1. Discrimination still runs its gamut in the workplace. While the Equal Pay Act of 1963 may be well established, wage discrimination towards women is still widely common these days. Income inequality is concealed among company policies disallowing employees from freely disclosing their fees. This, beside the fact, that CEOs or other top-level management positions are still largely dominated by men.

2. With the latest election results, it is also safe to assume that out of the many industrial countries across the globe, the US still lags behind in terms of women as president or head of state. Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Latin American countries, and some 40+ more have elected women leaders to run their state. America, however, has none—to this day.

3. Pregnancy is still an issue in the workplace. Employers, though in all their discretion, still shun away from women and see their reproductive prowess as more of a disadvantage in the workplace. This outright discrimination is properly documented and resolved with various legal actions but, unfortunately, it’s as real as it gets out there.

4. Of course, occupational sex segregation is also apparent in various industries. Science and engineering communities, for instance, have men outnumbered women at around 65 to 73 percent. This is even more so in petroleum and other heavy-duty industries where women are deemed “inappropriate”.

5. Amid scientific progress and technological advances, women’s frustration over sexism of their menstrual cycle remains. While the likes of Miki Agrawal have started an era on “menstruation revolution” by developing products designed to alleviate this frustrating monthly cycle among women, cool in-your-face advertising campaigns are still being heavily frowned upon by some segments in society.

6. Sexual violence is still heavily directed at women. Recent surveys have shown that at least 7 out of 10 victims of sexual assault, rape, or various acts of lasciviousness are women. Getting blamed and shamed is still as tangible as it was a decade or two ago. As frustrating as it may sound, women are still deemed weak in a male-dominated society.

7. Of course, the media industry does not help either. Ava DuVernay and Ronda Shimes may have become household names in film but the number of women directors being cast in topnotch films and television series is at a poor state. Highest pay in the entertainment industry still goes to actors. Even in news sitcoms, many women have to contend with doing the weather.

Yes, there are still so many challenges haunting women of today. The idea is to find ways and means to ensure that such issues be addressed consistently and with constancy. In all essence, women have a lot to offer—if only they are given a fair chance by society at large.

This makes employee retention still a huge issue today. One huge root cause: employers are not living up its employees’ expectations. When thinking of cultivating a happy company culture to usher much higher employee retention, the following tips from experts come handy:

1. Incentivize good performance. Employees work for a living. Many of them have mouths to feed and a lifestyle to uphold. It would be prudent to offer promotions and bonuses to keep them on their happy toes.

2. If possible, allow flexible work arrangements. People easily get fed-up with monotonous 9 to 5 work schedule. Some workers are morning persons while others simply wake up groveling to early ringing of their alarm clocks. Giving them such flexibility will enhance creativity and provide more positive results in the long run.

3. Off hours must be kept as it is. One common cause of burn out is when employers blur the line between home and work. Just because employees have access to emails or social media or SMS messaging does not make them on-call all the time. Steer clear of constant connectivity. Instead shift to a more focused workplace to ensure job requirements are finished within work allotted time, if not ahead of it.

4. Always make room for a growth mindset. Employees strive not just to earn money but also to improve their status in life. Nobody wants to be a clerk forever. People work to their bones to realize some of their success goals. Try to satisfy their hunger by offering trainings, coaching sessions or skill building and other development programs. Let them take roots but make sure to give them wings to soar high along with the business.

5. Be a compassionate leader. Understand that like everyone else, your employees have both strengths and weaknesses. While focusing on their strong points is essential for their growth, it is also important to point out their weakness and find ways to make it work to their advantage.

6. Practice the sense of gratitude in the workplace. Gratitude, no matter how small, never goes unappreciated. Acknowledging simple victories is no different than recognizing huge triumphs. Give thanks to each and every effort.

7. Always ensure employees that they’re part of the business’ long term plan. It is one thing to earn incentives but definitely another to make them feel they are growing along with the company. Provide opportunities and always set new challenges to stimulate new roles.

In all these, it is important to focus on finding candidates with the right “cultural fit” to your goals. Some people, no matter how brilliant, may still not able to deliver what the business needs due to certain clashes. While education, experience, and expertise may sound the most promising characteristics to look for, a strong work ethic that mirrors that of the company plus the attitude to carry will ultimately count.

Team building helps nurture a productive workplace. When organizing one, however, it is imperative to invest time and resources in finding the right solution. Here are some ways to jumpstart your creative prowess in organizing one.

