Sunday, November 7, 2010

Crowd sourcing

The term "crowd sourcing" was coined by author Jeff Howe in a 2006 Wired magazine article. Crowd sourcing is defined as sourcing tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to a community in the form of an open initiative. Examples include Open Source software development and the online Wikipedia. Similar phrases are open innovation, collective intelligence and social collaboration.
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Saturday, November 6, 2010

Search within a site

Use Google's "search within a site" syntax to search within a specified website. Use the following syntax at the Google Search text box: site: siteyoursearching.com search text. For example site:cnn.com Florida elections will search the CNN website for the text "Florida elections". See google.com/advanced_search for more Google advanced search methods.
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Friday, November 5, 2010

Business benefits of blogs

Blogging author Jason O'Connor suggests that online businesses can benefit from blogging. The business benefits of blogs include: they help position a company as an industry expert; they are interactive in nature and can obtain valuable customer feedback; they are inexpensive and easily marketed; and certain products or services may be featured in blogs.
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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Myers-Briggs

The Myers-Briggs personality assessment test has been identifying introverts, extroverts and other personality types since 1943. Based on the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, the Myers-Briggs questionnaire has been gauging personalities through attitude, style and cultural changes over the past sixty-years. Many consider it an essential tool for hiring and career planning.
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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Alumni network

SelectMinds CEO Cem Sertoglu suggests that companies maintain an "alumni" network of ex-employees, according to a recent Inc.com article. Keeping track of former workers can pay off for a business as rehiring a former employee typically costs only about half as much as bringing in a brand-new hire. Rehired alums may also provide sources of new business.
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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Executive and management coaches

More organizations are making use of executive and management coaches. A recent survey by Right Management Consultants found 86% of respondent companies said they used coaching to sharpen the skills of individuals who had been identified as future organizational leaders. Many used certified executive coaches through consulting arrangements or brought them on as permanent staff.
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Monday, November 1, 2010

Wellness management

More organizations are employing "wellness management" methods to identify preventable, long-term health problems with the goal of prevention versus treatment. The program begins with employees enrolling in a yearly, voluntary health-risk appraisal. Employees with potential health problems work with health educators and coaches to plan and track health progress.
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