boston University coined “engagement” in terms of the workforce setting 25 years ago in his 1990 paper, “Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work.”

Not much has changed in terms of the challenges that companies face with employee engagement: How much freedom do you give to your employees to manage and own their careers while trying to meet goals/targets set by managers and organizations?

‘Tis The Season to Use Your Vacation Days (Globoforce)

“Americans are taking less vacation than at any point in the last forty years–just 16 vacation days today, down from an average of over 20 days taken 15 years ago.” This ‘lost week’ of vacation “is wiping out vacation traditions and taking a heavy toll, particularly on children.”

Taking vacation time is so important – especially if you have children. Make sure you’re taking some time off this holiday season as it may actually be beneficial for your work and the business.

Our Star Wars Review: “The Force Awakens” Embraces Millennials Without Pandering (Fast Company)

When Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) grabbed a laser gun in the original Star Warsmovie (Episode IV), it told the audience in 1977 that, yes, women could also be strong and take initiative. The Force Awakens doesn’t have to establish that lead hero Rey (Daisy Ridley) is capable.

A fun review of how the Star Wars of today has adapted to the millennial generation. The author does a great job comparing the flat organizational structure of the Resistance with the Dark Side’s hierarchical structure.

Telltale Signs Employees Are Not Engaged (Forbes)

According to Mechlinski, “When employees lack engagement, deadlines start getting missed. Meetings start or end late. People start throwing out ‘The T Word,’ trust.” You might hear an employee say they don’t trust that their colleague will deliver as promised.

If you treat your employees like your clients and your clients like your employees as the article suggests, you begin to create an ecosystem of collaboration, trust, and ownership that becomes a virtuous cycle. Good read with more links to resources.

As always, thank you to those that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on the posts. Catch you on next week’s round up!

#Culture #EmployeeEngagement – Links of the Week (Dec. 6-12)

The Links of the Week are the top articles from my Twitter feed along with some handpicked articles that I think are #MustReads. My favourite this week was #3 – an interview with Shawn Murphy about optimistic workplaces. There are a lot of actionable tidbits you can apply in your workplace from that article. Enjoy!

The Secret to Building a Startup Culture that Lasts (Forbes)

Resilience – or the ability to reframe challenges and minimize the negative impacts of stress – is a vital component of any startup culture.

It costs a lot to replace someone on a team and it hurts even more when you’re in a startup. This article has some good advice on how you can create a resilient culture by establishing your values early, being transparent, and fostering connections.

The Two Sides of Employee Engagement (Harvard Business Review)

For the most part, companies oversimplify things by viewing personal satisfaction as a proxy for engagement. As a result, they miss key behavioral signals.

Just because Mary feels good about her manager doesn’t mean it’s converting into higher productivity. It’s important that engagement isn’t just measured as low-medium-high because it misses the impact that engagement is having on a company’s goals and metrics.

Creating an Optimistic Workplace — Interview with Shawn Murphy (Actionable Books)

Leaders have the greatest influence on employees’ work experience. So it’s natural that they be the solution to the problems that ail the modern workplace.

In a 2014 LinkedIn study that surveyed 18,000 people, only 15% of the respondents said they were satisfied with their jobs. It’s a big challenge Shawn Murphy has some great ideas on how we can create a more optimistic and meaningful workplace. Leadership is a big part of the solution.

What Every Millennial Can Learn From Steve Jobs About Success (Fortune)

Looking back, I would give myself the same advice offered by the late Apple founder, Steve Jobs: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Following your passion is important but remember that it’s a journey. Your passion may require to learn, fail, and grow in different ways before you fully realize a career that allows you live your passion. Be curious and stay curious.

Excel in Employee Engagement During Onboarding for Better Performance (Business 2 Community)

Almost 50% of potential employees explore company materials (like their careers website) to get a feel for the company’s values and cultural fit. For employers, this means “cultural onboarding” needs to start long before an employee starts working for you

Great onboarding can be the difference between retaining all-star talent or a short, disappointing stint for the employee. A more proactive, friendly, and longer onboarding could hold they keys to a better onboardin experience.