1. Make use of regular work days or hours to schedule a team building activity. Your employees or members of the team may not say it out loud, but putting extra time on weekends to attend a mandatory office-related event won’t just cut it. Choose a Wednesday or a Friday over lunch or breakfast—and provide food, of course.

2. Consider holding the event outside the office. Employees tend to interact freely when offsite. While the idea of using the company boardroom may sound fetching, organizing the team building session in another meeting space will give them a sense of liberty and the notion that such is not part of “regular” work.

3. Aside from the venue, do make sure that planned activities are clear and accessible to everyone. Without a doubt, fun activities like tug of war or relay races or other sporty activities can provide fun in team-building efforts, some may feel left out due to prevailing physical or health conditions. To ensure inclusion, choose appropriate activities that will involve everyone. Hold a brainstorming session weeks prior to know their sentiments.

4. The key is to set clear expectations. Make sure to inform your staff the intent of such activity. Whether it is to realign company goals or to come up with more efficient operational system in place or to cohesively integrate new employees with the old ones, your staff should know that it’s not just an ice breaker or an excuse to get off work for a few hours. The clearer the expectations, the more focused the efforts will be.

5. Place collaboration at the core of the event. Stress to your staff that competition, though healthy, is not the only way to succeed. In doing so, choose activities or contests that encourage them to work closely together.

6. Consider integrating the culture of philanthropy into your company’s team building efforts. Infuse the virtue of volunteerism as a way for employees to work together with the intent of doing something for those in need. Get everyone involved on community or local fundraisers. This will not only motivate them to be better employees but as responsible citizens, too.

7. Don’t forget to thank your staff for making the event successful and to gather feedback. Allow them to do so in anonymity so they can objectively provide truthful reaction on the event. Use both negative and constructive feedback as a blueprint for the next team building activity.

Team building activities create a more productive workplace with plenty of avenues for growth. Invest time and resources in organizing these events on a regular basis. Use your creative prowess or perhaps, hire an outside trainer to make the activity even more purposeful.

Social networking event, TweetChat, is akin to old-school chatrooms but with a twist. Instead of just agreeing to meet at a specified schedule, hashtags are being used to track down topics being discussed. This makes the chatroom swarming with online crawlers agitating market algorithms to go haywire. For first-timers, hosting or joining a TweetChat room can be of great help in organically building your brand online. To achieve your goals, here are tips to start it out right for the first time.

1. Follow common chatroom etiquette. Tweetchats all have a distinctive format which will set out the governing rules of the whole chatting period. Questions are usually numbered and with chat-specific hashtag. When you engage with someone on the chatroom, with the host or otherwise, always indicate the question number and your answer. This allows easy tracking of responses or exchanges. It is important to be courteous, too. You can be booted out or, worst, ignored with your rotten behavior.

2. Keep responses succinct and relevant. Do remember to inject some fun anecdotes, too. When someone engages with you, it is important to respond with ease. Akin to being in a party, engaging in small talks will help expand your network as you work your way to the punch bowl.

3. Go for effective visuals. Present funny memes, photos, or GIFs relevant to the topics at hand. Using appropriate emojis will also help relay emotions. For business accounts, it is essential to remember that relevant and suitable visuals be used. You can easily get lost in the labyrinth of discussion but, always remember to maintain objectivity at all times.

4. Engage with other chatters. While your main aim is to serve your own answers to the host’s questions, it would be wise to chat with other users, too. Take time to observe and look for those whom you can easily converse with.

5. For hosts, focus on your role. You are not only there to answer questions. You need to moderate interactions, too. Make sure to improve your typing speed particularly when topics posted are inundated with replies or questions.

6. Keep track of the hashtags being used. This allows you a way to measure the effectiveness of the event.  Monitoring sites like Hootsuite or Twubs can be of help in gauging the performance for the said social networking event.

7. Build up connection by participating in 2 or 3 Tweetchats. More so, consider being a “regular” on these chatrooms. This will help expand your connections as well as your following. At the very least, an hour of engagement will help fortify that connection.

Tweetchat is a hot commodity on Twitter right now. Seize the moment and be on the lookout for relevant topics. To be effective, strive to be extra careful and maintain proper etiquette. Build your social brand now!

