BlogSentral

by Joshua Bjerke | Recruiter.com

MetLife’s 10^th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends has revealed that upwards of two out of every three employees aged 21 to 31 are distressed about their financial security if unable to work due to illness or injury. What’s more, almost half of Gen Y workers report that they are only one paycheck away from living in poverty. Compounding this issue is the fact that only about half of workers within this demographic say that they have disability insurance.

“A disability is not selective – it can happen to anyone, at any time. If you have people who depend on your income — or if you depend on your income — you need disability insurance. MetLife research finds that Gen Y workers are shouldering significant familial responsibilities: 55% say they are married or in a domestic partnership, 46% are parents of young children, and 13% provide care for an elderly parent or relative,” said Clea Barth, vice president, Individual Disability Insurance for MetLife. “These obligations underscore the importance of understanding how disability insurance can help build a financial safety net so that essential expenses could still be paid if the breadwinner is unable to work due to illness or injury.”

Even among those young workers who have disability benefits coverage, 40 percent are unsure as to whether or not that coverage is adequate. This is particularly troubling because recent data from the 2012 Social Security Fact Sheet indicate that nearly a quarter of workers currently 20 years old will be disabled by the age of 67. While MetLife generally recommends obtaining enough disability coverage to protect between 60 and 80 percent of after-tax income, about half of Gen Y workers stated that they spend at least 70 percent of their monthly income on necessary expenditures, and 25 percent spending at least 80 percent.

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Joshua Bjerke, from Savannah, Georgia, focuses on articles involving the labor force, economy, and HR topics including new technology and workplace news. Joshua has a B.A. in Political Science with a Minor in International Studies and is currently pursuing his M.A. in International Security.

Mike Myatt, Contributor | Forbes

It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed the previous sentence didn’t refer to being a great talker – big difference. The key to becoming a skillful communicator is rarely found in what has been taught in the world of academia. From our earliest days in the classroom we are trained to focus on enunciation, vocabulary, presence, delivery, grammar, syntax and the like. In other words, we are taught to focus on ourselves. While I don’t mean to belittle these things as they’re important to learn, it’s the more subtle elements of communication rarely taught in the classroom (the elements that focus on others), which leaders desperately need to learn. It is the ability to develop a keen external awareness that separates the truly great communicators from those who muddle through their interactions with others. In today’s column I’ll share a few of the communication traits, which if used consistently, will help you achieve better communication results.

I don’t believe it comes as any great surprise that most leaders spend the overwhelming majority of their time each day in some type of an interpersonal situation. I also don’t believe it comes as a great shock to find a large number of organizational problems occur as a result of poor communications. It is precisely this paradox that underscores the need for leaders to focus on becoming great communicators. Effective communication is an essential component of professional success whether it is at the interpersonal, inter-group, intra-group, organizational, or external level. While developing an understanding of great communication skills is easier than one might think, being able to appropriately draw upon said skills when the chips are down is not always as easy as one might hope for.

Skills acquired and/or knowledge gained are only valuable to the extent they can be practically applied when called for. The number one thing great communicators have in common is they possess a heightened sense of situational and contextual awareness. The best communicators are great listeners and astute in their observations. Great communicators are skilled a reading a person/group by sensing the moods, dynamics, attitudes, values and concerns of those being communicated with. Not only do they read they environment well, but they possess the uncanny ability to adapt their messaging to said environment without missing a beat. The message is not about the messenger; it has nothing to do with messenger; it is however 100% about meeting the needs and the expectations of those you’re communicating with.

So, how do you know when your skills have matured to the point that you’ve become an excellent communicator? The answer is you’ll have reached the point where your interactions with others consistently use the following ten principles:

1. Speak not with a forked tongue: In most cases, people just won’t open up those they don’t trust. When people have a sense a leader is worthy of their trust they will invest time and take risks in ways they would not if their leader had a reputation built upon poor character or lack of integrity. While you can attempt to demand trust, it rarely works. Trust is best created by earning it with right acting, thinking, and decisioning. Keep in mind that people will forgive many things where trust exists, but will rarely forgive anything where trust is absent.

2. Get personal: There is great truth in the axiom that states: “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Classic business theory tells leaders to stay at arms length. I say stay at arms length if you want to remain in the dark receiving only highly sanitized versions of the truth. If you don’t develop meaningful relationships with people you’ll never know what’s really on their mind until it’s too late to do anything about it.

3. Get specific: Specificity is better than Ambiguity 11 times out of 10: Learn to communicate with clarity. Simple and concise is always better than complicated and confusing. Time has never been a more precious commodity than it is in today’s marketplace. It is critical you know how to cut to the chase and hit the high points, and that you expect the same from others. Without understanding the value of brevity and clarity it is unlikely that you’ll ever be afforded the opportunity to get to the granular level as people will tune you out long before you ever get there. Your goal is to weed out the superfluous and to make your words count.

4. Focus on the leave-behinds not the take-aways: The best communicators are not only skilled at learning and gathering information while communicating, they are also adept at transferring ideas, aligning expectations, inspiring action, and spreading their vision. The key is to approach each interaction with a servant’s heart. When you truly focus on contributing more than receiving you will have accomplished the goal. Even though this may seem counter-intuitive, by intensely focusing on the other party’s wants, needs & desires, you’ll learn far more than you ever would by focusing on your agenda.

5. Have an open mind: I’ve often said that the rigidity of a closed mind is the single greatest limiting factor of new opportunities. A leader takes their game to a whole new level the minute they willingly seek out those who hold dissenting opinions and opposing positions with the goal not of convincing them to change their minds, but with the goal of understanding what’s on their mind. I’m always amazed at how many people are truly fearful of opposing views, when what they should be is genuinely curious and interested. Open dialogs with those who confront you, challenge you, stretch you, and develop you. Remember that it’s not the opinion that matters, but rather the willingness to discuss it with an open mind and learn.

6. Shut-up and listen: Great leaders know when to dial it up, dial it down, and dial it off (mostly down and off). Simply broadcasting your message ad nauseum will not have the same result as engaging in meaningful conversation, but this assumes that you understand that the greatest form of discourse takes place within a conversation, and not a lecture or a monologue. When you reach that point in your life where the light bulb goes off, and you begin to understand that knowledge is not gained by flapping your lips, but by removing your ear wax, you have taken the first step to becoming a skilled communicator.

7. Replace ego with empathy: I have long advised leaders not to let their ego write checks that their talent can’t cash. When candor is communicated with empathy & caring and not the prideful arrogance of an over inflated ego good things begin to happen. Empathetic communicators display a level of authenticity and transparency that is not present with those who choose to communicate behind the carefully crafted facade propped-up by a very fragile ego. Understanding the this communication principle is what helps turn anger into respect and doubt into trust.

8. Read between the lines: Take a moment and reflect back on any great leader that comes to mind… you’ll find they are very adept at reading between the lines. They have the uncanny ability to understand what is not said, witnessed, or heard. Being a leader should not be viewed as a license to increase the volume of rhetoric. Rather astute leaders know that there is far more to be gained by surrendering the floor than by filibustering. In this age of instant communication, everyone seems to be in such a rush to communicate what’s on their mind that they fail to realize everything to be gained from the minds of others. Keep your eyes & ears open and your mouth shut and you’ll be amazed at how your level or organizational awareness is raised.

9. When you speak, know what you’re talking about: Develop a technical command over your subject matter. If you don’t possess subject matter expertise, few people will give you the time of day. Most successful people have little interest in listening to those individuals who cannot add value to a situation or topic, but force themselves into a conversation just to hear themselves speak. The fake it until you make it days have long since passed, and for most people I know fast and slick equals not credible. You’ve all heard the saying “it’s not what you say, but how you say it that matters,” and while there is surely an element of truth in that statement, I’m here to tell you that it matters very much what you say. Good communicators address both the “what” and “how” aspects of messaging so they don’t fall prey to becoming the smooth talker who leaves people with the impression of form over substance.

10. Speak to groups as individuals: Leaders don’t always have the luxury of speaking to individuals in an intimate setting. Great communicators can tailor a message such that they can speak to 10 people in a conference room or 10,000 people in an auditorium and have them feel as if they were speaking directly to each one of them as an individual. Knowing how to work a room and establish credibility, trust, and rapport are keys to successful interactions.

11. Bonus – Be prepared to change the message if needed:  Another component of communications strategy that is rarely discussed is how to prevent a message from going bad, and what to do when does. It’s called being prepared and developing a contingency plan. Again, you must keep in mind that for successful interactions to occur, your objective must be in alignment with those you are communicating with. If your expertise, empathy, clarity, etc. don’t have the desired effect, which by the way is very rare, you need to be able to make an impact by changing things up on the fly. Use great questions, humor, stories, analogies, relevant data, and where needed, bold statements to help connect and engender the confidence and trust that it takes for people to want to engage. While it is sometimes necessary to “Shock and Awe” this tactic should be reserved as a last resort.

Don’t assume someone is ready to have a particular conversation with you just because you’re ready to have the conversation with them. Spending time paving the way for a productive conversation is far better than coming off as the proverbial bull in a china shop. Furthermore, you cannot assume anyone knows where you’re coming from if you don’t tell them. I never ceased to be amazed at how many people assume everyone knows what they want to occur without ever finding it necessary to communicate their objective. If you fail to justify your message with knowledge, business logic, reason, empathy etc., you will find that said message will likely fall on deaf ears needing reinforcement or clarification afterward.

Bottom line – The leadership lesson here is whenever you have a message to communicate (either directly, or indirectly through a third party) make sure said message is true & correct, well reasoned, and substantiated by solid business logic that is specific, consistent, clear and accurate. Spending a little extra time on the front-end of the messaging curve will likely save you from considerable aggravation and brain damage on the back-end. Most importantly of all, keep in mind that communication is not about you, your opinions, your positions or your circumstances. It’s about helping others by meeting their needs, understanding their concerns, and adding value to their world. Do these things and you’ll drastically reduce the number of communications problems you’ll experience moving forward.

Thoughts?

Follow me on Twitter @MikeMyatt

Mike Myatt, Contributor

I write about leadership myths, and bust them one-by–one.

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Eric Jackson, Contributor | Forbes

We think of Google and Facebook as Web gorillas.  They’ll be around forever. Yet, with the rate that the tech world is moving these days, there are good reasons to think both might be gone completely in 5 – 8 years.  Not bankrupt gone, but MySpace gone.  And there’s some academic theory to back up that view, along with casual observations from recent history.

When I was a PhD student 15 years ago, I studied with Don Hambrick who is a scholar known for a career showing the effects of management teams and directors (for good and for ill) on their organizations’ strategies and performance.  One of the central tenents of this school of thought on organizations is that senior teams and directors have an outsized influence on organizational outcomes.  What’s more, their backgrounds (including education and career paths) have a big effect on how they see the world, various competitive situations and the choices they make.

There’s another school of thought which takes the opposite view called population ecology or organizational ecology which put forward that managers don’t really matter all that much.  This view grew out of sociologists who’d taken to study organizations in the 1970s.  They assert that organizational outcomes have much more to do with industry effects than who the CEO is and the choices he or she makes.  They study birth and death rates of populations of organizations, as well as the effects of age, competition and resources in the surrounding environment on an organization’s birth and death rate.  Most of these organizational ecology scholars come out of the University of California at Berkeley.

As a graduate student, I didn’t have much time for this ecology line of thinking.  I believed in the power of the individual executive to overcome all challenges in the external environment.  We can always point to dynamic CEOs as case studies, even though the sociologists would say those are the equivalent of celebrating the smarts of lottery winners.

As I age and watch what’s happening in the world of Internet and mobile, I can’t stop thinking of these ecologists though.

More and more in the Internet space, it seems that your long-term viability as a company is dependent on when you were born.

Think of the differences between generations and when we talk about how the Baby Boomers behave differently from Gen X’ers and additional differences with the Millennials.  Each generation is perceived to see the world in a very unique way that translates into their buying decisions and countless other habits.

In the tech Internet world, we’ve really had 3 generations:

• Web 1.0 (companies founded from 1994 – 2001, including Netscape, Yahoo! (YHOO), AOL (AOL), Google (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY)),
• Web 2.0 or Social (companies founded from 2002 – 2009, including Facebook (FB), LinkedIn (LNKD), and Groupon (GRPN)),
• and now Mobile (from 2010 – present, including Instagram).

With each succeeding generation in tech the Internet, it seems the prior generation can’t quite wrap its head around the subtle changes that the next generation brings.  Web 1.0 companies did a great job of aggregating data and presenting it in an easy to digest portal fashion.  Google did a good job organizing the chaos of the Web better than AltaVista, Excite, Lycos and all the other search engines that preceded it.  Amazon did a great job of centralizing the chaos of e-commerce shopping and putting all you needed in one place.

When Web 2.0 companies began to emerge, they seemed to gravitate to the importance of social connections.   MySpace built a network of people with a passion for music initially.  Facebook got college students.  LinkedIn got the white collar professionals.  Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon showed how users could generate content themselves and make the overall community more valuable.

Yet, Web 1.0 companies never really seemed to be able to grasp the importance of building a social community and tapping into the backgrounds of those users.  Even when it seems painfully obvious to everyone, there just doesn’t seem to be the capacity of these older companies to shift to a new paradigm.  Why has Amazon done so little in social?  And Google?  Even as they pour billions at the problem, their primary business model which made them successful in the first place seems to override their expansion into some new way of thinking.

Social companies born since 2010 have a very different view of the world.  These companies – and Instagram is the most topical example at the moment – view the mobile smartphone as the primary (and oftentimes exclusive) platform for their application.  They don’t even think of launching via a web site.  They assume, over time, people will use their mobile applications almost entirely instead of websites.

We will never have Web 3.0, because the Web’s dead.

Web 1.0 and 2.0 companies still seem unsure how to adapt to this new paradigm.  Facebook is the triumphant winner of social companies.  It will go public in a few weeks and probably hit $140 billion in market capitalization.  Yet, it loses money in mobile and has rather simple iPhone and iPad versions of its desktop experience.  It is just trying to figure out how to make money on the web – as it only had $3.7 billion in revenues in 2011 and its revenues actually decelerated in Q1 of this year relative to Q4 of last year.  It has no idea how it will make money in mobile.

The failed history of Web 1.0 companies adapting to the world of social suggests that Facebook will be as woeful at adapting to social mobile as Google has been with its “ghost town” Google+ initiative last year.

The organizational ecologists talked about the “liability of obsolescence” which is a growing mismatch between an organization’s inherent product strategy and its operating environment over time.  This probably is a good explanation for what we’re seeing in the tech world today.

Are companies like Google, Amazon, and Yahoo! obsolete?  They’re still growing.  They still have enormous audiences.  They also have very talented managers.

But with each new paradigm shift (first to social, now to mobile, and next to whatever else), the older generations get increasingly out of touch and likely closer to their significant decline.  What’s more, the tech world in which we live in seems to be speeding up.  Tim Cook had an interesting line about the velocity of change in his earnings call last week:

through the last quarter, I should say, which is just 2 years after we shipped the initial iPad, we’ve sold 67 million. And to put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones. And we were extremely happy with the trajectory on all of those products. And so I think iPad, it’s a profound product.

Yahoo is already a shell of its 2000 self.  There is increasing chatter (including from me) about how Google’s facing a painful multiple contraction, once its desktop search business (still accounting for the vast majority of its revenues and profits) starts to fall off a cliff as users dramatically drop traditional search for new ways of getting information they want in a mobile world.  Is Amazon destined to decline?  There seem to be no signs of it today and people will still need to buy stuff in a mobile world, but the new mobile platform will certainly open the possibilities for new entrants that Amazon can’t even imagine today.

Facebook is also probably facing a tough road ahead as this shift to mobile happens.  As Hamish McKenzie said last week, “I suspect that Facebook will try to address that issue [of the shift to mobile] by breaking up its various features into separate apps or HTML5 sites: one for messaging, one for the news feed, one for photos, and, perhaps, one for an address book. But that fragments the core product, probably to its detriment.”

Considering how long Facebook dragged its feet to get into mobile in the first place, the data suggests they will be exactly as slow to change as Google was to social.  Does the Instagram acquisition change that? Not really, in my view.  It shows they’re really fearful of being displaced by a mobile upstart.  However, why would bolting on a mobile app to a Web 2.0 platform (and a very good one at that) change any of the underlying dynamics we’re discussing here? I doubt it.

What about Apple?  Where does it fit in to this classification scheme?

Apple is really a hardware company, so it’s difficult to put it into a bucket related to web apps.  It certainly seemed very Web 1.0 with its Ping social application.  Yet it’s succeeded in mobile from making the best hardware and software ecosystem for apps to proliferate on.  In some ways, as long as it has a successful iOS platform, it doesn’t care which Web 1.0, 2.0 and mobile companies fail or succeed on top of it.  Maybe that’s why so many non-mobile companies seem to want to emulate Apple.  Google bought Motorola Mobility (MMI) to get into the hardware business.  Facebook and Baidu (BIDU) are rumored to be launching their own mobile OS.

The bottom line is that the next 5 – 8 years could be incredibly dynamic.  It’s possible that both Google and Facebook could be shells of their current selves – or gone entirely.

They will have all the money in the world to try and adapt to the shift to mobile but history suggests they won’t be able to successfully do it.  I often hear Google bulls point to the market share of Android or Eric Schmidt’s hypothesis that Google could one day charge all Android subscribers $10 a month for value-added services as proof of future profits.  Yet, where are all the great social success stories by Web 1.0 companies?  I imagine we’ll see as many great examples of social companies jumping horses mid-race to become great mobile companies.

It’s a lot easier to start asking Siri for information instead of typing search terms into a box compared to thousands of enterprises ceasing to upgrade to the next version of Windows.  Google’s 76% market share.  Facebook’s 900 million monthly users.  They just aren’t as sticky as they seem.

And does anyone think the pace of change is going to increase in the next 5 years versus the last?  That we’re going to see fewer innovations, fewer start-ups trying more stuff on cheaper and more powerful processing power?  In all likelihood, we could have an entirely new way of gathering information and interacting with ads in a new mobile world than what we’re currently used to today.

The Googles and Facebooks of tomorrow might not even exist today.  And several Web 1.0 and 2.0 companies might be completely wiped off the map by then.

