If you ask most of his employees, Doug is the ideal manager. He rewards hard work by offering his staff days off, is often heard telling people they’ve done a great job when passing them in the hallways, and will stop to help his team anytime they ask.

While Doug feels he’s on the right track with almost all of his employees, he can never seem to get on the same page with Carrie. During their monthly group meetings she’s very quiet, his gifts for her hard work seem underappreciated, and when he tells the team they’ve all done a good job, it doesn’t seem like she really hears him.

Does any of this make Doug a bad manager or Carrie a troublesome employee? No. The issue is that Doug, like many good managers, isn’t speaking the same language as all of his employees.

Forming a solid relationship, or bettering the ones you already have with your employees, is crucial for employees to reach their full potential. According to a recent  Virgin Pulse survey, 60 percent of respondents said their relationship with their employer positively impacts their focus or productivity at work and 44 percent said it positively impacts their stress levels.

Nurturing positive working relationships with every single employee is a manager’s dream, but how can that be possible with so many different personality types? The key is understanding your employees’ languages.

The popular relationship book, The 5 Love Languages, points out we all need to be aware of what languages those around us are speaking in order to fully develop our relationships.

Here’s how you can take four of those languages and begin speaking to your employees in a way they’ll understand:

This new year has many changes in store — a new U.S. President, new HR compliance laws and, hopefully, new quality employees coming aboard your team. But with 46 percent of U.S. employers reporting they are having difficulty filling jobs — an all-time high since 2007, according to ManpowerGroup’s 2016/2017 Talent Shortage Survey — you too may be experiencing trouble finding the perfect new hires for your company.

The most important part of hiring this year is being in tune with what job seekers want out of their job search. Companies that are turning the tables and making the process candidate-focused are able to get one step closer to finding candidates with the proper skills and personality to match their culture.

Follow these three easy steps to make 2017 your best hiring year yet:

Whether it’s taking a year off to backpack through Europe, or just giving yourself time to decide where your life is going — a gap-year is a healthy career move. But coming back to the job search after an extended break is undeniably intimidating.

Many family members and friends may not understand your choice for taking a gap-year, but you’re not alone. In fact, a November survey of 1,000 U.S. citizens by HostelWorld, A gap year, found a quarter of adults surveyed have taken a year off from work or school. Even though this year is used to take a break from both work and school, there are ways to come back into the workforce even better equipped than before.

Now that you’re refreshed and ready, here’s how to come back strong in 2017:

Let’s face it — job search stress isn’t fun. A 2017 candidate experience study conducted by CareerBuilder found that 73% of job seekers say the job search is one of the most stressful things in life. And respondents to a 2016 Hired survey add that the process is more stressful than a root canal and only slightly less stressful than going through a breakup or divorce.

Those facts make the job search process sound pretty bleak, but it doesn’t have to be. You can take certain steps to reduce job search stress and make the process easier. Here’s how:

Buying gifts, worrying about money to buy those gifts, spending time with family, not having time to spend with that family — even without added work pressure, your employees are already extra stressed during the holidays.

Virgin Pulse’s December 2014 survey of 1,000 participants, ‘Tis The Season For Stress, found 70 percent of employees have significantly raised stress levels during the holidays. Of those respondents, more than 10 percent said they feel an overwhelming 60 to 100 percent more stressed during this time of the year.

It turns out, the packed on stress during the holiday season isn’t just hurting your employees. In fact, Tis The Season For Stress reported 64 percent of employees say holiday-related stress causes them to be distracted at work, which in turn drives 30 percent more anxiety — diminishing their quality of work by the same amount. With so many employees feeling the effects of holiday stress, that’s a number employers can’t afford.

It’s time to leave the bottle of wine on the shelf and back away from the cinnamon scented candles. Your employees deserve long-term changes in the workplace that will help them de-stress and grow all year long. Here are three things your employees really want this holiday season:

More employers are adding exercise programs, office fitness challenges, and mental breaks to their wellness programs in an effort to make the workplace employee-centric, but these initiatives benefit more than just employees. In fact, Xerox’s October survey, Working Well: A Global Survey of Workforce Wellbeing Strategies, found 59 percent of employers are focusing on well-being to improve performance and productivity.

While mental and physical health are crucial aspects of employee well-being, employers are missing out on a few key elements to truly enhance their wellness strategy. There’s more to employee well-being than exercise and deep breathing — here’s where to start:

This post was updated to bring you the most up-to-date tips, October 2020.

As your career services team is prepping the future leaders of America to enter the workforce, it’s important to treat students as both mentees and employees. Exercising employee engagement techniques will not only prepare them for how employers will treat them, but also they’re a great way to keep college students focused, passionate, and motivated. 

While some students are ready to run full-force into their chosen career path, many are unaware of the challenges they’ll face upon arriving in the workplace. Unfortunately, 45% of employees do not feel their employer promotes a healthy work-life balance, according to a 2019 study from The Execu|Search Group. Additionally, 66% of professionals said that there isn’t much support for those wishing to take on leadership roles.

Keeping college students sheltered from the harsh realities of the working world is impossible. To lessen the shock, it’s essential career services gives them the tools and resources necessary to begin preparing for a career. In fact, you can use employee engagement strategies that employers use in the office every day to set them on the right path.

Here’s how to start training your college students for the big jump into their careers:

With the outlandish publicity surrounding this most recent election, it’s hard to forget the amazing strides women have made throughout history. Women at work are no different — generations have been struggling to prove they deserve the same opportunities, pay, treatment, and respect as men.

There’s no doubt women have made huge movements toward equality. Unfortunately, they still have a long way to go to reach the same benefits men have at work. Here’s a look into the impressive ways women have pushed through barriers in the past, and what they need to do in order to push through current career walls:

The first few years of college can be overwhelming — well, for some, all four years of college are a challenge. Maybe that’s why college internships aren’t usually held by freshmen and sophomores. According to Vault’s October internship survey, two thirds of internships are held by juniors and seniors. Underclassmen may still be getting acquainted with the college lifestyle, responsibilities, and mounds of reading material, but the benefits of interning early can’t be ignored.

Encouraging these college newbies to add an internship to their workload might not be an easy task, so here are a few ways to convince them of the benefits: