Recent studies show that the choice of words people use when writing blogs conveys a lot about their personality traits.

Words convey meaning, but our choice of specific words also conveys details about our personalities, new research confirms. For example, extraverts are likely to use the word “mouth” frequently, and “open” personalities are likely to use words like “folk,” “poetry” and “universe.”

(more…)

An artcile by The University of Chicago takes a look at how men and women differ in terms of seeking jobs in which competitioin with their co-workers affects rates of pay.

Men are more likely than women to seek jobs in which competition with coworkers affects pay rates, a preference that might help explain persistent pay differences between men and women, a study at the University of Chicago shows.

(more…)

The three Jenrick Engineering branches were proud to get together for another very successful annual Awards Ceremony on Saturday January 22nd held at the grand venue of Fawsley Hall in Daventry, Northampton.

The reason behind the Awards ceremony is to give recognition of achievement to the members of staff at the Jenrick Engineering division who all show an outstanding  workplace attitude with first class customer service, dedication and enthusiasm.

(more…)

Media Wisdom Photography Ltd, who featured on our Maximise Potential Podcast have just scooped a major travel and landscape photography award.

Giles Christopher, from Media Wisdom Photography Ltd, has been named Landscape and Travel Photographer of the Year 2010 in the recent Master Photographer of the Year Awards. The awards are run by the The Master Photographers Association (MPA), the UK’s only organisation exclusively for professional photographers.

(more…)

‘Why’ is such a small and yet powerful word to notice, understand and be aware of as you use it.  Really, why?

Well, it does two things very quickly, immediately in fact.  Two things you want to avoid.

• One, it sends people straight to the word “because” which is justifying their actions/decisions and
• Two, it closes down information-gathering in the request for “the reason”.

(more…)

We get the latest from IT Contractor.com on how IT Job availability is set to boom for the next 5 years.

Jobs Market

According to a new report by V3.co.uk, the number of IT jobs will rise by 5.1% a year over the next 5 years.

That works out at a compound interest rise of about 28.4% in that time.

As there are around a million people working in IT in the UK that works out to be an extra 284,000 jobs in IT in the next 5 years.

(more…)

With 2011 being ‘pitched’ as the year of recovery for the contracting market; 1^st time contractors and, perhaps even, more experienced contractors need to be aware of the potential pitfalls of using third parties to manage their payroll. Legislation changes for EBTs (Hotlink to previous article) and now news of 2 umbrella companies going into liquidation emphasise the need to take good advice.

The recent high profile bankruptcy of two ‘umbrella’ companies highlights the importance of recruiters and contractors undertaking better due diligence of service providers before engaging their services, says giant group, the contractor services provider. (more…)

This information on EBT Schemes was kindly supplied by 1st Option Accountants. For more information regarding the topics raised in this artcile then please contact 1st Option on any of the contact details shown at the bottom of this page.

What are they?

An Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) is often centred on a pension or profit-sharing plan and is usually administered by dedicated third-party EBT management firms, acting as the company’s trustee. Such schemes are widely used by corporations to augment the benefit packages of UK workers – they usually offer some taxation deferral advantages. (more…)

A client referred to me as a “word nerd” recently, which as a Communication Specialist, I took to be a compliment!

I believe language is the key that can make or break how effective our message is. “Mind your Language” is a great piece of advice, really mind it.

Think about it.  Think about the effect it has on you and then on those around you as you use it.  It’s one of my passions for my clients that they really “get” how important it is.

A few years ago, I read an article by John La Valle http://www.purenlp.com/ and John is, I believe, a true word-nerd.  A real wizard with the use of language and the difference it makes.  He wrote an article about changing our New Year’s Resolutions and swapping them for New Year’s Evolutions. (more…)