Fortunes will be made by those who adapt to and invest in this complete greenfield.

Those who own the future are going to be the ones who create it.  It’s all up for grabs.  Web monopolies are not as sticky as the monopolies of old.

[Long YHOO and AAPL]

LEAN FORWARD | Eric V. Holtzclaw

If you want to grow your business this year, give up control of day-to-day operational tasks.

Corbis

After reading an eye-opening book–E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber–in spring 2008, I fired myself. The decision has allowed my company to flourish and grow. Here's what I mean.

The main message of E-Myth is that you should turn your company into a franchise–not literally, but in the sense that you make sure each and every job function is documented well enough that you can turn it over to someone else if you need to.

You should fire yourself, especially from the jobs that, with your handling them, stand in the way of your company's growth. Because of E-Myth's teachings, I have continued to fire myself over the years from the jobs that earlier on I thought were too important to give to others.

Before I read the book, I managed all projects at my company, User Insight, an innovation consultancy. I priced every project and assigned staff members to every single client engagement. This practice was, quite frankly, crazy and unnecessary because I am surrounded by a very capable group of people. All of them are highly educated and experienced, and they possess a strong sense of the work that needs to be accomplished. Still, I felt that I was the only one who could properly divvy out the projects. What's more, I was somehow afraid that handing over this important function would cause our company to lose two of our strongest competitive advantages–speed and agility. The truth was, I realize now: I didn't want to give up control.

By being unwilling to give up control, I was spending most of my time working in my business, not on it. In other words, I was in the weeds every day and I had no time left to think strategically. I was also keeping others on my team from learning how the company runs, and creating a vacuum of lost information as projects were passed from our sales team to the delivery team. On top of that, I found my time consumed in unfortunate ways. One year we signed a substantial amount of client work just before July 4th. I spent the entire holiday locked away in a dark dreary room working out project calendars while the rest of the family enjoyed the pool and each other.

Today, I'm proud to say that I have turned over project management to other leaders at User Insight. I can't even tell you which staff person is assigned to which project anymore. We also haven't lost any business, and we deliver work more effectively because the whole team now understands the rationale behind our various project proposals. We've also increased our project size and volume by 35% since I stepped out of the way.

Of course, I still know what's happening at the company. I can easily find answers if I need an update on a specific project. I gave up control, not knowledge.

So what about you? Are you working in your business, or on your business?

Fire yourself today by simply identifying something that you are doing that could be done better by someone else. Enjoy greater efficiency and effectiveness. Focus on what your company needs you to do: strategic direction and vision. Repeat!

Eric V. Holtzclaw is CEO and founder of User Insight, a user experience strategy and consulting firm. Eric’s weekly radio show, The 'Better You' Project, shines a spotlight on entrepreneurs’ business journeys. @eholtzclaw

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Trying too hard

Ironic, isn't it? Imagine putting in hours and even days of hard work only to be penalised for it. A resume filled with bright, multicolored text in varied fonts will definitely stand out but for the wrong reasons that will not clinch you an interview. In this case, less is more. Keep your resume simple and to the point. Preferably, have your work history and skills listed in a single page but do not add in school achievements such as winning the 100m sprint in Primary 4.

Being too vague

You should keep your resume simple and to the point, but do not be too general. Be specific what you are skilled at by giving examples of what you could do or projects that you have undertaken in previous jobs.

Leaving out the important

Do not leave room for the hiring managers to imagine things. Went through a series of contract positions? State that these are contractual jobs or risk having them think you are a job hopper. Worked for small companies previously? Give a brief description of your previous stints and why you decided to join them.

Word of mouth

As with selling stuff, the word of mouth is the most effective and powerful way to "sell yourself" into a prospective job. Contact your previous job employers or supervisors (someone who isn't angry you left them) and as them to be your reference contact. Let them know which position you are looking at and remind them of how suitable you are.

By Tecca | Today in Tech

Everybody's doing it — watching movies on their computers. So how do you get in on this cinematic system of instant gratification? There a number of services out there that allow you to stream movies on demand, and we've got the lowdown on the best of the bunch to help you find the service that's right for you.

Netflix
The current reigning champ of movie streaming is Netflix, and with good reason. Netflix boast a wide selection of thousands of movies, many in high definition, spanning a number of decades up to releases as recent as 2011. It has become popular thanks to its variety of content, which includes substantial family and kids offerings, as well as its low monthly subscription fee of $7.99. Many of it films feature closed captioning.

Watching movies via Netflix is remarkably easy. Once you've set up an account, simply search for the film you want to see on the Netflix website and click the play button. It's also a snap to add movies to your Instant Queue for later viewing. And best of all, you can stream an unlimited number of movies every month.

It's worth noting that some Netflix instant movies can disappear from the list of titles, usually because of licensing issues on Netflix's end, so it's possible that movies you've added to your Instant Queue could become unavailable for several months or more if you don't watch them right away. Movie site Starz, which provides a wealth of content to Netflix, recently announced that it will be pulling its programming from the streaming service due to a lack of renewed licensing. This change takes place on Wednesday, February 29.

For a great site devoted to new Netflix releases and information on their expiration dates, pay a visit to Instant Watcher.

Pros: Inexpensive and easy to use; offers unlimited streaming and a large selection of films to choose from.
Cons: Despite plenty of films to choose from, selection can be a bit dated; long wait for new releases.
Ideal for: People who watch several movies a month (to get the best value from their membership fee); people who don't mind waiting a bit for new releases.

Hulu
Although it originally debuted as primarily a TV show streaming service, Hulu has expanded its selection of feature films and documentaries over the past year. While its library isn't as extensive as that of Netflix, it does offer a fairly broad selection, a portion of which can be watched for free. Free is great — however, most of Hulu's films are only available to subscribers of Hulu Plus, which costs $7.99 a month.

Most of the films on Hulu Plus are free from commercial interruption; TV shows streamed with a Hulu Plus subscription still have commercials. Paid subscribers are able to watch in HD. Like Netflix, Hulu offers a queue feature to save movies for later and works right in your web browser. Closed captioning is available some films.

Pros: Inexpensive; easy to use; relatively large selection of films — even a few you can watch for free!
Cons: TV shows occasionally interrupted by commercials; smaller selection than Netflix.
Ideal for: Frequent movie watchers who don't mind the occasional commercial interruption and who are also interested in streaming current television shows.

