How Strong Values Can Attract and Retain Talent

How Strong Values Can Attract and Retain Talent Do you value values? How about values such as; Open company, no bullshit. Maybe this one; Build with heart and balance. Or even better; Don’t #@!% the customer! Devin Rogozinski is Head of Talent Marketing at Atlassian, in this interview we learn how the global tech company does employer branding based on a strong set of values. Have a listen to the episode below, keep reading for a summary and be sure to subscribe to the  Employer Branding Podcast. Listen on  Apple Podcasts,  Stitcher Radio,  Google Play  or  SoundCloud. In this episode youll learn: What sort of services and products Atlassian offer. What the overall employer brand strategy is all about at Atlassian and what their EVP is. How Atlassian activates its employer brand in and what initiatives  have stood out. How Atlassian measures the ROI of employer brand activity. What Devins top tips for employer branding would be and some of the mistakes he has made along the way too! Connect with Devin on LinkedIn.

The Importance of Using a Medical Resume Example

The Importance of Using a Medical Resume ExampleMedical resume examples are crucial when it comes to building a quality resume that will allow a person to get their dream job as soon as possible. Resumes are a way for a person to show employers what they are capable of doing. Therefore, it is important that the medical resume examples they use are very similar to the job description that the individual has applied for.An example of a medical resume can be found in many places including medical journals, college and university websites, and even government websites. However, many websites offer less than stellar resumes. It is important to find a website that offers high quality resumes so that the person has a better chance of landing a job. This will not only help the individual find a job, but it will also help the company that hires them.Medical resume examples should include a list of all of the skills that the person has been applying for. These include basic typing skills, cust omer service skills, reading skills, interpersonal skills, and more. All of these different types of skills can be listed on a medical resume.After the different type of skills are listed, the medical resume examples should list their educational backgrounds and majors. This should make it easier for the employer to know what type of people they are hiring for the job. A person should always be honest with the employer about themselves in order to make sure that they know what type of person the company is hiring.When a person is applying for jobs, it is important that the person uses medical resume examples for their own resume. The internet is a great resource that offers plenty of examples to use. If the person is still working on getting a new resume, they should try to use a sample as a guide to making their own resume. They should always make sure that the examples used are good examples of how to format the resumes that they will be submitting to the companies. A person shoul d never use the medical resume examples that they find on the internet or even in magazines. There are many different ways that a person can find a resume, so it is important that they use the methods that are right for them. Also, many people who are looking for a resume will usually do a search online to find what they are looking for. Although this may be effective, it is not the best idea because the resumes that are being offered by these other sources will not have the necessary information that a person needs to get a job.One method that many people use is to buy medical resume examples from companies that are trying to sell the product. They should purchase the resume example at the same time that they are purchasing the resume template. It is important that they purchase the resume at the same time so that they can put everything together. This allows them to get their resume from one source and then can simply use that as a guide to put together their own resume.Medical re sume examples are essential for those who are applying for jobs. These help a person build their resume so that they will be able to show employers what they can do for the company. They should use medical resume examples as their guide and build a resume that shows the employer what they can do for the company.

