Break the Monotony With These 4 Fun Team-Building Activities

Break the Monotony With These 4 Fun gruppe-Building ActivitiesBreak the Monotony With These 4 Fun Team-Building ActivitiesLooking for ways to instill a kollektiv ethic, boost morale and motivation, or just encourage employees to come out of their shells? Then consider a few fun team-building activities from time to time. Theyll help you bring the group together in a lighthearted, collaborative way.The key is to focus on enjoyable yet challenging activities that push your employees to find creative solutions. At the same time, theyll get a gratifying break and gain a fresh perspective on their jobs and each other.Here are some fun team-building activities to use with your team - and each should take an hour or less.The obstacle fieldGoal To improve trust and communication among team members.Activity Find an empty room or hallway, or head outdoors to an open field, and place obstacles around the space. They can be cones, empty bottles or other objects. Divide your group into two-rolle teams, and blindfold one member. The blindfolded team member must then try to navigate the obstacle field without tripping over any of the objects. The partner provides verbal guidance.Yin and yangGoal To improve communication in the workplace and build team spirit. This is also an effective icebreaker technique for new employees.Acitivity First, ask team members to think of a common pair of items - for example, macaroni and cheese, yin and yang, or jacket and tie. Have them write the name of each item on separate pieces of paper.Tape one piece of paper to each participants back - making sure no one gets their own suggestions. To deduce whats taped there - and find their other half - participants mingle and ask each other yes-or-no questions. Of all the fun team-building activities on the list, this one probably takes the least amount of prep time. So its especially suited for team leaders who are time-strapped.Potluck lunchGoal To promote camaraderie and celebrate group achiev ements or milestones.Activity Organizing a potluck lunch is a fun way to encourage communication among team members. Some may want to discuss aspects of projects they dont have time to broach in the typical workday, and the relaxed atmosphere can also lead to conversations around peoples activities and interests outside of the office.Whether its a workplace anniversary or just a random Friday, ask each person to bring a dish that can be shared with the team. Make it even more fun by choosing a theme, like a fiesta or ballpark snacks.Admirable traitsGoal To showcase everyones strong suits. A great morale booster.Activity Assign an envelope to each individual and fill it with blank slips of paper. For the next week, encourage team members to write down something they appreciate about each person (excluding themselves). At the end of the week, everyone takes an envelope (not his own) and shares aloud the positive things that were written. Once the exercise is complete, everyone receive s his or her own envelope of the affirmative thoughts coworkers wrote about them.There is no shortage of fun team-building activities out there. The next time your group gets together - whether for a skills-building course, brainstorming session or simply for the regular Friday meeting - consider doing one of the activities above. Youll likely find that with just a little bit of time, you can help the team feel more comfortable working together.For even more great tips that you can use to build teamwork in the workplace, check out one of these articlesThe Value of Teamwork in the WorkplaceSetting Team GoalsTeam Buy-InStaying PositiveTeam Diversity

