By Alex Yohn
Aug 1, 2020
This is the first in a multi-part series about career development in small businesses. This article looks at what career development involves and how it can support your employees as well as your business.
There’s a well-known quote attributed to leadership specialist and coach, Peter Baeklund:
“CFO to CEO: What happens if we invest in people and they leave?
CEO to CFO: What happens if we don’t and they stay?”
Reading this makes most people chuckle. We laugh because it raises an important, if not awkward, point. Providing career development costs time and money. Chances are if you’re a small business owner, you don’t have a lot of extra time or money. But as Baeklund’s imaginary CEO points out: if you don’t provide career development for your employees, you run the risk that they will stay with your organization and contribute at a level that doesn’t represent their full potential.
The imaginary CEO isn’t alone—most business owners understand the importance of employee development; however, most also admit that they don’t devote the necessary time and resources to this activity. As the Society for Human Resource Management reported, a study by the global staffing firm Randstad revealed that “73 percent of employers said fostering employee development is important, while only 49 percent of employees said leadership is adhering to this practice.”
Additional research conducted in the U.K by Roffey Park Institute indicates that small businesses are behind larger organizations when it comes to development. The researchers found that 71% of the largest organizations had formal talent development plans while only 19% of companies with less than 50 employees had similar plans in place.
From an organizational perspective, career development is focused on the progress that employees make within the company, and is often tied to succession planning. For individuals, career development is about the evolution of skills, decisions, life roles, and self-actualization of each employee. At the core, career development is about the fulfillment of one’s talents and potential, a need that many believe is present in everyone. As the National Career Development Association’s policy statement suggests, it’s not something that happens overnight. In fact, the association asserts that “the development of any person’s career takes place over most of his or her lifetime.”
How can career development benefit your small business?
Small business owners are focused on the growth of the business, and without an in-house HR expert, adding career development to the list of responsibilities may feel like an unnecessary headache. Of course business growth is important; however some owners haven’t yet realized that employee development directly impacts the growth of their business. Investing time and money in your staff is a critical part of a business strategy and a method to ensuring long-term success.
Use career development to recruit employees
Large businesses often have an entire team dedicated to recruiting and hiring new employees. Small business owners don’t have that luxury; in fact, the consequences of open positions or bad hires can negatively impact the entire business. With this in mind, it’s important to include career development as part of the package you use to recruit employees. Once you establish that you’re a business that invests in employees’ careers, you will earn distinction as a great place to work that will help attract top talent to your organization.
Use career development to retain employees
Once you recruit an employee, do everything you can to retain them. Ideally, career development should begin during onboarding, and be a key part of the employment benefits package. Sharing career development offerings with a new hire demonstrates that you’re invested in them for a long- term relationship. With this understanding, it’s likely they will become more engaged with your organization and will hopefully be less likely to seek out another employer.
Use career development to create a healthy organizational culture
Providing opportunities for growth creates loyalty and demonstrates your respect and your appreciation for what each employee offers the company. A commitment to career development establishes a shared vision around the benefits of growth, for employees and the business.
Use career development to build a consistent, stable business
The investments you make in employee’s careers contribute positively to the long-term stability of your business. When employees are challenged and experience career development, it’s less likely that they will leave. With a lower rate of turnover, you’re able to create a consistent customer experience. Furthermore, if you have open positions, those roles can be filled—without negatively impacting the business operations—by existing employees who have worked to develop new skills.
What career development advantages do small businesses have over big businesses?
Large companies may be able to offer employees excellent salaries, in-depth career development plans, and a vast network of opportunities for growth. But there are career development disadvantages, too. In larger organizations there may be more competition, there may be an elaborate hierarchy that’s difficult to navigate, and it can be tough for employees to stand out among a larger population of workers.
By comparison, a small business may not be able to offer an excellent salary, but employees can achieve a higher level of responsibility more quickly, and it’s easier for a leader to observe and recognize what individual employees are capable of contributing. Small businesses also offer employees the opportunity to gain hands-on experience (also known as career development) across all the functions of the company.
“The draw for small business is the ability to feel like you’re part of a family or group,” says Suzann Q. Parker, a business consultant who works for a small consulting agency in Seattle, WA.
“We’re all working towards the same goal, so we’re more engaged in the business. We may not have traditional opportunities for career growth, but we grow in other ways.”
How do employees benefit from career development?
As we mentioned earlier, career development is about the fulfillment of one’s talents and potential. When work becomes routine and no longer provides a challenge, people get bored. To nurture employees’ growth, Matt Heller the author of The Myth of Employee Burnout, suggests looking for areas where employees can develop other skills, work in another department, or get involved in a different area of your business.
“It was definitely part of my decision to accept the employment offer,” says Parker in regards to the career development opportunities her employer provides.
At the company where Parker works, each employee receives an annual development budget which can be used at the employee’s discretion. There’s enough money take a class, buy books for a college course, or participate in online training. In some cases the development activity relates directly to career goals. Or, as in Parker’s case this year, the money can be used for personal development. She’s using her development dollars to take a woodworking class.
In addition, there are other “no-cost” opportunities for learning and growth including a peer mentoring program, communities of practice, and in-house workshops taught by peers.
“The focus on employee development is one of the things I really love about this company. It makes us strong. We can learn from each other. We can pull on everyone’s strengths.”
What do you risk if you don’t provide career development?
According to the Bank of America’s 2015 Small Business Owner Report, small businesses are having difficulty finding the right staff. When asked about the top challenges small business owners have with employees, they cited finding talent (38%) and employee turnover (16%) as concerns. For 59% of the small business owners, the challenge of finding qualified candidates was related to the fact that potential employees lacked the necessary skillset.
Indeed the time and cost involved in creating a career development strategy and approach for your business aren’t small expenses. You must meet with employees, assess skill sets, and review training opportunities. Making this investment without a guaranteed return on investment is unnerving for the financially-conscious business owner.
However, as the report from the Bank of America indicates, not making this investment creates the potential for more risks including an inability to recruit top talent, difficulty retaining employees, and undeveloped skills.
“Small businesses have to have something to offer other than money, or upward mobility,” says Parker. “They have to have a strong culture, as well as a strong interest and belief in the employees’ strengths as an individual.”
Employees tend to feel more engaged when they believe that their employer is concerned about their growth, development, and personal goals. A career development strategy demonstrates your commitment by providing employees with a structure that can lead to higher performance in their current jobs, a possible promotion, or a new position.
This focus on providing career development can have a direct, positive impact on your small business by improving morale, as well as increasing job satisfaction, productivity, and a commitment to the organization. When small businesses provide avenues and the means for employees to develop further in their careers, it’s more likely that the company will be able to achieve its strategic goals as well.
Learn from the example of the imaginary CEO in the quote at the beginning of this article. Don’t worry about employees leaving after you’ve invested in their development. Instead, look for innovative, cost-effective ways that you can implement career development in your small business. You’ll be surprised by the difference seemingly small investments will make for your employees and your business.
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Cosmic Timetraveler
By Alex Yohn
Jul 30, 2020
Difficult conversations at work can be awkward and unpleasant, but ultimately, they need to be had. These conversations can lead to more productivity, better working relationships and a more integrated team when done well. This is especially true if you avoid things like shaming or blaming, and keep the conversation productive and healthy.
If you cringe a little bit at the thought of having a difficult conversation at work, know you’re not alone. More than 70% of people avoid these types of conversations in workplaces according to a recent study by Bravely, a career-coaching startup. By avoiding what we need to say, we’re opening up room for lower morale in the workplace and creating toxic work environments.
Here are a few ways to make getting through a difficult conversation at work easier:
Don’t avoid it
The longer you wait, the harder it will be to bring up. Also, the longer you wait, the less relevant the difficult conversation will be to the person who needs to hear the feedback.
One way to make you less likely to do this is to reframe the conversation. For example, instead of thinking it’ll be tough for this person to hear this, think that this is information they need to do their job better.
Avoiding a conversation may have deeper roots, too. It may be a sign that you aren’t providing feedback as frequently as your team needs to stay on track. Some studies show that weekly one-on-one conversations keep teams most aligned, which lessens the need for difficult conversations in the first place.
Use “I” statements
When you begin sentences with “I” instead of “you,” you avoid using language that makes the person feel put-down. It also helps you be more empathetic and focus on what you can control: what you’re feeling.
For example, instead of saying, “You never get to work on time, can you please make sure to get here by 9 am?” you could say, “I really need you to be here when we start at 9 am because I have some crucial work for you to complete in the mornings. What can we do to make that happen?”
You’re saying the same thing, but in two completely different tones. The latter is likely to get you better results without hurting the working relationship. It lets the person know what you feel, why you need them to do what you’re requesting, and offers help to get to where they need to be.