Vudu

Vudu
A relative newcomer to the movie streaming world, Vudu offers rentals and sales of streaming films. Prices are competitive with DVD and Blu-ray disc releases and are offered in several price ranges, from standard definition to a proprietary high-definition format called HDX featuring 1080p video and 5.1 surround sound.

Where Vudu differs from Netflix and Hulu is that rather than being a monthly service offering unlimited streaming, it's a pay-as-you-go service that doesn't require a monthly subscription.

Vudu stands out thanks to its large selection of current films, which are added to the service's library on the day they hit stores. In some cases, films will appear on Vudu before they're available in stores — or even while they're still in theaters — as part of special engagements (but at a premium price).

Like Netflix and Hulu, Vudu also works completely inside your web browser. Films begin streaming instantly after purchase and can also be downloaded in their entirety for viewing when you're not connected to the internet. Closed captioning or subtitles are currently available only for foreign language films.

Pros: The earliest new releases; access to some films currently in theaters; no paid membership required.
Cons: Highest cost per movie; no flat rate for unlimited films per month.
Ideal for: The infrequent movie watcher who prefers a pay-as-you-go approach and who wants new releases on time (and sometimes earlier).

Amazon Prime Instant Video

Amazon Prime / Instant Video
For the would-be streamer who wants to have their cake and stream it too, online retailer Amazon offers two different ways to watch movies on your computer. The first, Amazon Prime, is an extension of its premium customer program. Growing at a steady pace, it offers several thousand films for streaming via your web browser, many in HD with surround sound. Amazon Prime costs $79 a year, and there's currently no option to pay by the month. Amazon Prime also is great for people who often buy things off Amazon, because it gives you free two-day shipping on many items.

Amazon Instant Video is more akin to Vudu, in that Amazon offers a large selection of current and classic movies for sale or rent in SD and HD definition. These can be streamed within your web browser. Like Vudu, the availability of closed captioning here is limited to foreign films.

Pros: The least expensive annual plan; flexibility of unlimited streaming of older films with pay-as-you-go for newer releases.
Cons: Amazon Prime has the most limited selection of membership model streaming services.
Ideal for: People who watch several movies a month and who are frequent Amazon shoppers who enjoy free shipping. (And really, who doesn't like free shipping?)

Other options
Cable subscribers, as well as Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-Verse, and satellite customers also have varying options when it comes to streaming movies. These extras vary by service, but typically allow you to stream both new and classic movies straight through your in-home TV box. Unfortunately, features like user queues and reviews are often left out, and most charge standard pay-per-rental rates for newer flicks, and are usually more expensive than web-based options.

If this type of rental option is available to you, it's definitely something to consider, but with the large licensing agreements made by the companies above, you're likely to get more bang for you buck by avoiding individual rentals through your TV provider, which can quickly tally up.

This article was written by Rachel Shatto and originally appeared on Tecca

Have you seen those USAFIS.ORG ads on the Internet? One simple principle I have followed all these years is: "If it's too good to be true, it ain't true."

I'm sharing this piece from Toonaristpost.com. Read on...

Many people all over the world dream about immigrate to US to live and work there. US is the country of opportunity, it is the country where the dreams come true.

The “American Dream” is not so far thanks to the chance offered by the US Department of State, which gives the possibility of winning a permanent resident visa by participating to the annual Green Card Lottery.

Simply applying by internet every year around 50,000 people may win a Green Card that allow them to live, study and work in US. For the majority of the applicants this opportunity represents really the realization of their dreams.

That’s why it is very easy for them to become victims of frauds and “phishing” attempts. Surfing the net it is very common to be attracted by the lure of some website which seems to be official thanks to misleading appearance and features.

It is the case of the USAFIS Diversity Visa Program fraud. The USAFIS organization introduces itself as an intermediary between the Green Card Lottery applicants and the US Government, luring its victims online proposing to fill in the application form for the lottery or also sending emails that claim the win of a Green Card.

The aim is to attract people to their web site www.usafis.org by proposing to register and acquire in this way personal information and credit card number of the applicants.

I also experienced a scam attempt by USAFIS. I started filling in the application form online because I knew the participation to this program is totally for free, but I didn’t submit it because in the next page I was asked to choose between different assistance services programs which had all a cost.

The next day I got a call. A very kind and professional English speaking man explained to me the wonderful opportunity they were offering to have more chances for winning a Green Card. He said they help you to apply for the lottery, do everything right and run for it for several years in order to have more opportunities to win. While asking my credit card number he also said they work with the US Government and when I first refused to give him the complete code, he explained to me that it was the usual procedure asked by the Government to ensure you are not cheating anyone using somebody else’s credit card.

I decided to give him the number of an old and empty prepaid credit card, also telling him I didn’t have money on it. He said it wasn’t a problem, I had some months to make the payment but if I wouldn’t have done it I would have lost the chance to participate. They asked 478 euros for a four years assistance program.

I became very curious and after that weird call I started to check on the web what about this organization. The USAFIS website seems to be very well-done, also the passwords and the code they gave me seemed to work properly. The surprise came when I checked the US Department of State’s website.

“Scam Alert! Diversity Visa Scammers Sending Fraudulent Emails and Letters” is the first sentence you read on the page. But the confirmation of my presentiment came from the thousands of posts I read on some online forums, either in Italian and English.

American dreamers from all around the world were cheated out of hundreds of euros or dollars. After giving their credit card number to USAFIS all the money they had on their cards was completely withdrawn. Although I didn’t have any money I blocked my credit card.

USAFIS is an Israeli telemarketing company that operates call centers, online gambling and owns usafis.org and other websites similar to it. It shows itself to be an American authoritative organization that works for the US Government to get the access to credit cards and bank accounts.

The fraud process seems to work out very well, and when the victims understand they were swindled it is too late. Their money fades together with their American dream, it remains only a bitter pill to swallow.

You can request Emmanuelle's song, "Happy" by texting Magic899 <space> Happy and send to 2948.

You can request Emmanuelle's song, "Happy" by texting Magic899 Happy and send to 2948.

Live life by two simple words: “Get to.”
Instead of saying: “I have to go to work today.”
Say: “I get to go to work today .”