Your Brand and Public Performance - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Your Brand and Public Performance - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career For three years, I’ve had a spot on our local CBS station as the local “go to” person for questions about branding, marketing and business.   In addition to that Thursday morning spot, any time they need a snippet of information, a quote or a comment, the local media comes to me first.   This has translated into statewide and even national recognition as well as articles in national publications such as Entrepreneur Magazine.   This didn’t happen by accident.     Here’s what you can do to make it with the media.   Start in your local market, no matter the industry you are in and become that big fish in the small pond.   You can expand after wards.   For right now, start solid in your current locale. Sales without selling If you sell things on the web and also want to be viewed as an expert in your field, then you need two distinct sites.   One, has your sales oriented website (selling your products (or you), services, programs or workshops) and the other is your web portfolio. The web portfolio includes nothing for sale on it.   The media doesn’t want anyone interviewed who will say “In my book, I cover that” or for more information “you have to buy this.”   You will have moments when those opportunities will be provided for you but first you must earn the right to be heard. In your web portfolio include: Current head shot Unique value proposition (UVP what you alone deliver in your unique style) Signature story Audio/video supporting your UVP Testimonials Current appearances listed (could be local publications; a talk at a local organization or scho0l) Topics that are your expert area And, a custom URL that reflects your personal brand Know what theyre already talking about Sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out â€" http://www.helpareporterout.com/ ) provided free by Peter Shankman.   This source comes out three times a day and lets you know what reporters are “buzzing about” right now and need information about. Think of ways you can translate that to your local market and come up with a THREE topic areas you could talk about. Take each topic area and expand it into four points you would like to make about each area. Use those four points to create four questions a reporter could ask you. Create a NO LONGER THAN two sentence summary (140 characters are better â€" think Twitter) as to why they need to talk to you about this subject. Create a one sheet on your area expertise for the media, public talks and positioning opportunities: Topic Brief Summary (2 sentences or 140 characters â€" no more) Four reporter questions (do not provide answers) Now, you’re ready to take your passion and propel it into a stellar public performance! Author: Maria Elena Duron | chief buzz officer, speaker and coach focuses on helping you move, touch and inspire others to action and speak positively on your behalf at buzz2bucks | word of mouth firm

35+ Best UI Interview Questions To Hire Or Get Hired With - Algrim.co

35+ Best UI Interview Questions To Hire Or Get Hired With - Algrim.co Getting hired as a UI designer is actually a lot of fun! The position has a lot of opportunities to learn about a business, help push the digital products forward and ultimately provide lots of interesting new products and services to your target market. UI design encapsulates the role of developing an interface for digital products, sometimes web products, and marketing sites. As well as most times working within the product and technology portion of an agile engineering or product development team. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to get hired as a UI designer or hiring one. I’ve outlined some of the best UI design interview questions and answers below to help you either kickoff your hiring process with the team or to prepare you for your future employment. As with all interview questions its important that you recognize these are mock answers. Meaning, you should study what the answers are but attempt to answer them in your own way. The delivery, of course, will be di fferent but that’s somewhat of the point. You want to be sure you’ve studied for the position and are well prepared to get hired as a UI designer. UI Interview Questions & Answers Table Of Contents 1. What does UI stand for? 2. What is a UI? 3. Where did some of the first UI’s come from? 4. Who does a UI serve? 5. What is considered good UI and bad UI? 6. What software do you use to create UI? 7. What happens when a UI is done? 8. How do you test UI’s? 9. What are the legalities of UI patterns? 10. What is the hamburger menu? 11. What is conversational UI and voice UI? 12. How would you hire another UI designer? 13. How do you work with other UI designers? 14. What software should you not create UI in? 15. What is a UI spec sheet? 16. How do front-end engineers work with UI designers? 17. Do color palettes play a big part in UI’s? 18. Is there such a thing as plagiarism in UI design? 19. What software would you use to create iconography? 20. How do you create prototypes for your UI? 21. What are some well known UI designers? 22. What inspires your UI design? 23. How do you design UI for men and women? 24. Should you consider age groups in your UI design? 25. What is interaction design? 26. What is human-computer interaction? 27. What is the difference between UX design and UI design? 28. How does branding play a role in UI design? 29. How do you take UI design feedback? 30. What are some ways UI design can help a business? 31. What are other skills a UI designer should have? 32. What are the educational requirements for a UI designer? 