In the wake of studies pointing to the dangers of sitting at a desk too long during the day, proponents of standing desks have hailed it as the antidote to the sedentary lifestyle that some have deemed, “the new smoking.”

As is often the case in the office world, novel ideas that progressive thinkers latch onto don’t always turn out how you’d expect.

In the first part of our two-part series on the pros and cons of standing desks, we provided four different examples of people who use standing desks in their workplace and love them.

One employee noted that her standing desk helped alleviate back pain and fostered more focus than what she’d have at a sitting desk.

However, not every standing-desk experience is a positive one. When we reached out to companies across the country to get their thoughts on standing desks, we received multiple responses from those who disliked their standing desk experience.

“I personally dislike standing desks.”

The studies on sitting at a desk aren’t knocking traditional desks and praising standing desks. Rather, they call to attention the importance of getting up at least once an hour to move your body and get your blood flowing.

For some employees, taking a brisk walk around the office every hour is better than a standing desk of one simple reason: Standing can wear you out and hinder your ability to zero in on the task at hand.

This is something we heard from Stacy Caprio, founder of Accelerated Growth Marketing.

“As an employee, I personally dislike standing desks, as they make me tired, which takes away my focus and concentration from what I’m working on,” Caprio said.

Caprio said she prefers sitting at a desk because it helps her focus on the moment and task at hand.

“I’m able to be more fully present and focused when sitting, as long as I take ample walking breaks during the day,” she said.

“They are overrated.”

Sometimes an office will find itself in a situation where they’ve committed to a change in their workspaces, only to find out that those changes don’t quite work out as expected.

Jessica Landon, an SEO specialist at an Idaho-based marketing firm, said her company brought in standing desks and now about one-third of them are actually used, she said.

“I think, overall, they are overrated. I’d say roughly that only a quarter to a third of the employees here actually use them,” she said.

She went on to say that the desks they have are great, in theory, because they’re programmable, which means you can set them to adjust to different heights during the day. But most of them aren’t being used to stand.

“I do think they are a genius idea, they are just underutilized, in my opinion, here in our office,” she said.

“It just sits there gathering dust.”

Bernard Meyer, a digital marketer and content creator at Meyer Food Blog, said his office brought in standing desks. Everyone was enthusiastic about them.

“In my previous job, we had standing desks brought in. We were all quite excited about being healthier at work, since we had read about the dangers of sitting too long,” he said.

It only took a week for the novelty to wear off – employees became tired of standing.

“A few weeks later, we’d just stopped even bothering to lie to ourselves that we’d used it. It would just stand there, staring us in the face,” Meyer said. “It’s like a treadmill you buy for your home. You use it for one week, and the rest of the time it just sits there gathering dust.”

“It was nice at first.”

Another complaint we heard is that standing may relieve back pain, but it can affect other joints that aren’t used to being in a standing position all the time.

David Waring, co-founder of FitSmallBusiness.com, said he switched to a standing desk “because of a back injuring that kept flaring up after long hours of sitting.”

He enjoyed the standing desk at first, but, over time, pain started to creep into other parts of his body.

“I found that standing all day in the same place started giving me knee issues and was also pretty exhausting,” he said.

So, he switched from a standing desk to a sit-stand desk that gave him the option of either standing up or sitting down to get his work done.

“I have found this to be much more comfortable and have not had any leg or back issues since,” he said.

Standing desks soared into the spotlight after prominent studies came out noting how dangerous it was for office workers to stay inactive throughout the workday.

Just like open offices, the standing desk movement became a trend that still has momentum in 2018. And, just like open offices, standing desks have proponents and detractors.

We reached out to businesses across the country to find out what they thought about standing desks. In response, we received a lot of responses from managers and employees who offered their opinions about standing desks.

In this post and the next, we’ll reveal those opinions and our insight. This first post will highlight those who said they like standing desks. The next post will provide the perspective of those who tried standing desks and weren’t satisfied with the results.

“For my health and livelihood”

C.J. Comu, founder of water company Earthwater, said that he’s used a vertical desk for the past year. He’s read one too many articles detailing the health problems created by a sedentary work life and the standing desk was a practical solution for him.

“I find that it has not only helped me stay mobile, correct my posture and keep my blood flowing,” Comu said. “I like the liberty of flowing in and out of my office and I also tend to keep my correspondence to a minimum.”