Know your perspective may not be correct
Whenever you enter a difficult conversation, it’s likely because of a breakdown of communication. What you’re seeing may not be the entire picture, and you should be open to hearing someone out. Feedback, after all, isn’t a monologue. It’s a discussion between two people to find a better way.
When you enter a conversation like this, be willing to change your mind. You don’t want to commit to the story in your head without having the full perspective of everyone involved. Be ready to listen, absorb, respond and understand how you can move forward together.
You might be surprised by what you hear. If that’s the case, it’s likely a signal that you need to be more involved in the day-to-day of what’s happening with that person or the team they’re on. This shows the importance of these difficult conversations in creating transparency and openness in the workplace. Without them, we may never see the bigger picture.
Be prepared to come up with a solution together
Your job is not done after you tell the person what’s wrong. In fact, that’s just the beginning. From that point on, your job is to help find a viable solution to the problem.
When you keep this in mind, it will likely make the feedback you give more productive because you are no longer just stating a problem you see, you’re also responsible for helping to find a way out of it. If you’re not up for that challenge, the feedback is likely not necessary to give.
Of course, there are a few situations where this isn’t true – especially if you are being made to feel uncomfortable or being harassed at work. If that’s the case, seek help from your HR department or someone who can make your work environment better.
But, for the majority of work-related conversations, be ready to roll your sleeves up and help the person create a plan for success.
OfficeVibe has some great thoughts about dealing with difficult workplace conversations. They also have the best quote of all time about it: “Ending a difficult conversation without an action plan is like preparing cookies without putting them in the oven.”
OfficeVibe takes the approach that all parties involved should make sure they understood what was said, and even have a brainstorming session together to find a great way to solve the issue or at least come up with the next few steps.
Follow up to prevent issues down the line
We all react to criticism differently. Some people feel it immediately, others take time to absorb what was said. Be aware that the information you’ve relayed to someone may not hit them for a good day or two.
Hard conversations can bring up many emotions, including embarrassment or resentment. Our goal is to help the employee work through these feelings while letting them know that we’re there and ready to support them. It’s your job to periodically check in on them to ensure that your feedback was productive, and they understand that you’re there to help. Just like the need for frequent feedback, frequent check-ins after hard conversations can really reduce harboring any bad feelings or long-term resentment.
If you do sense tension after the conversation, schedule time out of the office to get together. Remember, you’re meeting as individuals and not colleagues at this point. The goal is to get your relationship to a place where trust and understanding are the first priority. Spend time talking about things outside of work first so that you can connect with each other again, then ask how you can help make that person feel better or more secure at work in light of the difficult conversation you both had.
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Research, tips and ideas on workplace happiness.
By Alex Yohn
Jul 28, 2020
What were you doing one year ago? What projects were you working on? Without cheating and looking back on your calendar, emails or social media, you likely don’t have too many memories from 365 days ago that stick out. However, when we do annual reviews, we expect our team to have a memory that sharp. It’s just not realistic.
According to SHRM, 71% of organizations still use annual reviews as their main way to look over performance. While a majority of organizations do this, many of those in charge of human resources don’t agree with the method. More than 50% of HR representatives believe that annual reviews aren’t accurate. In short, annual reviews aren’t accurate and shouldn’t be relied upon as the main way to provide feedback to employees if we truly want them to evolve and grow.
So, what’s a small business to do?
It can be hard to quickly scrap the old way of doing things and dive into a new performance review process. However, there are tactics you can implement right now to make things better as you work toward a more efficient and effective way to review employee performance. Let’s dive in.
Ask questions that matter
Another thing that goes hand in hand with annual performance reviews is questions that likely aren’t getting the most out of people. For example, how many times have you had to answer a question that started with “On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this employee’s communication skills?” or something close to that.
What does a 7.5 really mean? Where exactly did you miss the mark based on that answer?
Numerical responses don’t necessarily help an employee understand where they are doing well or where they could improve as much as open-ended questions do.
The goal for any review is to truly understand how the employee is performing and to get their perspective on what is and isn’t working. When we ask the right questions, we get closer to those answers.
Some sample questions may include:
- Talk to me about a project you have been involved in in the last 30 days that you’re really proud of. What did you enjoy during it? What was challenging?
- What’s the one thing you look forward to doing at work everyday? Why?
- What’s one thing that zaps your energy when you have to complete it? Why?
