QuickBase’s annual user conference, #EMPOWER2016, kicked off this morning in Nashville with a keynote from Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win. In Geoffrey Moore’s words, disruptive innovation occurs when something that was previously scarce and expensive becomes cheap and can be implemented on a wider scale.Current examples of disruptive innovations in various stages of widespread adoption are clou...

A few months ago, I attended an employee engagement workshop. The facilitator suggested that millennials require performance feedback more than once a year. “Maybe once a quarter,” she said.More like once a day!” I couldn’t resist calling out.I wasn’t kidding. For the 80 million millennials who now make up a majority of the workforce, no news is bad news. If they don’t hear from their managers frequently, they think they’re...

A recent article from my friends at Recruiter.com asks an intriguing question: who exactly owns the employer brand?In 2015, employer branding firm Universum released a four-part study, “2020 Outlook: the Future of Employer Branding.” Based on a survey of more than 2000 HR professionals and CEOs from around the world, the study examined where employer branding is today and how employer branding may evolve over the next five...

According to the 2015 U.S. Bank Small Business Annual Survey, "67 percent of small-business owners reported that they maintain a social media presence for networking and marketing purposes." But in-person activities, such as belonging to and attending community or Chamber of Commerce events, were less common, despite the fact that using both may help answer the age-old question of how to find new customers.I tapped three sm...

In a recent Monster survey, 46 percent of respondents "indicated they would actually prefer to work at a business with between six and 100 employees." But despite the desirability, small businesses are at a disadvantage, as many may not have HR departments. They may have a harder time at each stage of the hiring process and have to be creative when it comes to recruiting new employees in particular.I sought insight from thr...

According to the Pew Research Center and the U.S. Census Bureau, in mid-2015, the millennial generation (comprising those born from 1980 to 1995) became the largest cohort in the workforce.By now, millennials have been in the professional world since the early 00s. The oldest ones turn 36 this year and have progressed substantially in their careers. A 2014 Deloitte millennial leadership study illustrated that due to demogra...

In your more idealistic days, you might have believed that all human beings are caring, considerate and generally pleasant to be around. However, after a year or two in the professional world, you’ve most likely had a run-in with someone (or multiple someones) with sub-par interpersonal skills. Companies do their best and try to train, coach or get rid of these people, but I’m fond of saying that difficult people are like w...

When you have tasks coming in from left, right and center, every minute counts. Using these productivity hacks, I’ve been able to conserve about two hours out of every work day. My advice? Try one, and then gradually implement the rest.Dominate Your Email An overloaded inbox can get overwhelming quickly. I use the features in Gmail to automate my email and keep lower priority items out of my main areas of focus. Labeling al...

In the Observer, writer Isaac Morehouse made a provocative proposition: the habit of grabbing coffee with colleagues or partners “just to chat” is killing our productivity.“Let’s grab coffee and chat.”According to Isaac Morehouse, those five words can be damning. Morehouse’s opinion is that when you become known for doing interesting things, like starting a business or writing intriguing articles, lots of people want to hav...

By the end of 2015, 82 percent of organizations had adapted a cloud strategy, up from 74 percent in 2014. Cloud computing adoption is expected to hit $250 billion by 2017, but where is this segment of the IT industry going? We compiled a list of five major, influencing trends to keep your eyes on.Trend #1: Cloud Automation Last year, business-level automation of the cloud emerged, being driven by what Joe Kinsella at Cloud...