With unemployment cratering, the challenge now is to fill open jobs
Posted On June 21, 2018
People shouldn’t have much trouble finding a job right now. Unemployment in the U.S. was 3.8 percent in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics– an 18-year low. That’s great, right? Of course, if you’re a worker. If you’re an employer looking to hire, it presents a problem: Filling out a workforce. And filling it out with the right people. Our guest in this episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is Ed Castile, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Workforce Development Division, for the state of Alabama and Director of AIDT– Alabama Industrial Development Training. His job is to help… Read More
Categories: Podcast, Training Industry, Workplace
Millennials finding it tough to bounce back from Great Recession
Posted On June 16, 2018
We grouse about their participation trophies and helicopter parenting. We stereotype them as overly entitled and self-absorbed. We laugh about their reactions to pop culture standards from before they were born. But instead of mocking millennials, we should perhaps be worried about them. A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis found that many millennials have never gotten over the Great Recession of the late 2000s. The study found that the net worth of a typical family whose head was born in the 1980s, the front edge of the millennial generation, was 34 percent below expectations, and lost… Read More
Categories: Blog, Financial Services, Generation Y / Millennials, Wealth
Did God create the Internet?
Posted On June 13, 2018
It’s an intriguing question, and one that our guest this week on “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” Scott Klososky, examines in a book by the same title. As a technologist, Klososky is concerned with what technology is doing to us, whether its benefits to society outweigh its drawbacks, and whether we are concerning ourselves with its consequences as we should. He shares his thoughts on these topics with us, but he also delves into a technological topic that should be a lot more immediate to business owners – cybersecurity. It’s not just rogue hackers attacking governmental entities and corporations anymore…. Read More
Categories: Podcast
Demystifying your paycheck: Who FICA is and why he’s taking your money
Posted On June 6, 2018
During an NBA career that spanned two decades, Shaquille O’Neal made more money per season than most of us will ever see in our lives. But when he got his first paycheck, he had a revelation with which most of us can relate: “Who the hell is FICA?” he famously asked. “When I meet him, I’m going to punch him in the face.” Michael Roe had a similar revelation, visiting his manager’s office after receiving his first paycheck to complain about being shortchanged. The experience inspired Roe to educate himself about personal finance and ultimately to create The Financial Millennial… Read More
Categories: Financial Services, Podcast, Wealth
When it comes to change, slow and steady wins the race
Posted On June 2, 2018
Change is difficult. It’s often necessary in business to usher in new leadership, to reverse an undesirable trend, to take advantage of new opportunities, or simply to keep up with or a step ahead of the competition. But we humans are naturally reluctant to accept change, predisposed to prefer the known status quo to the unknown. The result is often a workforce that is pulled kicking and screaming into the company’s new reality, retreating into the defensive position of protecting its jobs, and slowing and complicating the process with its recalcitrance. But my guest in this week’s episode of “What’s… Read More
Categories: Podcast, Work, Workplace
Getting creative: How to know when you need outside help
Posted On May 23, 2018
What is creativity? The answer to that question will be different depending upon who you ask. But to Rich Sullivan, CEO of Red Square Agency in Mobile, it’s really quite simple. “Really, creativity to me is the ability to adapt,” Sullivan says, “the ability to take what’s happened — facts and experiences and trends that you can draw a backwards line on — and be able to look what’s going to happen and predict something or literally influence what the future is.” Influencing the future is what Sullivan’s clients would like him to do – particularly, influencing their future sales…. Read More
Categories: Advertising, Podcast, Product Design
Setting up a Self-Directed IRA? You Really Need to Know These 5 Things
Posted On May 23, 2018
One of the pieces of research we cite the most is the lack of Baby Boomer retirement savings, especially in the younger half of the Boomers. This lack of savings has many implications from their longevity in the workplace to Gen X’s inability to get promoted. Today I’m posting a guest blog from Rick Pendykoski about a self-directed IRA – a type of retirement savings tool. If you’re a Boomer and haven’t begun retirement savings, maybe this is the right one for you. -Cam If you are setting up a self-directed IRA to expand your financial portfolio beyond stocks and bonds,… Read More
Categories: Financial Services, Retirement
From classic movies to Chick-fil-A: Millennial reaction videos reach critical mass
Posted On May 19, 2018
Just when you thought there wasn’t anything else that millennials could try while their reactions are filmed for a cheesy video, Business Insider has found a new one: Chick-fil-A. That’s right: Somewhere in this country are 10 millennials who apparently had never tried Chick-fil-A until Business Insider stuck a camera in their faces and shoved a chicken sandwich in front of them. One said she grew up in Europe. One was from Montana. One was a former vegetarian. One just said “the lines are always really long.” This worn-out trope has come in many forms, perhaps the best of which… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Generation Y / Millennials
Tinkering with your swing: What can a leadership coach do for you?
Posted On May 17, 2018
Do you need a leadership consultant? Does anyone? Some businesses must find their services useful – there are millions of them across the country. But how do you know if you need one? What can they do for your business? And how do you know which one to turn to for help? In this week’s episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,”I pose these questions to Hal Adler of Leadership Landing, who has worked with senior leadership teams of some of the most successful companies in the world. What are those companies seeking when they hire a consultant? These are… Read More
Categories: Blog, Uncategorized, Work, Workplace
Pop the bubble: the value of inclusive decision-making
Posted On May 14, 2018
In my last “What’s Working with Cam Marston” episode, we looked at the value of reverse mentoring. Forbes contributor Erik Larson goes one step further, however: For the best chance at desired results, younger employees need to be part of the decision-making process. A study by Larson’s company, Cloverpop, found that inclusive teams arrive at better decisions — and make them faster — than individual decision-makers. Furthermore, the study found that teams of younger members outperformed older teams by 40 percent in reaching decisions that led to positive outcomes. What’s more, teams that included members of a wide range of… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Blog, Generation Y / Millennials, Workplace