Finding out how and why your employees tick at work will help you better understand them, build your professional relationship with them and help them achieve their goals.
Have team members provide their feedback
When we think of performance reviews, we typically think of manager-employee feedback sessions that happen behind closed doors. But that’s just one out of the many relationships an employee has while working at your company.
When you provide feedback across the company from multiple perspectives, you’re more likely to give that employee a roadmap that they can use to successfully navigate great performance versus a single-perspective.
According to a report from Edgar Training Systems, 360 reviews, or reviews that have a multitude of perspectives from across the organization, foster more open communication across the team, increase employees’ self-awareness, boost morale and reduce employee turnover. Win, win!
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Research, tips and ideas on workplace happiness.
Make sure feedback is frequent
Nothing is worse than hearing feedback months after the situation it could have helped is over, but that’s exactly what extended periods between performance reviews do.
The more frequently we provide feedback, the better. In fact, a study by OfficeVibe found that 23% of employees were unsatisfied with the frequency of feedback they received from their managers.
First and foremost, frequent feedback does away with the guessing game of if any employee is on track or not. Our job as managers isn’t to leave employees assuming what to do. Our job is to create a clear path to success. We do this by the feedback we provide on employee performance and projects coming in. And the more often our employees hear it, the more opportunities they have to correct course. Here are some some surefire ways to provide better employee feedback.
Managers should be focused on providing frequent, quick feedback to employees in order to ensure they’re aligned with the mission and goals of the company daily.
The best way to provide feedback more frequently is to have on-going conversations throughout the week. Make sure to touch base with your employees at least once a week to ensure that they’re on track and don’t have any obstacles in the way of their success.
By Alex Yohn
Jul 23, 2020
You’ve created an incredible team. One that works well with one another, accomplishes great things together and loves to be challenged. As a leader, a big part of your job is ensuring that the team you recruited feels fulfilled, valued and a part of something bigger than themselves. This all leads to better employee retention, higher productivity and a better work environment.
So, how do you keep the good times rolling? High employee retention rates don’t always come from the espresso machine and ping pong table kind of perks. There are a lot of things you can do to not only attract great team members to your company, but keep them for the long haul.
Let’s explore a few ways.
Support remote working
Companies that support remote working see a 25% reduction in employee turnover, according to a State of Remote Working report done by Owl Labs. The same report showcased remote workers being an average of 29% happier in their jobs as their counterparts who work from an office.
At Kin, we’ve noticed not only increased retention rates from remote working, but we’ve also enjoyed the benefit of being able to cast a wider net when it comes to recruiting. Many people love where they’ve put down roots, and are unlikely to move for a job – especially right now.
By offering remote work (or even a few days of working from home), you’re opening up an entire avenue for better employee recruitment and longer retention.
Be generous with praise and recognition
According to a recent Gallup survey, 28% of employees surveyed said the most memorable recognition came from their manager. Some even reported that recognition from their manager or the CEO of the company became a long-term highlight of their career.
Not only does praise make individuals feel fulfilled at work, it also helps companies see a lower attrition rate by up to 72%. Organizations that recognize employees’ strengths and help them use them more often reap all of the rewards.
Wondering how to provide positive feedback that matters? Check out our latest blog post here that gives you an exact formula on how to provide better employee feedback.
Provide a career roadmap
Do you have a rockstar employee who does a consistently incredible job with everything you throw at them? They’re likely happy in their job, but it’s important to make sure that they feel invested in and valued so they stay for the long-term.
A great way to reward your top employees is to talk about the future of their career and work on a plan to achieve success with them. By working one-on-one with employees to develop their career roadmap, you’re not only investing in them, you’re helping them map out the future and see how they can experiment with it within your company.
The work they challenge themselves with this way will not only grow their skill sets and experience, it’ll grow your organization, too. The more you can develop your greatest employees, the better your business will be.
It’s also a big deal when it comes to retention. In fact, a recent study by World Bridge Partners reported that 53% of millennials said career pathing and planning with managers has the most impact on their decision to stay with their employer.
Develop T-shaped employees
Hand-in-hand with creating career roadmapping comes continuing education. But for retention, it’s not necessarily in the ways you’d expect.
The best employees are often referred to as “T-shaped.” A T-shaped employee has a lot of knowledge in one area of expertise that goes deep down. They also have cross-functional knowledge about a variety of topics, allowing for broader perspectives and great problem-solving skills.