“They are awesome.”
Dr. Sylvie Stacy, founder of physician career consulting site Look for Zebras, said she uses a convertible desk that allows her to change between sitting, standing and walking.

“I am a physician and I use one myself,” she said of her desk. “I love being able to change positions and get my body moving while I’m working since I spend so much time on the computer. They are awesome”

She said the key is to find a solid setup that will foster comfortability, something that cheap setups won’t offer. She also told us that her desk helps her focus, too, although it has more to do with moving around during the day than it does with actual standing versus sitting.

“I alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day, and I think the impact on my ability to focus is a result of the frequent change in position more so than the actual standing aspect,” she said. “I believe I could alternate between, say, sitting at a desk and sitting on the couch and maintain the same focus.”

We heard the same thing from Olivia Billet, marketing coordinator at Velo IT Group. Her adjustable desk is a catalyst for frequent movement.

“Sitting through the whole workday makes me feel tired and sluggish,” Billet. “I find I’m more active and alert when I’m standing, which is exactly what I need when 3:00 o’clock rolls around!”

“Reduced my back pain…”

If you don’t focus on your posture while sitting at your desk, you’ll find yourself hunching over. Using the wrong office chair can cause back pain, too.

For Tatiana Morand, content marketing and SEO coordinator at Wild Apricot, her standing desk provides a dual benefit. It keeps her fidgety tendencies at bay and, as someone with back problems, standing has strengthened her posture.

“I have a standing desk in my office, and I love it. As someone who’s naturally very fidgety, being able to stand up when I’m working on repetitive tasks helps me focus,” she said. “And, having the ability to alternate standing and sitting whenever I want has helped my posture and has drastically reduced my back pain.”

Customize your standing desks

There are multiple choices for standing desks. In fact, in this one post, there was mention of adjustable desks, standing desks and standing desks that can turn into walking desks.

In each of these situations, you’re dealing with either a stationary standing desk or an adjustable desk that will most likely be placed in a cubicle or an open office next to another co-worker. In these situations, the desk itself may be novel but the need for privacy is as time-honored as offices themselves.

Whether you’re at a standing desk or sitting at a traditional desk, we can provide privacy panels that we fit to your desk’s dimensions, protecting any sensitive information on your desk and reducing noise between your work area and that of your coworker’s.

Contact us to set up a consultation for your workplace or stop by our website to look at our privacy panel offerings.

The movement against open offices continues.

The headline on a TechCrunch acrticle published this past month says it all: “Yes, open office plans are the worst.”

Reporter Sarah Wells did a deep dive into some of the reasons why open offices present more problems than solutions, mentioning a recent Harvard University study that found open offices actually reduced productivity and face-to-face interaction.

The article spurred a lively conversation on Reddit, where there were more than 100 comments.

In this post, we’re going to review the article and the comments from the subsequent Reddit post.

Open Offices Result in Closed-Off Employees

The most striking point in Wells’ article came from the Harvard study, which noted that open offices resulted in more emails and less face-to-face interaction.

“Contrary to common belief, the volume of face-to-face interaction decreased significantly (approx. 70%) in both cases, with an associated increase in electronic interaction,“ the study notes. “In short, rather than prompting increasingly vibrant face-to-face collaboration, open architecture appeared to trigger a natural human response to socially withdraw from officemates and interact instead over email and IM.”

With this data in hand, Wells went on to note that increased email interaction and decreased face-to-face resulted in a measurable decline in productivity.

“While the concept behind open office spaces is to drive informal interaction and collaboration among employees, the study found that for both groups of employees monitored (52 for one company and 100 for the other company) face-to-face interactions dropped, the number of emails sent increased between 20 and 50 percent and company executives reported a qualitative drop in productivity,” Wells wrote.

She went on to point out some of the conclusions from the study, conclusions we’ve known for a long time. Primarily, that humans tend to want privacy when they’re faced with an open spatial environment that doesn’t provide them any anonymity.

Our brains are wired to perform at the peak level when they sense that there’s a certain level of spatial and auditory privacy. While there may be an anomaly or two, science notes that we’re hard-wired to excel in creativity and productivity when we have our own space.

Reddit Responds: The People Agree

As we mentioned earlier, more than 100 people responded to the TechCrunch link posted in Reddit’s Business sub (business-focused message board).

The top comment in the thread was from a user named “themick”, who wrote the following:

“I went from a job with an open office to a job with tall 6ft cubes… The cubes are the greatest thing ever. I have a little bit of peace and I feel like I get more done during the day.”