These words should remind us to be grateful for everything we have, everything we are. For living. For being alive.

Life is good.
Remember it.
Say it out loud.
Repeat it.

After all, the alternative seems worse.

Life is good. Pass it on.

by Garrett Moon

Every business is in the business of solving problems, but more often than not, we see those problems differently than our customers do. We tend to look at the problems we solve through the lens of features that we offer, rather than the benefits they provide.

For example, if you sell insoles, it would be easy to think that you solve the problem of sore feet, but what about an aching back, or being cranky at work? Your customers use and enjoy your products for many different reasons. Your job is to constantly be peeling back the layers to understand them better.

Social media is one of those unique places where these skills pay off more than ever. In the realm of social, customers are more connected and more public than they ever have been before. The business that truly understands its customers will ultimately have an easier time building audience, and generating online conversations with its fans.

To begin this process, I think we really need to understand the things that motivate customers to buy. I’ve broken it down into four key factors.

It would be pretty rare for a business to find any of it’s customers in only one of these categories. A customer might need a TV (Fulfill a Need), but the large screen plasma is probably more of a pleasure purchase (Provide Pleasure). That aside, most purchases are motivated heavily by one of these factors. As you begin to understand your customers, you should be categorizing them into these segments so that you better understand their motivation for buying.

The Social Customer

In the socially connected world, brands need to be more in touch with their customer than ever before. So much of your marketing message is now controlled by them! They can leave reviews about your business online, they can brag (or complain) about you on their Facebook page, or they can leave a permanent wrinkle in your universe with a negative blog post. This kind of stuff happens every day. They are one of the most influential forces in your marketing arsenal – you’d better know them well!

Jes Aznar for The New York Times

People Support workers in Makati City, near Manila. About 400,000 Filipinos work in call centers, roughly 50,000 more than in India.

By VIKAS BAJAJ

MANILA — Americans calling the customer service lines of their airlines, phone companies and banks are now more likely to speak to Mark in Manila than Bharat in Bangalore.

Over the last several years, a quiet revolution has been reshaping the call center business: the rise of the Philippines, a former United States colony that has a large population of young people who speak lightly accented English and, unlike many Indians, are steeped in American culture.

More Filipinos — about 400,000 — than Indians now spend their nights talking to mostly American consumers, industry officials said, as companies like AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Expedia have hired call centers here, or built their own. The jobs have come from the United States, Europe and, to some extent, India as outsourcers followed their clients to the Philippines.

India, where offshore call centers first took off in a big way, fields as many as 350,000 call center agents, according to some industry estimates. The Philippines, which has a population one-tenth as big as India’s, overtook India this year, according to Jojo Uligan, executive director of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines.

The growing preference for the Philippines reflects in part the maturation of the outsourcing business and in part a preference for American English. In the early days, the industry focused simply on finding and setting up shop in countries with large English-speaking populations and low labor costs, which mostly led them to India. But executives say they are now increasingly identifying places best suited for specific tasks. India remains the biggest destination by far for software outsourcing, for instance.

Executives say the growth was not motivated by wage considerations. Filipino call center agents typically earn more than their Indian counterparts ($300 a month, rather than $250, at the entry level), but executives say they are worth the extra cost because American customers find them easier to understand than they do Indian agents, who speak British-style English and use unfamiliar idioms. Indians, for example, might say, “I will revert on the same,” rather than, “I will follow up on that.”

It helps that Filipinos learn American English in the first grade, eat hamburgers, follow the N.B.A. and watch the TV show “Friends” long before they enter a call center. In India, by contrast, public schools introduce British English in the third grade, only the urban elite eat American fast food, cricket is the national pastime and “Friends” is a teaching aid for Indian call center trainers. English is an official language in both countries.

The Philippines has “a unique combination of Eastern, attentive hospitality and attitude of care and compassion mixed with what I call Americanization,” said Aparup Sengupta, chief executive of Aegis Global, an outsourcing firm based in Mumbai, India, that acquired Manila-based People Support in 2008 and now employs nearly 13,000 Filipinos. American companies are reluctant to discuss their outsourcing strategies, but privately some executives acknowledged that early on, they focused primarily on saving money. But as they gained experience in different countries, they realized that was not the best strategy.

“Certain phrases people use and idioms are important,” said an executive at a large American company that handles service calls through the Philippines. He spoke on the condition that he and his firm not be identified. “We are getting better at it, but of course it is still a hot button.”

Analysts said call centers in the Philippines appeared to have helped American businesses respond to complaints from consumers who said they could not understand Indian agents. But it is unlikely to satisfy critics who say outsourcing is sending too many jobs abroad as millions of Americans struggle to find work.

This year, for instance, US Airways stopped outsourcing customer service to Manila and hired 400 agents in Arizona, California and North Carolina as part of an agreement with the Communications Workers of America union.

Some American companies like Delta Airlines have said they moved call centers back to the United States to appease angry customers who wanted better English. Entry-level American call center agents earn about $20,000 a year, about five times as much as similar agents in the Philippines and six times as much as Indian agents.

American outsourcing or back-end companies like I.B.M., Accenture and Convergys along with Indian firms like Aegis, Infosys and Tech Mahindra have thousands of employees working from gleaming glass towers and even inside malls, which executives say young workers prefer so they can be close to shops and restaurants.

In addition to language skills, the Philippines has better utility infrastructure than India — so companies spend little on generators and diesel fuel. Also, cities here are safer and have better public transportation, so employers do not have to bus employees to and from work as they do in India.

Many of the workers are like Mark, 26, who answers tech support calls from employees of an American chemical company. He studied engineering but dropped out of college to support his parents and two younger siblings. He now makes 26,000 pesos ($600) a month, about the same as his father, who has a small school-bus business. (The average Filipino family earns 17,000 pesos a month.)

He spoke on the condition that his full name and the name of his employer were not revealed because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. His office is in a new development known as Eastwood City, east of Manila that, locals said, used to be fields a few years ago. Now, it is home to companies like I.B.M. and Dell, and has McDonald’s, Starbucks and bars where happy hour starts at 6 a.m. for call center workers who want a beer after their shift.

