Current Affairs

You Can Be Part of Brand It Blue Day

On Saturday, June 13, Express Employment Professionals offices across North America will gather together for Brand It Blue Day. The event is a day of service aimed to help in the fight against hunger, and you can be a part of it!

Why Is It Important?
Summer is an especially difficult time of year for children as most of the school meal programs end, leaving millions of kids at risk of going hungry. In 2013, more than 21.5 million children received free or reduced-price meals through their school programs and only 2.5 million of those children took part in summer food service programs. In Canada, more than 310,000 children receive their meals through food banks each month.

What’s The Impact?
In 2014, 205 Express offices participated in Brand It Blue Day and more than 1,000 volunteers showed up at their local food pantries to help. Thanks to everyone’s help, Express was able to collect enough food and donations to provide more than 55,000 meals to those in need. During the past two years, Express has supplied more than 91,000 meals.

Why Should You Help?
Volunteering adds valuable experience to your resume. Whether you’re a job seeker who just graduated or someone who has been out of the workforce for an extended period of time, volunteering can help add to your work history and set you apart from the competition. Spending your time serving in your community helps you gain networking opportunities that can lead to jobs, provides new skills that you can add to your resume, and shows you have a passion for helping others. In fact, a recent report by the Corporation for National and Community Service found that volunteering was associated with 27% higher odds of employment.

How Can You Help?
Now that you know the impact of Brand It Blue Day and the value of volunteering, you may be wondering how you can be part of the big event. If the Express office in your city is taking part in Brand It Blue Day, you may be able to volunteer your time at a food bank or bring in donations to a canned food drive. Contact your local Express office and find out if they’ll be participating in this day of service so you can help!

Movin’ On Up is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.

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Brand It Blue Day Provided More Than 55,000 Meals

On Saturday, June 14, in communities across North America, Express Employment Professionals offices came together to serve and give back as part of the second annual Brand It Blue Day.

More than 200 Express offices, from California to North Carolina to Canada joined with 1,000 volunteers to provide more than 55,000 meals for those in need. If you were able to be a part of this amazing effort in any way, thank you for your support and hard work.

As we recently shared, volunteering and serving with a local nonprofit or charity can help you find your next job. But giving back to your community doesn’t just impact your job search. Research shows volunteering is connected to an increase in well-being and lowered depression, both of which are often impacted by the loss of a job.

Helping others, whether it’s through serving alongside a group of volunteers on a Saturday morning, or by doing pro-bono work from your home for a nonprofit, has a positive impact on your attitude on life and hopes for your future. The London School of Economics conducted a study that found the more people volunteered, the happier they felt.

We hope that Brand It Blue Day gave you an opportunity to serve in your community,  increase your happiness, and possibly, make some new connections that will help you soon find a new job. If you didn’t have a chance to join Express for this year’s event, make sure to check back with your local office for information about Brand It Blue Day 2015 and how you can be involved.

Check out some of the photos from Brand It Blue Day events from across North America!

Olive Brand Express Office
Olive Branch Express Office
Grand Rapids Express Office
Grand Rapids Express Office
El Paso Express Office
El Paso Express Office
Raleigh Express Office
Raleigh Express Office

Movin’ On Up is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.

Hot Fields Hiring Non-College Grads

HotFieldsHiring_Sept2013Matching personal skills and abilities with open jobs can be a frustrating task for job seekers. But if you’re curious about what your top options might be without a college degree, read on.

A recent survey of Express Employment Professional’s franchises uncovered the top hiring fields for workers without college degrees. The industrial job category topped the list, followed closely by office services. This aligns with an announcement in July citing the top 10 hardest jobs to find people for that included CNC programmers, welders, machinists, and administrative roles. The survey is part of a series of reports titled America Employed, a look into who is currently getting hired and why.

Before you make a job switch to a field with current open positions, do some investigating into your career options. With 1/3 of your time spent at work, and your work determining your income and lifestyle factors, how are you investigating and planning your career? One tool you may consider is the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which allows you to search job projections and growth rates by education level, training, and pay.

There are many paths toward your career future, and they don’t all include college. Experience in the workplace and your attitude can make a huge impact. So look for ways to get your foot in the door and become a trusted team member.  It’s not just your degree – or lack thereof – that determines your job prospects!

Let us know what your biggest asset is in your job search in the comments section below.

Reading and Your Career

reading_Sept2013_WebWhether you consider yourself a bookworm or prefer to stick to comic strips and movies, your ability to read is a privilege – a privilege that more than 780 million adults across the globe lack. Nearly two-thirds of those illiterate adults are women, and an additional 94 to 115 million children won’t receive an education at all. In light of this worldwide need, International Literacy Day will be held on Sunday, Sept. 8, to help draw attention to the literacy needs of people everywhere.  The power to read can unlock doors and change lives. Check out this video.