New data paint an unpleasant picture of poverty in the US

New data paint an unpleasant picture of poverty in the USNew data paint an unpleasant picture of poverty in the USOn Sept. 12, the U.S. Census Bureau released national poverty data for 2017.The headline was that 39.7 million people were poor in 2017. This works out to 12.3 percent of the population or one in eight Americans. The good news is that the U.S. poverty satz has fallen since 2010, when it hit 15.1 percent, and is now where it was before the Great Recession.The bad news is that poverty still exceeds the 11.3 percent satz of 2000 and far too many people are poor in a country that is so rich. Aleidher bit of bad news is that things look even worse if we use what many scholars like myself believe is a better poverty measure.Who is poor?In 2017, women had higher poverty rates than men and minorities had higher poverty rates than non-Hispanic whites, mainly because women earn less than men and minorities receive lower wages on average than whites. For similar reasons, adults with lower education levels are more likely to be poor.Whats more, having an additional adult able to earn money gives married-couple families much lower poverty rates than households headed by a single woman.Poverty also varies by age. For those 65 and over, the poverty rate fell from the 1960s until the 1990s, mainly due to more generous Social Security benefits. Since then, it has remained at around 10 percent. The poverty rate for prime-age adults fell until around 1980. After 1980, it fluctuated around 10 percent, rising during recessions and falling during economic expansions.Child poverty, however, has been relatively high in the U.S. since the late 1970s it now stands at 17.5 percent. For children in a female-headed household, the poverty rate is near 50 percent.Problems with measuring povertyThese data all come from American households, using methodology developed in the early 1960s by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration.Taking Agriculture Department data on minimum food requirements, Orshansky calculated the annual cost of a subsistence food budget for families of different sizes and types. Household budget studies from the 1950s showed that families spent one-third of their income on food. So, Orshanksy multiplied the cost of a minimum food budget for each family type by three to arrive at their poverty threshold. Thresholds rise annually based on inflation over the past year.Being poor means having insufficient income during the year to purchase bare necessities. The poverty rate is the percentage of the population in this situation.The Orshansky poverty measure has been subject to substantial criticism. Clearly, poverty thresholds are not very high. A single individual making US$1,060 a month would not be considered poor. Yet, in most areas in the U.S., its hard to rent a place for less than $500 a month.Even if thats possible, this leaves only $20 a day for transportation, clothing, phone, food and other expenses. Orshanskys minima l food budget assumed that people shop wisely, never eat out and never give their children treats. She actually preferred a more generous food budget to get multiplied by three but she was overruled by senior government officials.Another problem is that the U.S. poverty measure ignores income and payroll taxes. In the early 1960s, the poor paid minimal taxes. Starting in the late 1970s, low-income families faced a more formidable tax burden, leaving them less money to purchase basic necessities. Conversely, in the late 1990s, tax credits began to lower the tax burden on the poor.Finally, standards concerning what is required to be a respectable member of society vary over time and place. For example, cellphones did not exist until recently. Childcare was not necessary for many in the 1950s or 1960s but when all adults in a family work, its essential.More bad newsTo deal with this last problem, many scholars prefer a relative measure of poverty. The Luxembourg Income Study, a researc h organization that analyzes income distribution, considers households to be poor if their income, adjusted for household size, falls below 50 percent of the median income of their country for the particular year.Unlike the U.S. Census Bureau, the Luxembourg Income Study subtracts taxes from income when measuring poverty. It also adds government benefits, and makes data as comparable as possible across nations. The result is a poverty rate that is typically two to four percentage points above the official U.S. measure.From an grenzberschreitend perspective, the U.S. clearly does poorly. According to Luxembourg Income Study, the U.S. poverty rate was 17.2 percent in the mid-2010s much higher than other developed countries, such as Canada and the U.K.Things are even worse when it comes to child poverty. In the U.S., child poverty rates have surpassed 20 percent for several decades, making it an outlier among developed nations.My research has identified two important policies responsi ble for this last result child allowances and paid parental leave. Child allowances are fixed monthly payments to parents made for each child. Paid leave provides income to parents around the birth or adoption of a new child. Both policies are available in developed nations throughout the world except the U.S. The more generous these national benefits are, the lower the child poverty rate.Considerable research shows that growing up poor adversely affects childrens health, as well as their intellectual and social development. It lowers earnings in adulthood, and reduces future tax revenues for the government while increasing government social spending.The annual cost of child poverty comes to around $1 trillion. Meanwhile, every dollar spent reducing child poverty is estimated to yield $7 in the future. This exceeds the return on most private investments.Steven Pressman, prof of Economics, Colorado State UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Co mmons license. Read the original article.