33. What is responsible web design? 34. What does iOS stand for? 35. What is Android? 36. Should UI for Android and iOS be different? 1. What does UI stand for? UI stands for User Interface. A user is a person who is operating a computer or technology device. Not limited to an iPhone, personal computer or desktop. This person could also be an operator of heavy machinery or maybe the operator of a radio. Both of these types of machines and devices also have interfaces as part of their function. The person using that is the user. 2. What is a UI? A UI is any type of translation that’s done between a user and a machine via some type of visual language. If you think about, machines don’t speak our language. And we don’t speak theirs. So it's important that a UI exists to help translate functions between user and machine. This is where the term ‘interface’ comes into play. Interface, in this instance, acts almost like ‘translator’. Any type of visual presentation of what the machine will respond with and do, is considered an interface. Interfaces are often times confused as being only for the new digital way we see them the most, for example on your Amazon Firestick TV device or maybe through your iPhone. But in reality, an interface could also exist on a GPS device. UI’s are almost everywhere once you start to realize what the function is and why its there. 3. Where did some of the first UI’s come from? Some of the first UI’s mostly came from Apple. They are most respected in terms of developing the more modern UI examples. It came from Lisa, where Apple computers went from being mostly numerically driven to having a mouse and being able to click on portions of the screen that also told the machine what to do. Apple was definitely not the first-ever UI to be made but in terms of paving the way for what we do with computers and devices today, it was the most pronounced development in the past 30 years. Another form of a UI could be a sundial. Sundials are very old devices that help a user understand the time of day, utilizing the sun and the shadow that the sundial creates. In a way, this is also a UI. Because it translated the suns position to a time of day that the user was looking for. 4. Who does a UI serve? UI’s are always there to serve the customer or the user. The main intent behind a UI is to make sure that any human behind a device clearly understands how to control that device. UI’s are always serving humans. 5. What is considered good UI and bad UI? While this is a very subjective question, it is important to try and answer it the best you possibly can. In general, good UI is one that is there to clearly and intuitively serve a customer or human. That is done with as little confusion as possible while providing as much freedom as possible to that end user. A bad UI is one that is cumbersome and confusing the human. If that is the case, then the majority of the UI won’t be useable and the result will be a frustrated human, customer or user that most likely won’t want to use whatever the interface was intended for. 6. What software do you use to create UI? There are now more options for creating a UI than ever. But the most popular tools are Sketch and Photoshop. Photoshop is apart of the Adobe suite of tools. Not specific to interfaces is Illustrator, which is sometimes used to assist in the UI process but not one you would use to create a fully functioning UI or one that might be handed off to your team of engineers. 7. What happens when a UI is done? When a UI is done it should undergo a series of checks. The first check that should be done is ensuring that other humans understand the UI. This is usually done by asking for feedback by people who have not seen the UI before. The second step is to attempt to build a prototype or version of the product that the UI was made for. This is usually done by a UI developer, a front-end engineer or sometimes a general web developer. Depending on the company structure and what type of employee’s are available, the next steps after a UI is done can be variable. In general, though, you will be looking for feedback from either a front-end or backend engineer. 8. How do you test UI’s? UI’s can be tested in a variety of ways. Primarily through user testing, which can be done virtually. Or through focus groups, which is usually done in person by asking random people to try out digital or non-digital products and look at their ability to use the devices. Lastly, testing can be done by allowing a close friend or friend of that person to try out a digital product or device to make sure its being understood as the designer expected. 9. What are the legalities of UI patterns? UI patterns are when many people use the same type of interface. A UI pattern is a good thing because it means that more people understand what the result of a particular interface item may do. This means there is some commonality between one or many parts of the interface with regard to a device. For instance, a volume button on a radio. Most people understand what that is going to do because it is shared across many devices. The legalities of these UI patterns is that they are free to use, unless specified by a patent. Even then, sometimes UI patents are free to use as long as the licenses is listed in the software code. For the most part, UI patterns are used amongst designers at will. 10. What is the hamburger menu? The hamburger menu is a three lined icon which indicates a hidden top-level navigational structure that the user can access at any point. 