Another user named ”lemon_tea” pointed out another important aspect of a cubicle-based office – that you can’t really have a private conversation amid a sea of bean bags, desks and anchorless coworkers:

“The other terror is having a phone conversation with someone who sits in an open office or being on a conference bridge. Good luck picking their voice out of the background noise they continuously inject on the line. And for some reason they never mute their line to take care of the noise.”

“AiresWolf3” added another insight we’ve talked about in the past: cost efficiency. There may be instances in which a company chooses an open-office design simply because it costs less.

“Does anyone really believe that open office plans are about “driving informal interactions and collaboration”? I thought that was just a polite fiction given by management to justify cost-cutting,” the AiresWolf3 wrote. “Sort of like how ‘streamlining’ and ‘focusing on our core business’ is a polite way of saying they’re laying off entire departments.”

The user also noted that open offices aren’t always a good fit for introverts, especially in publishing jobs where editors need a quiet, focused space for their work.

“I worked for a publishing company with an open office plan, which was just cruel. Editors are some of the most introverted people on the planet and we all went to great lengths to pretend that we were not aware of one another,” the user said. “We would send IMs to people who sat two feet away.”

In the end, he or she said cubicle life was better for his or her job than an open office.

“I now work in an office with cubicles,” AriesWolf3 wrote. “I never thought I would have such warm and fuzzy feelings toward cubicles, but that’s adult life for you.”

Learn More About Cubicles

 

Open offices have long been one of those areas of office design in which the public-facing presentation didn’t quite match the science-backed conclusions.

Tech companies gravitated toward these minimalistic design trends for many different reasons, one of which is very logical: money. It costs more capital to buy cubicles for 50 employees than it does to buy 10 rows of tables and 50 chairs. Why buy furniture when you can hire another coder?

As the years have gone by, science has started to catch up to trend. There’s plenty of evidence that indicates private workspaces are crucial to productivity. Much of it has to do with your brain; we’re wired to thrive when our brain feels a certain level of privacy.

The Washington Post recently jumped into the anti-open-office movement when reporter Lindsey Kaufman included the open office in the paper’s annual Spring Cleaning edition. The theme? Ten things to toss.

One Reporter’s Reasons for Bidding Farewell to the Open Office

Kaufman’s piece on open offices is concise and echoes what we mentioned a few seconds ago: Science is emerging as an open-office naysayer.

“My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Granberry, sat her students around a big communal table where we could all see one another and be supervised,” Kaufman started her article. “There was yelling, commotion and general childlike chaos. The same things happen in an open office — only we’re grown-up professionals with deadlines, personal lives and a basic human need for some privacy.”

Opening salvos aside, Kaufman’s argument follows the privacy line—our minds need a sense of visual and auditory privacy to maintain focus on the task at hand.

The article references a Forbes piece from Dec. 2017 in which contributor Keith Flamer noted that current research shows that open offices reduce productivity by 15% to 28%.

Another side effect of the open office that most people don’t understand is that employees are twice as likely to get sick as their cubicled counterparts.

What’s most interesting about Kaufman’s article isn’t the stats about focus or sickness; it’s her reminder that some Apple employees are unhappy that the company’s new headquarters will use an open-office design.

Her article linked to another Washington Post piece detailing the grumblings of the tech giant’s disgruntled employee.

“Up until now you’ve been used to having your own office space. But the new Apple Park will change all that,” reporter Gene Marks quoted the employee as saying. “The programmers, engineers, developers and other employees who work there will be rubbing elbows with each other over long tables that they’ll be sharing in the company’s new open space environment. And some are not thrilled.”

The news was second-hand, though; the original claims of unhappy employees came from a podcaster and blogger who covers the Apple beat.

The article went on to say that the source noted some Apple employees threatened to leave the company if their offices weren’t suitable.

While those threats may seem a little entitled, we’ve read enough about the benefits of cubicles to know that there’s a lot more on the line than preference.

You Have an Open Office. Now What?

If you’re starting to have second thoughts about your open office, don’t worry. We’re not here to demand that you change the way you organize your workspaces.

Take some time to read through the articles we linked to in this post and decide for yourself if an open office is the right choice for your company.

If you think it’s time for a change, the table-heavy design of an open office can be transitioned into private spaces rather quickly using privacy panels of varying lengths and heights.