Often, service businesses are reactive rather than proactive. This is where issues easily fall through the cracks. The idea should be to constantly and consistently keep clients informed. To do that, here are some handy tips:

1. Set expectations clearly at the onset. From the start of the business relationship, carefully and clearly discuss the manner of communication, updates and feedback system, channels and platforms to use, and so on. Strategies and goals must be clearly presented along with the communication system in place. Allow them to present their preferred communication style, but make sure also to present your own system. The key is to find a common ground where both of you can meet regularly.

2. Make good use of all communication channels—and set proper schedule. Communicate clearly communication channels like email, phone, social media pages, or messaging system to be used. Set an appropriate schedule like 24-hour reply or feedback. Emergency communication platforms must also be in place to ensure that everything is covered. Be very clear and specific on this. Take note that mobile gadgets are heavily being used these days, but clients must know that it is highly irregular to do midnight calls or that you cannot reply to email messages sent during wee hours.

3. Do not be afraid to set boundaries. As important as opening communication line between you and your clients, certain limits must also be imposed. This will help prevent any issues of indifference or communication gaps. See to it that clients understand when or where you are not available. As mentioned, setting a reasonable timeframe for replies or feedback must be clearly discussed. Unless your services are 24/7, your clients should not expect you to run to their every beck and call.

4. Always keep clients informed. When handling projects, it is imperative to always keep them updated on the progress. Many business today make use of project management tools like Trello allow them to check on certain aspects of the project from time to time. Dropbox and Google Docs are also excellent programs for sharing information and constant updates. Most importantly, try to consider at least weekly face-to-face discussion either personally done or via video-messaging system to answer any additional queries.

Never underestimate the power of communication. As a service-based company, it must be placed on one of the topmost aspects of your priorities. Delivering quality work is one way to deliver your brand. But consistent communication will be the very aspect that enforces security and trust.

Your personal money blueprint is not necessarily all about how you interact with money. It also delves on how it affects your personal interaction with others. As unique individuals with frailties, it is important to realize your own imperfections and challenges that hinder financial well-being. You need to assess how you deal with money and your attitude to others who do things differently than you do. It must also assess your thoughts on debt, charity, savings, investing, and spending. Your reaction to inflation, work compensation, and so on will also be considered—and a host of other aspects that rests largely on your personal convictions.

In truth, your very own money blue print is your financial DNA. It is part and parcel of who you are. From the moment you develop a brain in the womb, your mother’s financial convictions are subconsciously linked to you. This is then, consistently being embedded into your life as you grow old and become more conscious of the world. Pre-programmed—yes, that’s who you are in terms of money and wealth—by your parents, the people who surround you, and external factors like mainstream media, school teachings, and so on.

No matter how your money blueprint was shaped up though, changing your mindset and behavior can be done. It is, of course, going to a heavy tug-of-war with your subconscious attacking your awareness on each and every turn. Changing your mindset on wealth creation though, must start with an eager desire to recognize your financial frailties and start reconstructing your mindset from there. Adjust your thoughts and outlook on spending, saving and investing by doing daily motivational acts and of embracing life’s simple realities.

To live, you need to spend on necessities. To live and be happy, you have to put a little leeway for luxury like travel and other fun-filled experiences. To live happily and successfully, you need to cultivate a money mindset on wise investment. To live happily, successfully and with a sense of purpose, you need to be able to share what you have with others. To achieve your goals, you need to embrace that there will always be hardships along the way. You need to rethink everything and to step out of your comfort zone. A good coach will be a great help at some point. In the end, your money blueprint and whatever positive changes you wish to impose all begins with one thing—YOU.

So, what to do to rock your Instagram campaign? When thinking of generating more engagement to your Instagram posts, here are some posting secrets to remember this 2017:

Indeed, timing is everything when it comes to business– social media notwithstanding. When trying to optimize your campaign’s engagement, it is of utmost importance to use analytic tools that can help you a head’s up on various aspects directly affecting your posts. Aside from pinpointing geographical location, age, gender, and buying habits, it is also best to check the time they are most active on Instagram and start your campaign rolling from there. Find an airtight scheduler and keep track of its progress. As always, your dedication and commitment will matter a lot on making your posts a success.

For businesses and career-oriented individuals who have never tried using Instagram as a marketing or personal branding platform, it is high time to know some effective hacks in making this avenue work to your favor.

With more updates coming in, there will be more insta-hacks to discover. Wait for other updates on this page. To do so,  SIGN-UP!