Some great articles this week. Thank you to those that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on the posts. Looking forward to next week’s roundup!

Five apps I use to stay focused and be more productive

With so much distraction out there, it’s hard to stay focused. Here’s a list of five apps that I love using on my phone and laptop to stay organized, focused, and ultimately more productive. Feel free to leave any tips about apps that you use in the comments section.

1. FollowUp.cc

To me, email is one big to-do list. I have emails to reply to, emails to save for future reference, emails that require a future check-in, emails to archive/delete, etc. Every email requires some sort of processing.

Now add in the complexity of emails that you can’t deal with right now or want to follow-up with later. Slowly your inbox will start growing with tasks you can’t deal with at the moment and you hit inbox overwhelm.

FollowUp.cc helps you manage your email better by returning emails to your inbox at a better time. It makes following-up with people a lot easier and keeps your inbox clean since you know that email is coming back to you at the appropriate time. They’ve also built in a “Snooze” function for their Gmail app which allows you to snooze an email sitting in your inbox so it gets re-sent to you.

FollowUp.cc helps me keep my inbox to less than 5-10 emails at any given time and has been the best app investment I’ve made to date. The only issue I’ve found of late is that the cost of the subscription has gone up quite significantly. If you’re a Gmail user and want to go with a free alternative, you might want to check out Boomerang as well.

Cost: $25 USD/month

2. StayFocusd

StayFocusd is a free plug-in for your Chrome browser which prevents you from spending too much time on unproductive sites like Facebook, Twitter, BuzzFeed, Netflix, etc. You basically set how much time you’re allowed to go onto your favourite websites during the day and it’ll prevent you from accessing them once you go over your limit.

For example, I have my daily allotment for Facebook and Twitter set at 15 minutes. That gives me enough time for a quick peak at what’s going on in that world but not enough time to get lost in the wormhole.

Cost: Free

3. Evernote

You may have heard of this one… a lot.

Evernote is one of the most popular note taking tools on the web. I primarily use it to help me capture information. Any interesting article goes into my “Cabinet” folder in my Evernote and I use its powerful search functionality and their “Context” tool to pull up relevant information on demand.

I also try to keep my Evernote super simple. I only use three folders – Action Pending, Desktop, and Cabinet. Action Pending is for any note that I need to tag/process, Desktop is for anything that I’m actively reading/working on during the week, and Cabinet is for any note that I’ve already processed or I’m keeping for future reference.

If you don’t have Evernote, download it and start saving notes/articles into it to start creating your “external brain”.

Cost: Free for the basic version. $6.99/month for Premium.

4. Pomodoro

I use an app for the iOS but there are a ton of apps out there that have a similar functionality. The concept is based on the “Pomodoro Technique” where you breakup your tasks/projects into 25-minute working periods followed by a 5-minute break. Personally, I prefer 15 minutes followed by a 3-minute break because it feels less daunting when I start the timer. This is great when you find yourself procrastinating and need that kick-in-the-butt to get yourself going with a short time limit or if you have a disciplined morning schedule where you need to keep switching through 15-minute tasks.

For me, it’s little momentum helps me get started on tasks that I’m not super excited about or limits how engrossed I get into non-crucial tasks (e.g. checking email).

Cost: $2.29 USD (for the version I use)

5. 7-Minute Workout

Not specifically a “productivity” app but getting some exercise in during the day is key to keeping your energy levels up. With this app, I’ve basically replaced going to the gym which saves me about 1.5 hours every day. If you take this seriously and make it part of your everyday routine, you can see the impacts pretty quickly. I follow the workout with a 5-minute stretch which helps prepare my body for a focused day at work.