Our catalog offers multiple colors, material and styles, all of which can be installed on a desk within minutes. In fact, we’re often able to install desktop privacy panels while employees are working, cutting down on the lost labor that normally results from a full overhaul of an office space.

Head to our Contact Us page to send us an email or give us a call. We’ll talk with you about your space, what you’d like to see happen and how we can accommodate you.

Leadership is desired but rarely acquired.

Our first post in this two-part series shared 10 actionable tips from experts about how you can augment your leadership skills at work. While corresponding with nearly two dozen experts, we discovered that there isn’t a single system for becoming a leader.

Rather, building your reputation as someone who should be followed is a dynamic mixture of many different factors that suit personalities of all types.

Our series continues in this post with 10 more tips you can use to transform yourself from a follower to a leader.

Be a master at your job

Shefali Raina, Leadership and high-performance coach, Alpha Lane Partners

“To be seen as a leader and to inspire trust and respect in others, you first have to be seen as good at your job. Whatever your core job is, focus on being great at it — build subject matter expertise, learn to collaborate and deliver results in your job and build a brand of credibility and competence at what you do.”

Don’t live in a silo

Ilene Marcus, MSW, MPA; Founder, Aligned Workplace

“Leaders don’t only make their department or unit successful, they add to overall company success. As you work on projects or teams and go about your daily business, think about how to include others and make that part of your standard operating procedure.

“Not only will you build a cadre of supporters, you will produce a better outcome for the entire company. Your ability to align work and address multifaceted issues will be noticed.”

Ask to lead meetings

Desiré Greene, Managing partner, Luckett & Liles

“Meetings are essentially mini-projects and a great way to showcase leadership skills. By keeping attendees focused, ensuring all voices are heard, and synthesizing big ideas, you can demonstrate that you’re ready for other leadership roles.

“I’ll never forget the nod of approval from a company exec after leading my first conference call. My facilitation skills instilled confidence and opened the door for future opportunities.”

Write strategically

Genna Ziino, Content coordinator, Ariel

“So much of business today is conducted via email—it’s easy to feel like blasting out emails at the speed of light is the best way to go, but it’s important to remember that someone is reading that email and relying on your answers and expertise.

“Instead of firing away, take some time to strategically plan your writing to be reader-centered, giving your audience exactly what they need as clearly and concisely as possible.

“Work on having specific, clear subject lines; organizing longer emails into sections that make sense and using headlines for ease of skimming; and drawing attention to any action requests or deadlines instead of burying them.

“Crystal clear writing and knowing you’ve put thought into your responses makes people respect you—and also drives productivity.”

Be a morale builder

Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew, Founder, Soulstice Consultancy

“Build a network of colleagues from various departments and within your team. Listen to their stories to build trust.

“It isn’t always about being upfront and visible, but when people see that you are committed to step up in the behind-the-scenes work, willing to support them, your leadership shines. Be a morale builder even in the tough times.”

Be curious

Kathy Taberner, Certified executive coach & co-founder of Institute of Curiosity

“When we are curious, we better understand each other and with this clarity comes fewer errors thus increased accurate productivity, engagement and accountability.

“When one person becomes curious, it can lead to collaboration where everyone becomes more open and non-judging which leads to collaboration and innovation, even decreases conflict.

“So, we suggest, employees get curious if you want to be seen as a possible leader.”

Build relationships

Sarah Finch, SarahFinch.com

“Leaders can’t lead if they don’t have followers. Talk to the people in your organization, even if you don’t work with them often. Learn their names and say hello when you see them. Help them out when you can.

In this world of technology as a primary mode of work communication, the value of a face-to-face relationship is high and those seen as leaders are often simply the people others can identify and remember moments and conversations.”

Plan ahead

Jenny Hester, Director of Marketing, LIVE Design

“From calendars to task lists, look ahead to what needs to be addressed and accomplished. Set calendar reminders for both new tasks & recurring events.

“Give yourself deadlines of 3 days or more prior to all official deadlines. When out of the office, anything due in your absence or within a few days of your return should be handled before you leave.”

Stop whining and complaining

Laura Handrick, Career and workplace analyst, Fitsmallbusiness.com

“The fastest way to be seen as a leader in your workplace is to find problems, identify what’s broken, and then develop a plan or recommendations to fix it. In other words, don’t be a complainer about what’s not working. No one likes a complainer.

“Instead, be a solution provider. Most employees will gripe about issues. Leaders take those issues on as challenges and come up with ideas, recommendations and solutions to those problems as if it were their own company/business. They look for ways to improve the business, teamwork, processes and overall profits.”