T-shaped employees are typically excellent collaborators since they can quickly connect with people due to their diverse background. They’re also great resources on a variety of topics, and are fast learners.
So, how do you encourage your team mates to become “T-shaped” employees?
Prioritize learning outside of their discipline, first and foremost. If you have a budget for continuing education, you’ll want to loosen the controls around what team members can use it on. Perhaps instead of a conference they go to for their discipline every year, they can use the budget on a MasterClass subscription, or a language class.
By building up other skill sets that aren’t directly related to their main discipline, they’ll develop a deeper understanding of a variety of things. In fact, studies have shown that people who get away from the daily monotony of their job’s discipline will often have better success in problem solving afterward. We’ve even seen it in action, and you can check out what we learned here.
By Alex Yohn
Jul 21, 2020
Did you know that nearly 70% of managers are uncomfortable giving employee feedback? At a rate that high, it’s unlikely that a majority of employees worldwide are getting the information they need to do a great job. While so many people feel uncomfortable giving feedback, it doesn’t have to be that scary. In fact, we have a great framework that will make feedback much more impactful while reducing the stress of giving it in the first place.
It’s crucial for the success of your company that team members hear what they’re doing well, and where they can improve. Positive feedback reinforces the behaviors you want to see as well as sets expectations for what success looks like. The same goes for critical feedback, which helps us identify behaviors and strategies that shouldn’t be repeated so we can avoid them next time.
The way we provide feedback at Kin hinges on three things: the situation, the behavior and the impact. Every piece of feedback you give, whether positive or negative, should have all three components addressed.
The formula is not our own, but from the book Radical Candor by Kim Scott. If you haven’t read it, it’s easily one of the most influential books we’ve read on providing feedback.
Here are two examples of positive and negative feedback and why they work. This will give you the framework to model your own feedback on so that you can effectively communicate your thoughts with team members moving forward.
Let’s start with a positive example:
Situation: Hey Sara, you did such a great job responding to the client’s concerns this morning on our call!
Behavior: I loved how calm and understanding you were even with their toughest questions.
Impact: Your demeanor definitely gave them a lot of confidence in our ability to do the work, even with the going gets tough on this project.
In this example, you’re directly relating the praise you give Sara to a situation that happened where she can recall her actions. Just like we appreciate feedback from clients being specific so we can zero in on what they’re addressing, we thrive when our managers can do the same for us as employees.
Next, zeroing in on the behavior you want to see replicated is key. Naming emotions and actions in this component help give people the understanding of what you truly mean, versus being unintentionally vague with high-level context.
Last, and this is especially true during positive feedback, providing how you felt, or how someone in the group felt when it came to the value added by their behavior is key. All too often, we go on without being told how we are valuable to an organization, even when we are given positive feedback. By remembering to name it during the impact component of feedback, you’re ensuring your team hears it. Connect the dots for employees, don’t assume they just know.
Now, let’s tackle a negative feedback example. Before we dive in, we want to address that yes, providing negative feedback can make people understandably nervous. While we can’t control how someone else will respond to what we say, we absolutely can control how we deliver the message which ultimately triggers their response.
Let’s examine one way to give negative feedback using our model from Radical Candor from above:
Situation: Can I be radically candid about the presentations you’ve turned in over the last 90 days?
Behavior: I’ve noticed that you’ve had a lot of typos, incomplete sentences and trailing ideas in them.
Impact: Since assets like these presentations directly impact how we sell to clients, I’m concerned that we won’t hit our sales targets if we don’t have the quality assets we need to deliver to prospective clients.
We’re not done just yet. Once we’ve said what we need to say, we need to enter the next step for critical feedback, which is called the exploration phase. This is where you as the feedback giver are taking responsibility for not only giving feedback, but helping the individual do better work. Remember, if we are only there to give feedback and not help realign an employee to do their best work, we don’t deserve to give feedback in the first place.
You can ask something along the lines of, “What information could I provide that would enable you to better create these presentations?” or “What if I were to provide an outline for what I want to see in the presentations? This could give you a better guideline for how to complete them versus starting from scratch, would that be helpful?”
The more ideas you can bring to the table to explore resolutions to pain points, the better.
Now that you’ve said what you’ve had to say, it’s your turn to actively listen to your team mate. Remember, the focus on any feedback, whether positive or negative, is to have a conversation that helps the employee do a better job in the future. Be open to hearing what they have to say and empathetic to their situation.