Cost: Free (plus in-app purchases)

[Bonus] Rescue Time

If you’re an avid activity tracker like myself, you’ll like Rescue Time. Rescue Time keeps track of your computer-related activities and categorizes the activities based on how productive they are. At the end of the week (on the free version), you’ll get a overall score for the week and a broad categorization of where your time went. Based on where you’re spending your time, you now have the awareness of where your time is going and how you can modify your computer habits or keep them trending in a productive direction.

Cost: Free (Premium is $9 USD/month)

What apps do you use to help you stay productive throughout the day?

#Leadership #Millennials Links of the Week (Nov. 29 – Dec. 5)

The Links of the Week rounds up the top articles on my Twitter feed. Great articles this week from the Harvard Business Review on leadership, the truth about millennials from The Atlantic, and lessons from a six-year-old entrepreneur. Enjoy!

What Amazing Bosses Do Differently (Harvard Business Review)

The common denominator is attentiveness. Pay close attention to your employees as individuals. Take that extra bit of time to build their confidence and articulate a vision; to provide constant, ongoing, high quality feedback; and to listen to their ideas. And ensure that your own messages are consistent. Is it hard work? Yes. But it’s worth it.

My favourite article from the week. Must read for any manager looking to lead people better.

Do Millennials Make for Bad Employees? (The Atlantic)

A 2013 survey from Ernst and Young found that a growing number of workers believed that Millennials were the best-suited generation to lead businesses in the coming decade, thanks in large part to their tech skills and commitment to diversity.

The stereotypes of millennials being narcissistic and lazy are overblown. The fact is many hiring managers and HR are noticing many young millennials are willing to pay their dues and work hard for their organizations.

New Ideas for Employee Engagement: Just Ask (Business 2 Community)

One of the four key conclusions from the Gallup study is that “managers are primarily responsible for their employees’ engagement levels,” and that “companies should coach managers to take an active role in building engagement plans with their employees, hold managers accountable, and ensure they continually focus on engaging their employees.”

Majority of respondents to the survey in this article (although the sample size is uber small) reported that they feel empowered when asked by their manager,”How do you want to be coached?” It’s a good question and one that needs to be framed properly so it doesn’t seem like you’re forcing coaching upon the employee.

The Best Leaders Are Constant Learners (Harvard Business Review)

…leaders must scan the world for signals of change, and be able to react instantaneously. We live in a world that increasingly requires what psychologist Howard Gardner calls searchlight intelligence. That is, the ability to connect the dots between people and ideas, where others see no possible connection.

Leaders who can test, learn, and adapt will be the most successful in the future. Great story in this article about the Juan Manuel Fangio and how he avoided a potentially catastrophic mistake in the 1950 Mocaco Grand Prix through observation and learning.

Five Key Lessons From A Successful Six-Year-Old Entrepreneur (Forbes)

Gaddis: What have you learned from face-to-face meetings?

Kinnane-Petersen: I really enjoy seeing and talking with the people who sell my necklaces… like the nice people at Barneys. I learn a lot. They treat me like an adult.

It’s refreshing when we’re all “treated like adults” isn’t it? Read books, ask for help, and meet people. Good lessons from a six-year-old entrepreneur.

Some great articles this week. Thank you to those that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on the posts. Looking forward to next week’s roundup!

#EmployeeEngagement #Millennials Links of the Week (Nov. 22-28)

Links of the Week is a collection of links that were most liked or retweeted by my Twitter followers or ones that I thought were interesting. If you only have time to read through one of the links, I highly recommend the Teaching Millennials to Be Leaders article. It’s a great piece for both millennials and those that manage millennials to read through. Enjoy!

Teaching Millennials How To Be Leaders (Business 2 Community)

Millennials can learn to be great leaders if their education starts early.
Early, active education will give more Millennials the knowledge, tools, and experience to become the next generation of great leaders.

Good piece on how millennials see themselves and how we can prepare to train millennial leaders – in the 21st-century way.

10 New Studies On The Benefits Of Gratitude (globoforce)

A 2015 study published in the International Business Research journal showed that collective gratitude is important for organizations. Among other things, said researchers, gratitude can reduce turnover intention, foster employees’ organizational commitment, lead to positive organizational outcomes, and help in “eliminating the toxic workplace emotions, attitudes and negative emotions such as envy, anger and greed in today’s highly competitive work environment.”