Mark is trim and has sharp features. He wears stylish canvas shoes and a striped shirt. His accent is more middle America than eastern Manila. He said his parents made him watch American movies and TV shows, read English books and speak the language starting at age 5. Still, he said he was fired from his first call center job after just two weeks because customers said they could not understand him.

“Sometimes, they would insist on being transferred to an American agent,” he said. “After a year, I was able to speak in an accent that they would like to hear.”

But now he is tiring of answering phones and is thinking about trying his hand at acting because he has a little money in the bank and his siblings have college degrees and are working.

The call center boom has also benefitted his country, previously a laggard among Southeast Asia’s tiger economies — its most popular exports were nurses. Last year, revenue from outsourcing, which also includes things like health insurance processing, animation development and software programming, totaled $9 billion, or 4.5 percent of the Philippine gross domestic product, up from virtually nothing in 2000. The government has tried to support the industry with tax breaks and subsidies.

In spite of its recent growth, the Philippines is a much smaller destination for outsourcing more broadly — India earns about 10 times as much revenue from outsourcing. That is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future given India’s 1.2 billion people, 31 percent of whom are 14 years old or younger. (The Philippines has 93 million people, about 35 percent of them 14 or younger.)

Executives expect the Philippines to continue growing at a fast pace and move up to higher-value services like accounting or the processing of insurance claims. But, like India, companies are grappling with higher costs and losing their best workers because of high domestic inflation and a shortage of skilled professionals. In the last two years, the Philippine peso climbed nearly 10 percent against the dollar, to 42.14, before weakening recently.

If the peso appreciates to 35 to the dollar, many of the call centers in the Philippines will not survive, said Narasimha Murthy, president of HGS USA, the American arm of an Indian outsourcing company that employs 4,000 people here. But things look upbeat for now, and Mr. Murthy was recently in Manila with a prospective American client.

Five years ago, he said, many clients would ask him if customer calls could be handled in the Philippines. “From that,” he said, “it has gone to ‘How well will you do it?’ ”

A version of this article appeared in print on November 26, 2011, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: A New Capital of Call Centers.

By Cecil Morella | AFP News

Source: Yahoo

Malaysia-based computer whiz Arlene Teodoro packed his bags and flew home to the Philippines this year, going against the tide in an impoverished country that sends millions of workers abroad.

Forced to leave his family and friends in 2008 in search of a decent job overseas, the 35-year-old bachelor says he is back for good because his skills are suddenly in big demand amid a business process outsourcing boom.

"Nothing compares to being back in the Philippines," said Teodoro, part of a 30-strong computer science class at a Manila university in the early 1990s, most of whose members also went overseas to find work.

"When I was working abroad I'd use up all my vacation leaves to attend family events and reconnect with my family."

Teodoro now earns about $3,000 a month as a business intelligence analyst for a US data mining firm, which uses powerful software to predict such key measures as future sales and trends for clients.

Big multinationals from aircraft manufacturers to retail chains are increasingly using these sophisticated tools, and the Philippines and India offer the most cost-efficient locales for such labour-intensive tasks, he said.

They also, crucially, have large English-speaking populations.

Data mining is one small part of the outsourcing phenomenon in the Philippines that has emerged from virtually nothing 10 years ago to become one of the country's most important economic planks and sources of jobs.

The Philippines has for decades suffered an exodus of people who have headed overseas to escape dire economic conditions, with one quarter of the population currently living on a dollar a day or less.

Nine million, or 10 percent of all Filipinos, now live overseas, performing low-skilled jobs such as maids and sailors, but also working as nurses, engineers and IT specialists.

They sent $18.17 billion back to the Philippines last year, equivalent to 10 percent of the country's GDP, and their importance to the nation is such that they have earned the nickname: "Mga Bagong Bayani," or "Modern Day Heroes".

However the exodus has also led to a massive "brain drain" and caused social disruption as families are torn apart, with one or both parents going overseas and leaving their children at home with relatives.

But now the rise of outsourcing is giving many Filipinos a chance to stay at home.

The outsourcing workforce grew about 10 percent this year to 600,000, and is expected to expand to 900,000 employees by 2016, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines. More than than 60 percent of the outsourcing jobs are in call centres with Filipinos fielding telephone inquiries from, or selling products to, customers across the globe.

Although they are the lowest-paid in the sector, an entry-level call centre job still pays between 14,000-20,000 pesos ($325-$465) a month.

This is roughly equivalent to what a Filipino maid would typically earn in a wealthier Asian country such as Singapore, or a seaman's starting salary in the global merchant fleet.

The local industry is also increasingly attracting work for higher-paying skills such as data warehousing, accounting and medical transcription, as well as creative work ranging from webpage design to animation and video games.

"Before, it was the call centre boom in the Philippines, but now it's more of really specialised skills," said Teodoro.

The Philippines has risen to have the second biggest outsourcing sector in the world behind India partly because it has a huge English-language workforce.

Filipino workers are also particularly prized in the United States and other Western nations because of their familiarity with their culture, a legacy of the Philippines' history as a former US colony.

"We have had expats telling us that working with Filipino teams is a very pleasantly unique experience, which they have not had elsewhere in the world," industry association senior executive director Gillian Joyce Virata told AFP.

The government has also sought to amplify the country's natural advantages by offering significant tax breaks for outsourcing firms and easing labour laws, such as one that used to bar women from working past midnight.

The industry association said outsourcing would generate revenues of $11 billion this year, up from $8.9 billion in 2010, and continue to grow by at least 15 percent annually to hit $20 billion by 2016.

This would place the outsourcing industry's revenues almost on a level with the money sent home by overseas workers.

"This industry has provided a very big support to the economic environment of the Philippines in the past decade," Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo told an outsourcing forum recently.

Aside from the direct benefits of employing people, Domingo credited the industry with a wide range of other knock-on effects such as increased car sales and the explosion of 24-hour convenience stores.

Outsourcing has also begun to transform Manila's skyline, with skyscrapers rising to cater to big foreign banks and technology companies that have set up shop with workforces that run into the tens of thousands.

"The contribution of this industry cannot be overstated," Domingo said.