Manage your emotions

Nancy Cramer, Founder, Correct Course Consulting

“One of the most important steps to becoming a leader is to learn to manage emotions. This does not mean to always be stoic. It means to respond authentically and appropriately to situations as they occur.

“When people are in tough leadership situations, they often let their emotions get the best of them. They let how they feel overwhelm them and cloud their thinking. Mistakes are made. Collateral damage is left.”

Wrapping it up: Take action, Focus on people

Much of what we learned from our experts’ input is that leadership is a matter of initiative and relationships.

Advancement is not for the passive and those who find great success are most satisfied when they achieve their success with people, not against them.

 Link to Part 1

Most of us want to be leaders but few of us have created a path to meet that goal.

According to a 2017 article from Infopro Learning, 83% of organizations believe it’s important for them to develop leaders at all levels in the workplace, but only 5% actually have a plan to accomplish it.

With leadership development so absent from the workplace, employees are left to their own devices as they try to rise through the ranks. Those with strong personalities have an easier time navigating competition and success.

However, all of us can apply at least one or two habits or mindsets to our daily work life that can help us become leaders.

We reached out to workplace professionals across the country to find 20 tips for becoming a leader at work. In this post, we’ve included the first 10.

Run toward the fire

Chris Ebmeyer, Managing director, Crossmedia

“Many times, when a problem arises in the office with a client, account, project, etc.; people have a tendency to run the other way.

“True leaders ‘run towards the fire’ and jump in to help solve the problem, not the other way around. When employees put themselves in uncomfortable, tough positions, many times not of their own making, they show true leadership characteristics.”

Make your colleagues’ successes known

Erin Halper, Founder, The Upside

“To become a leader in an organization, it’s important to highlight others’ achievements, even more than your own. True leaders recognize that milestones and wins are a group effort, and never the result of one person’s work, especially their own.”

Don’t be afraid to be competitive

Greg Spillane, CEO, Reachify

“Having people on your team who are competitive, who can work within a team environment, and who understand the importance of hard work can give you a heads up in business. To succeed in a competitive world, you have to be relentless in your desire to win.”

Document your wins and your goals

Arlena Jackson, Founder, Elevation Ally

“Your manager is your biggest supporter. When you win, your manager wins. Make certain he or she always knows your top three accomplishments for the week and your top three priorities for the upcoming week. This can be delivered by way of email each Friday morning.”

Develop your presence

Genna Ziino, Content coordinator, Ariel

“Presence is the ability to connect authentically with others in order to motivate and inspire them. This skill can be used for large audiences or one-on-one, and it’s something you can work on daily through small things like listening sincerely and showing up fully in the things you do.

“Having these skills helps people to trust you, builds relationships and makes your audience tune in to your message above others.”

Become an office thought leader

Desiré Greene, Managing partner, Luckett & Liles

“Sharing industry knowledge and having a point of view will strengthen your professional brand. It also helps you think strategically.

“By understanding the larger picture, you can make better suggestions and contribute to executive-level discussions. So, while everyone else is checking Instagram, read an industry article. You’ll be surprised by the results.”

Know your department and company key performance indicators

Ilene Marcus, MSW, MPA; Founder, Aligned Workplace

“As a boss, I always follow the data.  Usually, all roads lead to one person over and over again.  Be that person.  Know the reports, the data, the numbers (how they are created and what impacts them); this makes you indispensable.

“Believe me; as the boss, you are keenly aware of your KPIs, so if you want to be a leader, be keenly aware of your KPIs (metrics).”

Be the first to volunteer

Thomas Harris, Co-owner, The Exceptional Skills

“You’ve probably seen it a hundred times. Someone asks a question for a response or asks for a volunteer, and no one raises their hand. Then eventually one person does, then everyone else starts to follow.

“Everyone is afraid to be first. They are followers. Don’t be that person. Be the person who stands up first, volunteers, answers questions, shares input, and get things done.”

Be clear on the end game

Shefali Raina, Leadership and high-performance coach, Alpha Lane Partners

“In any situation or context, or for any project at work, get clear on what the end game is, what the goals are and what matters most. People are seen as leaders when they have clarity on vision and goals and are able to communicate that clarity to others.

“When you are clear on what matters most, you will be able to help the team focus their energy and attention to the most important aspects and avoid unproductive and ineffective distractions and people will look to you to resonate with the big picture vision.”