I definitely need help in this area. So often I focus on “what’s next” that a forget about the “what’s here”. In part reflection and in part self awareness, gratitude is a key habit to be practicing every day. How do you go about practicing gratitude?

Mark Zuckerberg Plans to Take 2 Months of Paternity Leave (Inc.)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says he’s planning on taking two months of paternity leave when his daughter is born…He said in a Facebook post that “outcomes are better for children and families” when working parents take time off to be with their newborns. He called the decision “very personal.”

As a preeminent millennial today, it’s great to see Zuckerberg lead the way and prioritize family over work. Facebook is also leading the way in parental leave with up to four months of paid leave.

Why Companies Should Think A Hundred Years Ahead (Inc.)

According to [Marc] Mertens [CEO of A Hundred Years], “A long-term focus allows for new inventions and radical innovations instead of incremental improvement of the status quo. Sometimes that innovation can unlock new markets and significant new business opportunities. A long-term focus constantly clarifies what an organization is uniquely positioned to do, while bringing a deeper sense of purpose and meaning into the core activities of the organization.”

I love this idea of having a 100 year business plan. Think of organizations like Nasa, Tesla, Evernote, or Virgin. They’re all thinking not about the next 5 years but about the next 100 – I’m guessing they’ll more likely to be in business by 2100 compared to companies focused on maximizing short-term returns.

Employee engagement: are your happy workers disengaged? (Personnel Today)

Engagement is an active state, whereas happiness is not. When employees are happy but not engaged, they often unconsciously resist change as they don’t want to upset the status quo or change the conditions that are making them happy.

But when they’re engaged, they recognise where change is needed and have the appetite, ambition and determination to push through barriers that those less engaged believe to be insurmountable.

There is a difference between happiness and engagement. Engaged workers are definitely happy workers but they’re more willing to challenge the status quo and be more creative. In the end, they care about driving the business forward (even if it comes with risk) rather than maintaining their happiness.

As always, thank you to everyone on Twitter that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on the posts. Have a great week!

Three Things I Learned From Giving a Speech to My High School

Last month, I had the opportunity to return to my high school to give a speech to the student body. It was my 10-year anniversary since graduation and the school had asked me to come back.

For the speech, I decided to talk about my personal experiences with failure. Something I don’t think students get enough support and coaching for when they experience it firsthand. You can read the full speech here but I wanted to share three things I learned from giving a speech.

At some point, you’ll likely be in the position to deliver a speech so hopefully this will be helpful in your preparation or helping you “level up” your future speeches. I’m by no means a professional speaker but I think I can provide a bit of value for you here.

If you have any other tips or ideas for speech writing, please post them below! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Tell Personal Stories, Be Passionate, and Be Real

I know, it’s three rolled into one learning but I think it’s important. I had just read Delivering Happiness by Tony Hseih before the speech and he mentioned the three keys to his speeches. And they helped me out a lot.

I remember the night before the speech, I read my girlfriend my speech. She said she liked it but she wished she could get to know more of “Peter”. So I added an additional personal story to the speech.

I think it ended up being the best story of the speech. And it really helped bring my “real” self to the audience. So as you write your speech, make sure you’re checking off all three boxes:

✓ Tell Personal Stories

✓ Be Passionate

✓ Be Real

Making It About Learning

Speeches are difficult because you have to consider who is in your audience and what you think they’ll find valuable. This thought can spiral into thinking too much about your audience and losing your authenticity because you’re thinking too much about what other people will think about your speech.

What I found really helpful as I was writing this speech was making it a learning process for me. I was fortunate to be writing a speech that was on a topic that I had significant expertise in – me! – but I think you can do it for any speech.