11. What is conversational UI and voice UI? Conversational UI is when a user speaks to a robot and the robot knows certain responses and functions to perform. This is still considered a UI. Voice UI is when we speak to devices and the device then performs tasks or jobs. This is also considered a UI. 12. How would you hire another UI designer? Hiring a UI designer is a process of looking over portfolio examples to ensure they have executed work similar to the work they are about to perform at the organization. As well as ensuring they know the general functions required for the UI design position. This means, who they interact with and how they interact with them. The hiring process for this is specific to checking all of those boxes to ensure a proper fit for the company they are applying for. 13. How do you work with other UI designers? UI designers need to collaborate between each other on various projects to ensure that there is a unified translation language being used on all products, services, websites and more. If two UI designers do not work together, what will happen is a very disjointed user experience that will cause users to be upset. UI designers can collaborate by using a variety of software tools. In general, showing early stage work and incorporating uniformity is the way to achieve collaboration and success. 14. What software should you not create UI in? You wouldn’t create UI in Illustrator, InDesign or any other tool that does not allow for vector shaping to exist. 15. What is a UI spec sheet? A UI spec sheet is when a designer writes out user stories or specifications on how a UI should work. In this process, they usually outline parts of the iconography and pages for which they want to be connected and what types of results they want to be presented to the user after they’ve clicked or submitted information to the device. 16. How do front-end engineers work with UI designers? Front-end engineers work with designers by understanding the UI’s needs, the portions of the UI that need to be cut into multiple pieces and connecting the various parts of the UI to the backend engineering functionality. In a way, front-end engineers are a translator between the UI and the backend engineering. 17. Do color palettes play a big part in UI’s? Color palettes play a huge part of the UI. For instance, if the UI is very bright, it might be more difficult for people to see portions of the UI which is important. Ensuring a proper contrast and color choice which doesn’t disturb the users vision is very important. 18. Is there such a thing as plagiarism in UI design? You can plagiarize a product but you cannot plagiarize a UI. For the most part, UI influenced from one another is technically a good thing for end users. 19. What software would you use to create iconography? Software to create iconography would be Sketch or Illustrator. You will be creating vector files or SVG files which can fit to the high DPI requirements for modern devices. 20. How do you create prototypes for your UI? There are many pieces of software to create prototypes. Depending on the type of device you are designing for, the tool would be Invison, which can be used to create clickable desktop or mobile prototypes. There are also many other types of ways to develop prototypes. But Invision is one of the most popular tools for this. 21. What are some well known UI designers? Dan Cederholm, Max Voltar. 22. What inspires your UI design? This answer should be very specific to you. Its important that you use this opportunity to show where your inspiration comes from. That can be in many ways, not specifically just the digital environment. For example, architecture might be a powerful tool for inspiring your digital work. Other UI design may also be a powerful tool for inspiration. Magazines can also be a powerful tool for this. All sorts of places can be used to drive inspiration. Be creative. 23. How do you design UI for men and women? There is nothing gender-specific about UI’s, you are always designing for the human. But in general, you can design a UI for a man or woman by the presentation of the colors and the overall aesthetic. These types of things may make it more comforting for specific genders to experience a UI. 24. Should you consider age groups in your UI design? Yes. Age groups are a huge part of good UI design. You should attempt to make your UI understandable by many age groups. If only one age group is able to understand your UI then it goes against the fundamental parts of a UI being a translator. You should be testing your UI’s once they are finished to ensure multiple age groups have the same reaction to specific UI functions, icons, colors and features. 25. What is interaction design? Interaction design is the motion that is experienced in the UI. Animation helps the user understand certain events. For example, if a phone vibrates, then it allows the user to know that something is happening on the device. It allows them to know that an event is occurring. Technically, this would be considered interaction design. Any motion, movement or vibration that exists in the product and what that indicates to the end user. 26. What is human-computer interaction? Human-Computer Interaction is the focus of ensuring that all parts of an interface are clearly understood by humans. It is about simplicity of functionality in favor of the end user. 27. What is the difference between UX design and UI design? UX design and UI design are not very different. But UX design is when the experience of a brand or product is unified across many instances of that brand being accessed. Lets think about this for a moment, if you have a desktop experience and an iOS experience, you’ll want them to be synchronized. The function of ensuring that they are synchronized is part of the UX designer. The function for which the interfaces are being created and why they are being created is part of the UI design function. So in essence, they are similar and they work together. 