Self-start your professional development

Jenny Hester, Director of marketing, LIVE Design

“Attend free seminars, lunch & learns, etc. These usually end up being extremely useful, full of info and provide great networking opportunities. Show your boss you care about your career, want to learn more, at little or no cost to them.”

Link to Part 2

The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, more commonly known as “HIPAA”, went into effect in 1996.

More than 20 years later, medical offices across the country have gotten used to the idea that building an office is more than having enough exam rooms and an ample waiting area. Spaces where information is provided or transferred should be organized in ways that do compromise patient information.

Spatial privacy, however, isn’t usually at the top of the to-do list for a new practice. Getting clients, tidying up the new space and getting record keeping in order usually takes precedence.

We often find medical practices that move into a new space are left with a layout designed for the previous business, which usually means the former tenants weren’t concerned about HIPAA.

Transitioning your office to be HIPAA compliant isn’t as complex as you might think. In this post, we’ll explain the different ways you can modify tables and counters to protect your patient’s privacy and comply with HIPAA guidelines.

Privacy Screens Can Turn a Long Table Into a HIPAA-Compliant Patient Area

Imagine you’ve just bought a new office space for your medical practice, whether it’s a family care center, a dental practice or a lab.

You don’t want to buy new furniture to have a HIPAA-compliant office. You want an easy solution that won’t take much time to install. Efficiency and privacy are the keys.

You’ve got a long table in the reception area that would be an excellent space for patients to fill out paperwork. You’re aiming to have a bustling place of business, so there could be four or five people handling sensitive medical information at any given time at that table.

OBEX privacy screens are the solution because they meet both of your objectives: quick installation and sufficient privacy to meet the required guidelines.

Depending on the type of table you have, our privacy panels can attach to the lip of the tables in your patient area or the can sit on top of the table.

The panels we provide have eight different lengths ranging from 24 inches to 72 inches, a span of lengths that can fit practically any situation your office requires.

These panels have three different heights: 12 inches, 18 inches and 24 inches. We ensure that the panels we send you are tall enough to provide a sight barrier that protects your patients’ privacy. These opaque panels eliminate the possibility of wandering eyes catching personal information.

We also provide multiple color options to ensure that your panels blend in with the color palette of your office.

If, during our consultation, you decide that the standard options we provide don’t fit the requirements of your patient areas, we are happy to work with you to create a custom solution.

Should the standard options we provide be sufficient for what you need, we can ship the panels directly to you for an easy, DIY installation that will take minutes.

Warranties Protect Your Screens for 10 Years

In addition to being veterans of the panel extender industry, we stand behind our panels with a 10-year warranty to protect your investment in HIPAA compliance.

Our warranty covers defects in the material and craftsmanship that occur during normal use of your screens. Send the panels to us and, upon verification of a defect, we’ll repair or replace the screens and send them back to you.

Additional Information About HIPAA and Doctor’s Offices

Knowing all the nuances of how to protect patient privacy can be overwhelming. There are resources, however, that can help you understand the basic principles to the point where you and your staff can create a safe, secure environment for anyone who walks through the doors.

The American Association of Orthodontists has an excellent post detailing the various aspects of HIPAA and how they relate not just to a dental office’s reception area desks but the office as a whole, including operatories and other rooms.

24 By 7 Security, a Coral Springs-based security firm, has a great guide to doctor’s-office privacy that covers all the various aspects of protecting your patients’ information.

If you’ve got plans to read this summer, we’ve got some great suggestions for you.

Whether you’re relaxing in a lakeside Airbnb rental or headed to the beach for a few hours of relaxation, spending some time reading through the six books we’ve recommended in our two-part series will strengthen your resolve as an employee and expand the dreams you have of moving up in your own company, making a lateral move or starting your own business.

In our first post, we highlighted books that provided specific steps you can take and traits you can adopt to achieve your short- and long-term goals.

In this post, we’re focusing on three unique but powerful books that address customer service, resilience and a case study in a wildly successful product.

“Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers” by Jay Baer

We live in a world where one ill-timed mistake can turn into a viral sensation that creates hordes of haters. Businesses need to be experts in turning their most critical customers into their happiest using popular social media channels, personal interaction and genuine interest in individuals.

Baer’s book provides businesses with the tools they need to leverage public interactions in a way that turns the tide of public opinions and wins faithful followers one by one.