1. I’m Sheryl a fresh graduate and I started working last June 2011 in a start-up call center located here in Ortigas CBD. Since I started working, I noticed that I’ve been working almost 10 hours a day because my Supervisor would normally advise me to stay and work extra hours and yet I am not being paid for the extra hours that I’ve worked for. Am I entitled to overtime pay? If Yes, What can I do?

Answer:

Hi Sheryl! Thank you for sending me your email inquiry about Overtime Pay. There are still a lot of employees out there like you who is still “in-the-dark” with regards to what Overtime Pay (OT Pay) is all about.

It is a universal accepted fact that for a person to work well he or she has to be given ample time to rest and to rejuvenate and prepare for tomorrow’s work. That is why labor standard laws in many countries set up maximum hours of work for employees.

In the Philippines, our Labor Code fixed the maximum at eight (8) hours a day (see Article 83, Labor Code of the Philippines) for six consecutive work days (Article 91, LCP). If the employee works beyond eight hours, the employer is required to pay an additional compensation equivalent to the employee’s regular wage plus at least twenty-five percent (25%) of such regular wage. The rate is increased to thirty percent (30%) if the worker renders overtime on a holiday or rest day. (Article 87, LCP).

As the law states, all employees in all establishments and undertakings whether for profit or non-profit in the Private Sector are entitled to overtime pay for work rendered beyond eight (8) hours a day.

Now, since it was your Supervisor who advised you to render additional work hours beyond the normal 8 hours a day, this would mean it’s an official extension of working hours thus the company should be compensating you with the proper OT pay.

What you can do?

Let me answer this in general so that all our other readers would also learn what to do in cases of unpaid overtime:

First is to check your employment contract and make sure you are eligible for overtime pay. You would need to confirm on your contract if you are categorized as an Exempt or Non-exempt employee.

An "Exempt employee” are the those who are paid a straight salary for their work, and as such is not entitled to be paid for overtime worked. An "exempt" person supervises others, is part of a management team and receives a set monthly or bi-weekly salary for their time there, hence the "exempt" status.

A "Non-exempt employee", does not manage others, and does not receive a salary. These employees are usually paid an hourly rate and are entitled to be paid overtime when they work more than 8 hours a day in a 40 or 48 hours a week contract agreement.

In your case Sheryl, most probably being in an entry-level position you would be categorized as a Non-exempt employee and thus eligible for overtime pay.

2. Keep track of your unpaid overtime. In some cases, your employer's record might not be correct, so       you need to keep track of the time daily. Checking your timecard /time records daily is important to make sure it has the correct information. In most companies, employees can check their DTR’s (daily time records) on-line or thru their company’s intranet systems.

3. Discuss with your Supervisor first about the discrepancy you notice in the amount you were paid and the amount you think you should be paid with corresponding OT pay. Bring any of your records, documents proving rendered OT and any timecards/copy of your DTR’s. Your Supervisor can then verify the approved rendered over time. Normally, your Supervisor and/or Manager would then coordinate with the Human Resource Department and with your company’s Payroll/Finance team to correct the said discrepancies and would make the proper adjustments and pay for the unpaid overtime.

4. If you feel that it has been taking your Supervisor/Manager too long to properly address your concern regarding your unpaid overtime pay, I suggest you secure an appointment with your company’s HR Manager and discuss your concern.

5. As a last resort, and if you feel that your company has been neglecting your request to properly pay you for the corresponding overtime pay you can file a report against your company with the labor court thru the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC). You can check their website at http://nlrc.dole.gov.ph/ for more details.

What you should remember Sheryl is that you should always be civil and act professionally whenever you have any payroll disputes/concerns and it should always be channelled to the proper authorities in your company and give them ample time to check and verify their records.

Lastly, I wish you the very best at your work! I am happy to know that you have started your career in the BPO/Call Center industry immediately after college. As you may have known, the Call Center/BPO Industry is still the “sunshine industry” here in the Philippines and there are many exciting opportunities for you so good luck!

According to a report by Andrew Lyle in Neowin.net, "it's been estimated that Apple has sold roughly 1.5 million iPhone 4s in its first day, and according to an analyst at CNN.com, possibly even more. With that number, Apple has broke its original record for most iPhone sales in a single day."

Lyle said that the original iPhone sold one million units in 74 days while the iPhone 3G sold its first million units in a week and the iPhone 3GS surpassed the one million units sold mark on its opening weekend. With increasing sales volumes like these, the iPhone 4 would definitely show promising numbers.

But instead of just babbling about numbers and statistics, we want you to view the videos themselves then decide if you want what's coming. Here's the IPhone 4s demo video:

Then take a peak at this video which is a concept of an IPhone 5 which looks too good to be true...

My gut-feel is telling me that this movie's going to SURPRISE us (not necessarily box-office wise but "presentation-wise") ;D Unlike Catch Me I'm In Love, I think this movie will rely not just on the usual chemistry and kilig scenes between the two actors but on a whole lot more.. a whole lot more of OTHER, DIFFERENT things ;D Let's all be prepared to be surprised peeps! ♥♥

(via Mashable)

by Zachary Sniderman

Rockstar Games has officially announced Grand Theft Auto 5 as the next game in the award-winning video game series. The announcement came in suitably mysterious style. Logging on to the Rockstar’s website leads to the above image … and not much else. Eagle eyes will notice the game’s trailer is set to hit on Nov. 2. Rockstar is also promoting the hashtag #GTAV to build social buzz.

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) gained tremendous acclaim — and a fair bit of notoriety — for its violent, open-world gameplay. Players can steal cars, kill innocents and rise in the ranks of local mafias and gangs. Grand Theft Auto is largely credited with popularizing open-world gameplay where players can deviate from a central plot to take on side tasks like driving a taxi, mini-games or simply wandering a digital city. Grand Theft Auto 5 will be the first GTA game since 2008′s Grand Theft Auto 4, which followed an Eastern European immigrant’s rise to power in New York City Liberty City.

With the announcement of Grand Theft Auto 5, the “Internet” has gone into high gear trying to make predictions about the game. The “5″ is clearly designed to resemble a paper bill but cash has always played a huge role in the GTA games.

Some are guessing GTA5 might be based in Hollywood though that, along with similar speculation, is more of a wish than a fact.

Do you think the new GTA can top the previous games or are those boots too large to fill? Let us know in the comments.

find resources here irieworld.com

hehehe