28. How does branding play a role in UI design? Branding is more than just a logo. Branding is the emotional feeling a company wants a user or human to feel when they are interacting with that business. Branding is when you have a positive emotion or some other type of emotional response towards what the business offers. For instance, if the business is offering skydiving lessons, the branding may be exciting. They want you to feel energized about the opportunity and excited. But this wouldn’t be the same for a company who is offering health insurance, for instance. Branding plays a major role in the UI design because you want to ensure that the UI design is communicating the proper branding initiatives that are part of the company goals. This can be difficult for a lot of UI designers to achieve but it is very important. 29. How do you take UI design feedback? UI design feedback can be collected in many ways. Ideally, you can take written or verbal feedback. Presenting a UI to a group of people inside a company and asking for their honest opinions is a great way to collect feedback. You can also print a UI and take written notes. 30. What are some ways UI design can help a business? UI design can help a business in a plethora of ways. Lets say there’s a device or product that users are using, UI design can attempt to alleviate any friction the user might be already experiencing. This could cause a more positive response to the business offering as a whole. There’s way to ensure that the business is always being interpreted positively through the UI design. Another way is when a business is investing in new products or services for their customers. UI design can play a major role in helping to develop these new properties. UI design can also play a big role in the marketing sites or landing pages for a business. There are ways to ensure those properties also have very little friction and that users can pleasantly understand what the business offers and why. 31. What are other skills a UI designer should have? Whenever a UI designer can present skills outside of just the interface level of the process, they are considered more valuable. Mostly because they can help other people on the team understand what needs to get build, more efficiently. Ideal additional skills that a UI designer should carry is HTML, CSS, and some type of backend programming experience. 32. What are the educational requirements for a UI designer? A UI designer should have a bachelors degree in human-computer interaction or some other type of digital product design study. Although, it is not a requirement of a UI designer to have a formal background in UI design. Any type of design study can be applicable. Including graphic design or branding. 33. What is responsible web design? Responsive web design is the process of ensuring that native websites service good experiences to users on devices with many types of widths and heights. There are many computers on the market and all of which have different dimensions. Responsive web design helps ensure all of those devices have useable interfaces. 34. What does iOS stand for? iOS stands for iPhone OS or iPhone Operating System. This was coined by Apple. 35. What is Android? Android is the mobile framework used to power the Android devices. It is a mobile operating system, similar to the iPhone OS. 36. Should UI for Android and iOS be different? Yes. Android users are more familiar to UI’s that are specific to that device. It is unfortunate that Android and iOS interact in different ways. This is mostly because of the competitive nature between the two types of devices. As a UI designer who is building for both iOS and Android, you should be learning what users might be expecting to see in terms of the UI design for both of the device types. Conclusion A job interview where you are being asked UI interview questions is going to be quite fun. You may experience having to show off a portfolio of UI design work as well as products that you might have built or designed on the side. If you do not have this work ready, I would take some time put this together. If you are worried that you don’t have enough portfolio work you can absolutely redesign an existing product without it actually being built. In this example, you’ll be wanting to improve the UI of an already existing product and that can show your personal thought process being creating a great UI for the user. This is usually an acceptable type of portfolio work to include and employers will not shy away from this. It still shows of your skills and talents, thus is achieves what it needs to. The design position is a creative one, so be sure that you are ready to answer all questions related to your own personal process and how you might be able to educate others about being a part of it. Take some time to sit down a friend and have them ask the questions above as well as ask some random questions about design and the design process. This will get you more familiar with answering design questions to those who may not be as familiar to design as you. Remember, you are speaking to those who are not designers. So in the same way that UI design serves the purpose of it being a translator, you will also need to be that translator. Great communication is an important part of the designers skill set. Presenting that to your future employer is going to give you a big advantage. Written and verbal communication skills are critical for designers to have. Related Hiring Resources 20+ Best UI Developer Interview Questions UI Designer Job Description Sample What is a UI Developer? What Do They Do?