Need more convincing? According to Baer, 80 percent of companies say they have good customer service while only 8 percent of their customers say they do.

The book provides advice on multiple customer- and press-related matters, Entrepreneur contributor John Rampton pointed out.

“The book also covers how to embrace complaints, turn bad news into great news, and transform haters into ambassadors for a brand,” Rampton wrote.

“Hug Your Haters” is available on Amazon for $16.72 and has an average rating of 4.4 stars from more than 125 reviews.

“Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy,” by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

Hardship is a given inside and outside of the business world; it’s an axiom that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg knows well.

Her husband passed away unexpectedly during a vacation in 2015. The loss was gut-wrenching for Sandberg and her children.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Sandberg talked about the loss:

“Going through this … it’s the unimaginable. Those early days … months, weeks, I felt like there was this void closing in on me. The grief. I couldn’t breathe. And I didn’t know what to do. I turned to my friend Adam and I said, ‘How do I get my kids through this?’ Because I was so worried their childhoods were going to be wiped away.”

In “Option B”, Sandberg talks about the power of resiliency and how it can be used in business to overcome disaster and find success. The book is a poignant and invaluable resource for those who’ve been met with unexpected loss and need a sympathetic and influential voice to help them bounce back.

The book gets an average rating of 4.5 stars on Amazon and is $14.68 in its hardcover version.

“The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone,” by Brian Merchant

Merchant dives into the history of the iPhone, taking you from planning meetings for multi-touch screens before the phone was even developed to the marketing and launch of Apple’s most profitable device in its history.

The book touches on various vignettes from the phone’s history, walking you through the stages of development and providing insight into the ideas and strategies that made the phone an international icon.

Serving as a case study for idea development and implementation, the book is a fascinating read for a variety of situations:

• You’re in the middle of a project and need some inspiration to get to the next stage.
• You have an idea, but you aren’t sure how to make it a reality.
• You’re in on the planning stages of a new initiative at work and you want insight into how to adapt and succeed.

Merchant’s book gets an average of four stars from nearly 100 reviews on Amazon and is available in hardback for $17.67.

Wrapping It Up: Plenty of Material for Personal and Business Growth

Succeeding in business is just as much about what you learn after school as what you learn in school.

The six books we’ve recommended are among the best that have been released over the past two years. They provide real-life examples of individuals who relied on their determination and focus to overcome difficulty and achieve the dream or standard of excellence to which they aspired.

Part 1 Link

Summer is nearly upon us.

And with summer comes vacation plans that include a few hours here and there for reading. Even if you aren’t heading out of town between June and September, a few hours on the beach every so often is the perfect time to read through some excellent business books.

Over the course of the next two posts, we’ll provide you with a list of the year’s newest and most popular business books, titles which can inspire you and provide insight into how you can strengthen your business acumen.

“Your Best Year Ever: A Five-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals” by Michael Hyatt

Hyatt is a business vet and a productivity guru whose new book is a great way to renew your vigor for the goals you set at the beginning of the year.

Here’s how the book’s website describes the type of person who could benefit from Hyatt’s newest tome:

“We all want to live a life that matters. We all want to reach our full potential. But too often we find ourselves overwhelmed by the day-to-day. Our big goals get pushed to the back burner—and then, more often than not, they get forgotten.”

What’s interesting about this particular tome is that Hyatt offers packages for individuals and businesses that serve as a multi-week course focused on the principles the book lays out.

The hardcover version of the book goers for $15.13 on Amazon.com and has an average rating of 4.8 stars from more than 250 Amazon customer reviews.

“Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life” by Daymond John

Daymond John, he of Shark Tank fame, was part of the founding team of FUBU, the international clothing brand made famous in the ‘90s. John took out a $100,000 mortgage on his home to launch the business. He split his home in half and used one part of it to live and the other part of it to produce clothing.

If there’s anyone who knows how to grind his way to success, it’s John. His book focuses on how you can draw on the methods he used in his own life to implement and accomplish the business goals you’ve set for yourself. Here’s how Business Insider’s Richard Feloni and Shana Lebowitz describe the book:

“He’s drawing from his own career and those of fellow entrepreneurs to compile the rituals, habits, and best practices for sustained success, whether you’re leading your own company or not.”

John’s book is available on Amazon for $15.04 in hardcover. It gets an average of 4.5 stars from more than 400 reviews.

“The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors that Transform People into World-Class Leaders” by Elena Botelho and Kim Powell

Botelho and Powell gathered up data from thousands of CEOs and those aspiring to executive positions to compile a list of four common behaviors that make people succeed.