If you have a keen interest in the topic of the speech and you make it an opportunity to dive deeper into the topic or better structure your opinion of it, then you make it a much more exciting and pleasurable experience for you. The process of writing it becomes educational and sharing the speech with other people becomes a bonus!

So focus on the process, make it as valuable as possible for you, and you’ll be able to better detach yourself from the outcome of the speech (e.g. how it is received) which is the worry that many speakers have when giving a speech. If the audience loves it, then that’s just icing on the cake.

Give Yourself Plenty of Prep Time

I started brainstorming ideas for my speech about three weeks before the speech date. And I wish I had more time!

I had written any thought, insight, or anecdote related to the speech down in Evernote so I would be able to review them at a later date. This was a really helpful process because I began thinking about my speech early on and began to connect the dots on certain themes at that point. The end result was not the same as I had first imagined it as initial themes and anecdotes that I thought would work well were replaced by others. But it really did help “marinate” my ideas.

I think speech writing is such a fabulous opportunity to reflect and learn. So I’m really thankful that I had given myself plenty of time to research the topic and brainstorm anecdotes that I thought would be valuable for the students. So if you have the luxury of time, make sure you use it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself and how your experiences have shaped who you are.

What are some of your speech writing experiences? What does your preparation process look like? Feel free to post below!

#EmployeeEngagement #Millennials – Links of the Week (Nov. 15-21)

The Links of the Week rounds up the top articles on my Twitter feed. This week we have one on Amazon’s new employee engagement system, Millennials and their love of transit, and the importance of “feedback loops” for rapid personal and professional growth. Enjoy!

What Amazon’s Employee Feedback System Can Teach Us About Employee Engagement (Tech.Co)

Overall, Amazon historically struggled to treat employees respectfully and properly engage them. However, through their new anonymous feedback system, they are improving work conditions for their employees.

To be honest, there’s not a lot of “meat” in this article. The article highlights the recent New York Times’ scathing report about the working conditions for white-collar workers at Amazon and how they’re trying to turn things around with a new program called “Amazon Connections”. The new program doesn’t sound very innovative which is a system that collects anonymous information and feedback from employees.

While it’s not groundbreaking, it’s a good lesson in that even multi-billion dollar companies still need to start “from the bottom” to get honest, unbiased feedback from employees to move employee engagement in the right direction.

Millennials love public transit, survey says (Boston Globe)

According to the survey, 78 percent of respondents thought it was “very important” for their workplace to be near public transit (About 32 percent said they believed it was important to be near restaurants or bars, and 32 percent also said they cared about workplace amenities).

I’m firmly in the “transit fan” camp. Transit is a huge part of my life and having access to it near my house (and work – if I didn’t work from home) is critical. This is a massive shift that I’m hoping city planners are noticing.

Feedback Loops: How to Master the Invisible Hand That Shapes Our Lives (James Clear)

My argument is that we should spend less time letting feedback loops shape our lives in invisible ways and more time designing the feedback loops we want and need.

I love this article and pretty much all of James Clear’s stuff. If you haven’t subscribed to his blog, I would highly recommend it. In this article, he breaks down feedback loops and how you can hack them to your advantage. All feedback loops start with being able to measure your starting point and I know that’s something I can incorporate more in my life – e.g. counting how many words I’ve written for my blog or journaling about how I felt after eating a certain type of food.

Some great articles this week. Thank you to those that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on the posts. Looking forward to next week’s roundup!

Links of the Week (Nov. 8-14)

startup-photos

This week’s Links of the Week is short and sweet. We’ve got one link to a “Top 10” book list and a couple of articles on employee engagement and startups. Enjoy!

Lessons Every Startup Can Learn From The Hotel Industry (Inc.)

So why isn’t disrupting a market with a fanatical focus on delivering the best quality customer service considered a barrier to entry? Can customer service become an investable competitive advantage?

This article was by-far the most popular Tweet of the week – and for good reason. It makes a compelling case that startups can use excellent customer service as a barrier to entry against competition. So much of the startup world is focused on creating a better app or developing new technology, but customer service can be a key differentiator – just look at Zappos as an example.