Resume Writing Style Guidelines - How to Write Professional Resumes

Resume Writing Style Guidelines - How to Write Professional ResumesIn a computer application, we commonly use the software called 'structured documents'. There are a number of good software programs that can help us in properly organizing our documents. As a matter of fact, this software application is not always that effective; this is because many people are not used to using it and they do not follow its guidelines.A resume is the first document that will be presented in a job interview. This is the first document that the employer will read and the information that he or she will have to make a decision as to whether or not to offer you the job. So, it is important for you to make your resume understandable to a prospective employer, right?To accomplish this, you have to follow certain rules when creating your resume. First, always write the name of the company or organization first. If it is a small business, it is better to put the acronym of the company instead of the name.The second rule is to put the address of the company or organization on the second page. Also, write your name on the first page and put your company's logo in the middle of the page. Do not put the date at the end of the resume, because some employers might think that you might have already worked there.Once you have written your resume, you have to make sure that the format of your resume is efficient. It must be concise and in a neat way. Also, make sure that you have included all the necessary information about your work experience. If the employer asks you for something specific, make sure that you have included that information.While writing your resume, it is also important to remember that your resume should be professionally done. If you are not a professional writer, you should hire a professional writer to help you. Do not use cheap documents because this will decrease the quality of your resume. Instead, use those which are professionally written.In addition, you have to co nsider the importance of professionalism when writing a professional resume. Do not use incorrect grammar and spellings because this will not help you at all. If the employer sees you using improper English, he or she might think that you are not really an English-speaker. So, always make sure that your grammar and spelling are correct.Finally, remember that when applying for a job, your resume will be used by many people. Therefore, it is important that you can use the resume writing style guidelines and design your resume the right way. This will help you be more efficient at the same time as helping you appear professional.

Summary Sunday From Body Language to Networking

Summary Sunday From Body Language to Networking This is my weekly round up of job search and career related information which Ive shared on Twitter this week. Catch up on the news or information you missed by skimming this post or check out the weekly summary at the bottom of the post! Interviewing 5 Signs Youre Failing Your Interview: Interviewer Body Language Secrets By Larry Buhl on Monster After you learn to pay attention to your body language, you are ready to pay attention to the interviewers body language. Not only does the post talk about body language red flags it also explains how you can counter the problem. And dont miss this winning signs pointed out in the post: Experts agree that several signs indicate the interview is going well. In these cases, the interviewer will: Nod or tilt her head forward, indicating agreement, interest or at least that she’s paying attention. Mirror your body language, such as by crossing his hands when you cross your legs. Offer positive verbal responses, such as repeating similar phrases. Networking 7 Key Habits of Super Networkers By Lewis Howes on Entrepreneur.com These 5 habits are easy to replicate yourself! Pick up some (or all) of these winning habits. Here are the first 3, check Lewis post out for a full explanation. Ask insightful questions. Add value. Learn their story. 5 Steps to Effective Alumni Networking By Phil Rosenberg on The Ladders No matter what stage of your career you are in, consider reconnecting with you college or university to tap into their alumni database (or find a link on LinkedIn). These are great networking guidelines and help set the right networking strategy from the get-go! VIV-id (aka Personal Branding) Personal and Career Branding: 5th Annual Job Action Day by Quintessential Careers I was pleased to participate in this years Job Action Day along with many other notable career experts. Dont miss the information shared in this one post. You will find 9 guest posts on Quint Careers plus links to 12 participating sites. I dont think youll have questions about personal branding after reading these! Weekly Recap on the Web If you arent on Twitter, youll miss hundreds of articles I share to help you with your job search and on Saturdays, my small business retweets. But never fear. This is a weekly recap for you to review.