Both women have the credentials and expertise to back up their observations, too. Botelho is a Wharton grad and Powell received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Their book has drawn high praise from thought leaders. Here’s what author Daniel H. Pink said in his recommendation about the sources used for the book:

“They may not all come from fancy schools, but they do know how to make smart decisions, adapt to changed circumstances, and work honestly and directly with customers and employees. Whether you’re running a large organization, or simply have your eye on the corner office, this book should be your guide.”

This book is an excellent choice if you’re working from the bottom up or you’re in mid-management and want to find the edge you need to ascend.

“The CEO Next Door” hardcover is available on Amazon for $16.30. It gets an average rating of 4.7 stars from 27 reviews at the time of publishing.

Part 2: Three More Business Books for the Summer

In our second post on the best business reads for the summer, we review three books that delve into personal experience or product development and mine some of the important principles that worked well for the authors or the products they researched.

It’s important to keep in mind that these success narratives aren’t hard and fast rules from which you can’t waver; contextualize the principles into your own workplace situation.

Building a strong HR department is crucial to the long-term success of a company.

Hire the right people and life will be easier. That starts with human resources, including who you hire to fill key HR positions and who those integral HR people bring onto the team.

In our first post about strengthening your approach to HR, we pointed out some crucial action steps: Focus on the employee experience, hire a consultant when building a new HR team and recruit certified human resources professionals.

In this post, we’re going to expand on our earlier advice via the expertise of HR professionals.

Win the HR Battle by Going Mobile

The race for talent is as tight as it’s ever been as the economy grows and qualified candidates flood the job market. One candidate could be the target of multiple companies and, in order to stand out from the competition, says SocialChorus exec Sonia Fiorenza, you have to focus on a culture-relevant HR strategy: mobile outreach.

“The growing gig economy means individuals also now juggle multiple types of jobs, vastly changing the ways and tools they use to engage with their employer,” Fiorenza said. “And, tied to this, the shift to an increasingly mobile workforce is forcing HR departments to do away with legacy systems and processes, and implement mobile-centric strategies to identify new ways of reaching remote workers.”

Part of that mobile-centric strategy includes:

• Developing new methods for ongoing access to feedback and company news.
• Designed curated, target content through apps.

These two tips are only part of an overall strategy that will keep an HR department performing well. Sometimes, a complete overhaul of the HR process is necessary, Fiorenza said.

Use Trade Organizations to Lay the Foundation

Startups that are focused on scaling, subscriptions and rounding up capital may not place much importance on HR. So, when someone is tasked with launching human resources, they’re most likely going to feel like they’re on a very isolated, overwhelming island.

In our first post, one of our experts recommended hiring a consultant who can get a feel for company culture and then recommend action steps for building a solid department. However, if you or your team are DIYing human resources, Cheer Partners’ Cat Graham says you need to tap the trade organizations to get all the information you can.

“You can join SHRM and download annually updated and state specific employee manuals to ensure you capture all the important policies and employee rights pertaining to compensation, benefits, IT, sick policies, FMLA grievance procedures, jury and military leave,” Graham said.

SHRM is the Society for Human Resource Management, a national organization that includes many of the nation’s top HR professionals in its membership. Their resources are extensive as is their network of HR pros.

 

Once you’ve solidified the basics, you can add the nuances that will make your department more reflective of your company’s goals and mission.

“Add personal flavor by inputting employee referral bonus program, merit review and increase policies and, most importantly, required harassment and sensitivity policies with zero tolerance for drug use, abuse of employees and clients and alcohol use,” Graham said.

 Don’t Shut HR Out of Big Decisions

There’s a perception of HR out there that treats the department as more of an apparatus that an integral part of implementing a company’s vision.

Mark LaScola, CEO of consulting firm On The Mark, says that firms who provide HR with a seat at the most important meeting are the ones who tend to have the strongest HR departments.

“HR needs be a strategic partner in the annual planning process to understand what the future holds. HR’s role in this planning process is to consider people plans and talent management needs in accordance with the company’s strategic review,” LaScola said.

Short- or long-term strategies require manpower and, as the branch of the company most acquainted with the process, HR is essential to the big picture.

“The outcome is ensuring better anticipation of the need of talent in advance,” LaScola said. “In return, leadership can plan development investments and talent acquisition requests into the annual budgeting process.”