For 2013, the theme of the day is “Invent Your Future.” The specific goal of this slogan is to “shine a light on the crucial literacy skills that prime students for success in school, work, and life,” as stated by the International Reading Association.  Beyond simply being a required skill for most jobs, reading has some major benefits for your career path, especially if you read the right stuff.

The Benefits
Ultimately, you are in control of your future. Where you end up professionally is largely based on your abilities to learn, grow, adapt, and communicate, all of which can be gained through reading. There are many benefits that come from reading, but there are a few that directly correlate to your career growth.

Reading can:

  • Expand your knowledge and understanding.
  • Provide good conversation starters.
  • Make you look intelligent.
  • Increase your vocabulary.
  • Improve your written and verbal communication skills.

And the list goes on.

Finding the Best Reading Materials
Depending on your industry and career goals, what you read will probably vary from what your friends and even your co-workers read. But, there are some books and resources that can help just about anyone in their career. Here are some great resources to help you know where to start:

  • Forbes Best Books to Boost Your Career in 2013
  • 15 Books That Will Help You Prosper and Be Happy in Your Career from BrazenCareerist
  • CareerBuilder 5 Books That Will Help Your Career
  • The Top 75 Websites for Your Career from Forbes

Even if you don’t consider yourself a great reader, why not make it a goal to read at least one career- focused book in September? Do it in observance of Literacy Day. Do it in honor of all those who can’t. Do it to take control and advance your career. You’ll be a better employee, and person, because of it.
What are some specific books or blogs that you’ve found to be helpful to your career? Are there other benefits of reading that you’ve discovered in your professional life? Please share below!

Supreme Court Redefines Workplace Discrimination

USSupremeCourt_August2013_webTwo recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have set a new precedent for future allegations of employment discrimination. According to USA Today, in a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled “that workplace discrimination can only be pinned on a supervisor who has the ability to hire and fire, rather than merely direct work assignments.” The New York Times expanded on this by highlighting the Court’s new definition of a supervisor as “someone authorized to take ‘tangible employment actions’ like hiring, firing, promoting, demoting, or reassigning employees to significantly different responsibilities.”

In another 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court sided with employers again when it came to illegal retaliation. As NPR explained, “the court said that those claiming to be the victims of illegal retaliation must show that the only reason for the action against them was that they reported some discriminatory action.”

These rulings mean from now on discrimination charges against co-workers or other employees will be looked at much more closely and compared against the Court’s new guidelines. And that has major implications for future lawsuits based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

How This Could Affect You
As an employee, this ruling could impact you in several ways. If you believe you have suffered from workplace harassment or retaliation, it will now be more difficult to file suit for discrimination. It’s harder to file charges against your employer if the person harassing you is not a supervisor who fits the  Court’s definition, even if that employee has truly been verbally or physically harassing you. And, even if you are able to move forward with a lawsuit, the required burden of proof will be much heavier, making it more difficult to win the case.

In regards to retaliation, if you do file, you must show that the retaliation was the determinative factor for the negative action.

The particular cases on which the Court ruled involved a lawsuit between Ball State University and a kitchen worker, and a suit between the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a doctor. These were not easy cases for the justices. It took seven months of consideration before they reached their decisions, and even now, some are calling for the decisions to be over-turned.

Infographic: Job Jumps and Career Changes

The millennial generation was born, raised, and influenced by technology.

Just as quickly as technology changes and evolves, the focus of millennials also changes as new information and opportunities are continually made available to them.  And, according to Forbes, they’re the same way in their careers.

Check out this infographic from Notre Dame Online outlining the millennial mindset of the workplace and the nature of their work ethic. This information can help millennials research their next career move before making costly career leaps. And even if you’re not from Generation Y, you can learn how they think and what’s important to them so you can learn to build better working relationships with your millennial co-workers.

Do you agree with the infographic’s depiction of the millennial generation? Let us know in the comment section below.

Millennial Job Hoppers

The 10 Most- and Least-Common Jobs in the US

Least and Common Jobs in U.S.Did you know that there are more than 4 million retail sales workers in the U.S.? That’s enough people to populate some of the smaller states in the country. There are also only 310 prosthodontists in the U.S., which is probably smaller than your high school graduating class.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released a survey outlining the most and least common occupations in the U.S. The survey also lists jobs by median wage, public and private sector, and geographic location. If you don’t want to scroll through pages of information, check out the multimedia news site The Atlantic for a quick summary and analysis of the information.

What do you think? Do you know of a job that is scarcer than a cosmetic dental surgeon? Let us know in the comments section below.

The 10 Most-Common (and 10 Least-Common) Jobs in America Today