There are a lot of great tactics from the hotel world that the article recommends to improving your customer service including never saying “no”, managers being on the frontline, and honouring loyalty over price. If your startup is looking for a way to distinguish itself, consider customer service – it’ll make your customers and staff happy to be working with you.

Employee Engagement: Building Bridges (David Zinger)

On a Bhosporous ferry ride in Istanbul I saw the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge near the Black Sea. I believe this is an iconic image for work on employee engagement…I love how the bridge is being built from both sides. In employee engagement, engagement must be built by both the employee and the organization.

Great visual and metaphor of what it means to develop employee engagement. Both sides have to be open and ready to engage, and there’s much more than meets the eye. Building a bridge can be an exhilarating and rewarding experience but it takes a lot of coordination and hard work.

Top 10 ‘Start Your Own Business’ Books of 2015 (Inc.)

2015 could arguably be named the “year of the entrepreneur.” Shark Tank became must-see TV, the SEC allowed regular folks to invest in startups, and Inc.com has become one of the most-visited business websites in the world.

I’m excited to check out Guy Kawasaki’s new book The Art of the Start and Jay Samit’s Disrupt You! Darren Hardy (from SUCCESS) also has a new book out called The Entrepreneur Rollercoaster which may be an interesting read for managing the emotional rollercoaster of being an entrepreneur. Either way, it’s a good list if you’re planning out your 2016 reading list.

Some great articles this week. Thank you to those that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on the posts. Looking forward to next week’s roundup!

Links of the Week (Nov. 1-7)

Links of the Week is a selection of articles and blog posts about #EmployeeEngagement, #Millennials, and #Leadership that were the most popular on my Twitter feed this week. I’ve added some personal thoughts and opinions to the links below as well. Enjoy!

How Does Employee Engagement Impact On Your Brand Reputation? (Business 2 Community)

A recent paper by Baylor University reports that highly engaged employees (i.e. those allowed to go to the toilet when they need to) are 87% less likely to leave their companies than their unengaged counterparts (i.e. those told to hold it in).

You have to read the article to get the joke but the lesson is quite clear: Employee Engagement is important. Having almost 9 out of 10 people on your team thinking about their next job is not a sustainable way to run a business. Not to mention, once an employee leaves your company what would they be saying about your business?

I’ve had friends ask me about organizations that I’ve worked for and I’ve either recommended their services or products wholeheartedly and provided them with my frank experiences (both good and bad). Your employees – past and present – are also your brand ambassadors. Making sure they feel empowered and engaged is key to your business’s long-term success.

When It Comes to True Employee Engagement, No Pain Equals No Gain (Entrepreneur)

In employee surveys, I often ask short, but thought-provoking, questions like: If you owned the company what is the first thing you would change?

The three takeaways:

1. Listen to the good, but listen intently to the bad.

2. Peel back layers with intriguing questions (like the one above)

3. Pan for gold in engagement data.

All helpful takeaways and goes to show that created an engaged culture takes a lot of attention and care.

10 Reasons Your Employee Engagement Program Is Hurting Your Company (Forbes)

Engagement, as measured by employee surveys, does not cause success. Engagement is, at best, a symptom of success. Employees who are succeeding and feeling good about their contributions to your company are naturally more likely to:

Be proud to work for your company

Be happy to come to work each day

Feel valued

Great piece reframing the Employee Engagement dilemma. The author’s argument is that setting up employees to be successful at their jobs and helping them understand WHY their work contributes to the organizational success is the key. It’s not the surveys, the pizza parties, or undeserved promotions. I agree with this. I believe David Zinger’s definition of engagement (I’m paraphrasing here) “good people coming together to do great work” is what we need to focus more on. If you help employees feel like they have the tools they need to make an impact and the company performs at a high level (e.g. more profits, more satisfied customers, or more societal impact) then Employee Engagement will follow.