Maryland One Stop Counselors Get BRAC-Ready

Maryland One Stop Counselors Get BRAC-ReadyMaryland One Stop Counselors Get BRAC-ReadyMaryland One Stop Counselors Get BRAC-ReadyForty One Stop employment counselors from Maryland and DC have just been trained on the ins and outs of the federal job search. Marylands Department of Labor, wanted One Stop clients to have strong support when applying for 20,000 BRAC-related federal jobs flowing into his state. Kathryn Troutman, the federal jobs expert leading the training gruppe. The state of Maryland has been getting ready. Due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions made in 2005, Maryland expects to receive about 20,000 direct federal jobs. Huge reorganizations of military bases and DOD agencies have slated thousands of additional jobs for the US Armys Aberdeen Proving Grounds and Fort Meade. The states Department of Labor, wanted to improve the success of federal job seekers moving through his One Stop employment centers. Now Md. State and DC employment counselors have recei ved intensive training in the federal job search.Applying to work for the federal government is different than in the private sector and much more mysterious for most people, noted Kathryn Troutman, who is leading the Federal Career Training Institute team doing the training.Applying for federal jobs has always been complicated. Back in 2002, Troutman recognized the need for special in-depth certifications in federal job training and coaching coincidentally while doing a one-day training with job counselors in Maryland. The counselors told her they were intimidated by the federal hiring process and tended to avoid it. This conversation a decade ago inspired Troutman to establish her dual track Certified Federal Job Search Trainer and Federal Career Coach Certifications. The specifics of federal job counseling for veterans are part of the certifications and Maryland training. With the drawbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, One Stop counselors need to be especially prepared to help ex-military with federal employment. Since federal job titles are different, counselors need to be trained on how to match past experience with the right positions.In all, 35 One Stop employment counselors from Maryland and five from DC completed the major portion of the federal jobs training earlier this year. This means that there is now one Federal Career Navigator for each One Stop office in the state of Maryland. The 2-1/2 day training was done in two groups of 20. The One Stop counselors will all also attend a one-day follow-up session to address any challenges and remaining questions.Three Federal Career Training Institute trainers lead the two groups through a comprehensive back-grounding in federal employmentDay 1 Troutmans 10 Steps to a Federal Job approach to applying for federal jobsDay 2 A federal HR primer, including special populations hiring programs (veterans, military spouses, the disabled, etc.)Day 3 Coaching Practice, including assessment of job applicant skills , figuring out what the jobseekers objectives are, determining the skills called for in a job announcement, and counseling on improving the resume and writing it toward a particular position.Incorporated within the training was also coverage of Troutmans outline resume-writing technique, a format which has been well received by federal HR. A major problem with the earlier job campaigns in Maryland was certainly the resumes, Troutman explained. Federal resumes require a special format, which is three to four pages on average. Accomplishments need to be emphasized, rather than past duties. Keywords are important. A general resume wont do. She said that, for veterans, writing the federal resume can be especially challenging since many have never had to write one before.Troutmans federal job certifications are turnkey programs, which means everything is supplied. The Maryland students received six books, including The Federal Resume Guidebook, 5th edition and books geared toward veteran s, students and senior executives. They also were given a Powerpoint of Ten Steps training that can be presented to jobseekers. The very hands-on course was taught at the computer. The certification lasts for two years.Troutman sees the training of One Stop counselors in Maryland as a model for One Stop centers in other states, especially areas with a high concentration of federal jobs or BRAC opportunities.The training demystifies the federal application process, said Troutman. After the three days, the counselors feel confidant that they understand the federal system, and can advise applicants on federal jobs that best match their skill set. Its so important that federal resumes be targeted toward a specific federal job, and we emphasize this throughout the entire three days.Now in their tenth year, Troutmans Federal Job Search Trainer and Federal Career Coach certifications are the first and only certification programs on the federal job search. The programs are pre-approved to fulfill 24 continuing education hours for the Center of Credentialing and Educations Global Career Development Facilitator certification. For more information on Troutmans certification programs and other federal career services, go to www.fedjobtraining.com.