5 awesome corporate email policies - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

5 awesome corporate email policies - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog If you feel like email is stressing you out, there might be something to it. A study conducted at the University of California found that giving people uninterrupted time where they werent dealing with email generally made them less stressed and better able to focus: Without email, people multitasked less and had a longer task focus, as measured by a lower frequency of shifting between windows and a longer duration of time spent working in each computer window. Further, we directly measured stress using wearable heart rate monitors and found that stress, as measured by heart rate variability, was lower without email. This Fast Company article has a great overview of the findings. Its?a rather small study, so take it with a grain of salt, but it does support?the sense that emails are a source of stress and distraction at work. Dont get me wrong Im?not against email. Its an awesome communication tool, but in many?workplaces it is used poorly, and mostly the burden?has been put on employees to figure out strategies for?dealing with the resulting email onslaught. I think its time for workplaces to take responsibility?for this issue at a corporate level and fortunately,?some workplaces have done just that and are trying?new and better email policies. Here are the 5 best weve found. 5: In France you can check out at?6pm French trade unions recently negotiated a deal for some of their members, which: allows staff to shut down their phones and computers after 6 p.m. and not have to worry about checking in. Part of the deal is that companies can?t pressure or make their employees feel bad about not checking or responding to their email either. This is a good first?approach to reduce the pressure to handle?emails outside of working hours. While it can definitely help, it has the limitation that it puts full responsibility on employees to not check emails. Which is why I like the next one even better. 4: Email not delivered after hours at Volkswagen VW made an agreement with?the companys work council to limit employees access to email on their Blackberry devices outside of working hours: Under the arrangement servers stop routing emails 30 minutes after the end of employees shifts, and then start again 30 minutes before they return to work. The staff can still use their devices to make calls and the rule does not apply to senior management. I really like this idea. Now its not up to employees?to not check emails in their free time, email is just not delivered. 3: Quiet Tuesdays at Intel Intel tried an experiment where 300 engineers and managers went offline every Tuesday?morning. During these periods they had all set their email and IM clients to offline, forwarded their phones to voice mail, avoided setting up meetings, and isolated themselves from visitors by putting up a Do not disturb sign at their doorway. The purpose was to see the effect of 4 hours of contiguous thinking time. The experiment was a hit: It has been successful in improving employee effectiveness, efficiency and quality of life for numerous employees in diverse job roles. 45% of post-pilot survey respondents had found it effective as is, and 71% recommended we consider extending it to other groups, possibly after applying some modifications. However its telling that this experiment was conducted in 2008 and nothings changed inside Intel. It shows just how ingrained corporate?attitudes to email are. 2: Email not delivered during vacation time at Daimler One of the most insidious effects of email overload is that any longer stretches of time away from the office is punished immediately upon return, because your inbox will be full to overflowing. I havent seen any research on this, but I could easily imagine that this would?subconsciously?discourage people from taking vacations or at the very least increase?stress around any time off. And thats why this policy from Daimler is so awesome: The car and truck maker has implemented a new program that allows employees to set their email software to automatically delete incoming emails while they are on vacation. When an email is sent, the program, which is called ?Mail on Holiday,? issues a reply to the sender that the person is out of the office and that the email will be deleted, while also offering the contact information of another employee for pressing matters. So you can go on vacation knowing that when you come back your inbox will contain the same number of emails as when you left. 1: No internal emails?at Menlo Innovations (and many others) US software company Menlo Innovations have ditched internal emails in favor of what they call High-speed voice-activated technology. Yes, if you want some information from a coworker, youll have to actually talk to that person. Several other companies have?done something similar. Typically, employees can still receive emails from external sources like clients and vendors?but there is no way to email colleagues. This makes a lot of sense considering all the great tools that can replace emails in many cases. We use?Podio?internally and it has seriously cut down on the number of internal emails we need to send. Others use?Yammer?or chat or even facebook. Update: Markus Schr?ter alerted me to another cool email policy: from now on, each Ferrari employee will only be able to send the same email to three people in-house. ?The upshot Email can be awesome. It can suck. Its time for workplaces to create policies that?address some of the problems and reduce the stress. Your take Whats your take on this? How is email affecting you? Which of the policies above would you like to see implemented in your workplaces? Know of any other great corporate email policies? Related posts Lets end the cult of overwork. What do you do when theres just too much work? Kill the suggestion box theres a much better way. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related