Most employee engagement initiatives failing (benefitspro)

While more than 90 percent of employers said that method of communication with workers was an important contributor to employee engagement, many said that their company wasn’t communicating in a way that reaches digitally-dependent millennials in the workplace. Only 16 percent said that they’re making regular use of mobile apps.

I think this is the main issue today. Companies just don’t know how to communicate with the younger generation coming in and are woeful at incorporating mobile into their engagement strategy. Yes, more training courses and tuition reimbursement is nice but if you’re not communicating with your employees on a regular basis, you’re going to lose this engagement battle.

The 10 best Chrome extensions to install right now (AppSumo)

Ever bought something online, seen a coupon field, and quickly turned to Google to find a coupon that hasn’t expired? Honey does that for you automatically. It instantly adds the best, valid, coupon during checkout saving you tons of moolah.

Aside from Evernote Web Clipper and Momentum (which I use everyday) the one that caught my eye was Honey. As a moderate online shopper, this could really be a useful tool to track down the best deals online.

Some great articles this week. Thank you to those that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on the posts. Looking forward to next week’s roundup!

Links of the Week (Oct. 25-31)

Why Millennials Are the C-Suite’s Secret Weapon for Innovation (The Wall Street Journal)

The future is being invented by a generation that expects free-flowing, self-organized crowds that meet up, network, find each other on digital platforms, form and disband teams, and create their own projects. They belong to tribes that don’t want to wait for orders from a chief.

When a global industry giant convened a top leadership meeting, they brought in 20 high-potential Millennials to discuss how the company can remain competitive in an industry with an accelerating pace of technological change. The answers they came up with? Startup-like spaces in the office, an internal kick-starter program, virtual communities of interest, and crowdsourcing talent from anywhere in the company to work on projects. Those are some great ideas and C-suite executives will be losing out on those ideas if they don’t invite Millennials into the room.

Millennial startup founders are the must-have item this fundraising season (Crain’s New York Business)

Yet enticing these new [Millennial] donors takes a lot of work. They aren’t interested in philanthropy as a way to climb the social ladder; they want to change the world. Young donors expect the charities they support to run like businesses, and they like to see sophisticated, timely reports on how a charity is functioning and where their dollars are going.

A great piece on what makes Millennial patrons different from the previous generation and the challenges non profits face in keeping up with their higher expectations. The higher level of transparency and engagement expected by Millennials from the charities they support is good news.

5 Core Themes from HR Tech World Europe (globoforce)

“HR should stand for Human Relationships,” said David Shing, showing how technology is fully integrating into our lives, but cautioning against seeing it as a panacea. “Technology,” he said, “changes behavior, not needs.”

Simplification, Humanity, Cooperation, Improvement, and Recognition were the 5 core themes from HR Tech World Europe according to globoforce. HR is positioned in a unique position to combine technology with organizational information given its institutional knowledge and how different business units can work together. The role of HR – Human Relationship – managers is only going to increase in the future.

3 Startup Experts Reveal Their Customer Success Secrets (Forbes)

Customers are loyal to their own success, instead of a brand or product. Help them achieve success and your company will grow.

Love the ideas in this article to make customer success a priority. Groove’s CEO runs all the initial onboarding with new clients to get to know their challenges firsthand. HubSpot provides an Inbound Marketing certification program for free even if you’re not a user of Hubspot. Sending a gift like a gift card to a restaurant that you know the client likes or sending a cute onesie for a newborn baby, can be touches that can really help your business stand out. “Great people know great people” so creating a remarkable experience for your customers can help your business grow even faster.

Global Human Capital Trends 2015 (Deloitte)

Only 7% [of companies] have strong programs to build Millennial leaders.

I’m reading through this mammoth, 100+ page report and this was a quote that stood out to me and seems like for you as well. It’s crazy to think that 7% of companies have strong programs for Millennials given that Millennials are now the largest generation in the workforce. It’s a huge area of concern and opportunity.

Some great articles this week. Thank you to those that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on the posts. Looking forward to next week’s roundup!