Once you’ve had your discussion and feel like you have heard each other out, you may want to wrap it up by asking questions to ensure that your points have been heard and understood, just as theirs have. You can ask questions like, “What’s your biggest takeaway from this meeting?” or “Do you think that this feedback helps align you with your objectives for the year?”
Questions like this will allow you to feel out the conversation a bit more before you leave, and ensure that they have the direction they need to be successful in the future.
Last but not least, you must document your discussion – both positive and negative. Conversations are great, but oftentimes, especially during critical feedback, an employee may be uncomfortable and not fully retain what was said. By documenting the discussion in a place where both you and your team member can refer to, you’ll ensure that nothing was lost from the session and you’re both on the same page.
By Alex Yohn
Jul 14, 2020
There’s no denying it, we’re living through, well, interesting times. While traveling isn’t something everyone is comfortable with right now, taking time off should be. Our bodies are under more stress than normal as we navigate the ever-changing information on keeping our families safe through a global pandemic. Plus, our normal lives haven’t stopped. Work is still going. Some parents are forced to homeschool on top of it. Families still need to be tended. Finding time to unplug, destress and maintain balance is critical if your team is planning on making it through 2020 without major burn out. Encouraging employees to utilize their paid time off is good for everyone.
If you equate time off with vacations away from home, it’s hard to realistically understand how you’d use it. You may not be comfortable hopping on a plane, or driving across country at the moment. However, the opposite isn’t a better alternative: working non-stop for months on end will leave you feeling sluggish, uninspired and less impactful at your job.
Taking paid time off is not only good for your mental health right now with its heavy load, it’s good for your company’s productivity. Plus, things like taking time off to garden, finally get through that stack of books on your bed stand or to perfect your sourdough bread making skills count just as much as taking a grand vacation. The bottom line is you need time away from work.
People in work environments (whether remote or in person) often look to leaders to model their behavior after. When a leader is driven, motivated and passionate, oftentimes they attract team members who are the same. When a leader is overworked, tired and burning the midnight oil, their employees may feel the need to do the same, too.
By creating a pro-vacation environment as a leader, where you go public about taking time off and taking it in long stretches, will allow employees to see it as an option for themselves, too.
Here’s a few examples of leaders openly speaking about their time off practices that may get you more comfortable with not only taking time, but encouraging your team to do the same through your actions.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
Sheryl Sandberg has been a force when it comes to having women go after executive roles in corporations. Sandberg is not only the COO of Facebook, but she’s also a published author with NYT’s Best seller, Lean In.
Sandberg claims the only way she was able to juggle the high-powered COO role, her personal life as a widow with two children, and writing books is that she uses every day of her PTO each year, no excuses.
Richard Branson, Founder, The Virgin Group
Richard Branson is anything but boring. And with that incredible energy, comes the need to get away from the desk. He’s known for taking long periods away from work to travel the world or just relax at home.
“Freed from the daily stresses of my working life, I find that I am more likely to have new insights into old problems and other flashes of inspiration,” Branson said in a recent CNBC interview.
He believes in vacation so much so, he was one of the very first companies to create an unlimited paid time off policy. However, before you think about creating one of those in your own company, you may want to read our thoughts about it here.
Jeff Weiner, Founder, LinkedIn
Perhaps taking long periods away from work isn’t your thing. Microburst of time to do nothing can give you a bit of perspective, too.
Take for example, Jeff Weiner, the founder of LinkedIn, who schedules 90 minutes every day to be “unstructured.” Not to go to lunch, or check up on email, or clean his office. Ninety minutes just to think and unwind. Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? He calls it the power of nothing.
Other notable leaders such as Warby Parker’s co-founders, Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, have adopted the same practice.
Ariana Huffington, Founder, HuffingtonPost.com
If anyone understands the need for breaks, it’s Ariana Huffington. Huffington’s wake-up call came after she was at home on the phone and responding to emails when she collapsed. She woke up in a pool of blood with a cut over her eye and a broken cheekbone.
The reason for her fall? Exhaustion. Working too hard can go much beyond mental burn out. It can affect your body so much so that it quite literally shuts down.
Huffington’s newest company, Thrive Global, now takes vacation extremely seriously. SO much so that they have implemented a computer program that auto-deletes every email an employee receives on vacation. This allows employees to be fully-present when away from work, so they can be fully present at work.
Ready to take some time off? Log into your Kin account now to get it booked.