Crazy Job Perks, Tips to Stay Focused, Post-Interview Thank-You Notes

Alaant Influencers feature regional influencers and local luminaries sharing their career advice and secrets to success—in their own words. These influencers are the people making a powerful impact for good across the community. Deb Best, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the owner and principal of Deb Best Practices. She has more than 25 years of business, change management, strategic planning, workplace mediation, harassment prevention, stakeholder communications and human resources senior leadership experience…

America’s got talent — and it’s making out handsomely in today’s tight labor markets. The most-in-demand are earning the faster-growing salaries, bigger signing bonuses and greater job perks — from lavish housing allowances to country-club memberships. In short, the sky’s the limit, as major employers across the US from Silicon Valley to Wall Street drive up compensation to lure coveted talent, according to industry insiders and studies. And it’s a no-holds-barred competition…

The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping” is playing for the 100th time—I’m slightly exaggerating, it's more like the 37th time—since Thanksgiving Day on my car radio as I’m once again pulling into the Target parking lot. In my N.J. suburban neighborhood, about a 30-minute drive into New York City (or one-to-two hours during the weekly commute, depending on traffic and if the trains or buses haven’t broken down again), the weather has been cold and rainy, with an overhang of ominous gray, dark and foreboding skies...

Thank you notes are a great way to follow up on a job interview, but should you always send one? Conventional wisdom says you should, and that’s not a bad way to operate. Typically, there’s nothing wrong with sending a note or email thanking the interviewer for taking the time to chat. Some think handwritten notes show an elevated level of care and consideration; the natural downside is they need to be sent via mail, and your note may arrive after a hiring manager has already made up their mind about you.

November forecast: 190,000 new jobs, 3.7% unemployment rate. In a year characterized by big ups and downs in the stock market, one thing Wall Street has been able to rely on is a steady increase in the number of new jobs. Economic tea readers predict the same in November. The U.S. likely added 190,000 new jobs last month to keep the unemployment rate at a 49-year low of 3.7%, forecasters say…

It's time for introverts to change the mold of what success looks like in an extroverted world. Diversity and inclusion are proven strategies that yield better financial results and greater, more meaningful innovation. Current discussions and programs focused unconscious bias related to diversity leans toward physical attributes such as gender, race and even fiscal ranking. Yet, truly inclusive leadership must extend beyond what people see to what people feel and how people think…