2017 In Review: Our Favourite Articles

After discussing the top McQuaig blog posts for 2017, we decided to expand our search and take another look through our Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn feeds for awesome articles that we had read throughout the year. So if you missed a few of these last year, never fear! Here are our favourite articles from across the web in 2017:

Why Startups Need Project Managers Now More Than Ever

Lean startups are agile creatures, working with ultra-tight budgets and adapting to an ever-changing marketplace. But in this Forbes article from Shazir Mucklai, lean startups can also often suffer from a few critical issues. I’ll let Mucklai go through the details, but – spoiler alert – a lot of potential problems in a lean startup can be solved by bringing in someone who has project management experience.
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5 Strategies for Hiring Seasonal Employees

The holidays are behind us, but that’s not the only season that requires some temporary support. Before your next seasonal hiring spree starts, take a look at Chris Rush’s article in Entrepreneur. He covers some of the most effective ways to improve seasonal hiring, including leveraging referrals, improving the onboarding experience, and much more.
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Pro Tip: If you think your interviewing process needs an upgrade, check out the SARR method of interviewing.

9 Millennials Share What Work-Life Balance Means To Them

Rachel Dresdale spoke with millennials to get their opinion on work-life balance. In this article, she shares their responses, which might help illuminate what many organizations are wondering – what does this younger workforce really want from their employers?
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What Separates a Junior Programmer vs. a Senior Programmer?

In this piece for Quora and Hackernoon, Mario Peshev answers this common question. Using the example of implementing a blogging engine, Peshev covers how a Junior Programmer might address the problem, and then examines the same problem from a Senior Programmer’s perspective. A quick read, but well worth the time to see how the same issue can be addressed in various ways.
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Ongoing Onboarding: How To Stop The Revolving Door Within The First Year

Right off the bat, Tasha Bell’s article in Forbes reminds us that onboarding isn’t just a first-day project. Instead, she suggests setting up a 30-day process that helps new employees feel a sense of accomplishment and positions them for success. Organizations who are just offering a quick office tour as the majority of their onboarding process – you might want to check this out.
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Pro Tip: Need more intel on effective employee onboarding? Download our free eBook.

Employees Love Working from Home. But Are They Engaged?

This article from Ryan Scott covers some of the ways in which organizations can help improve employee engagement with their remote workforce. It’s no surprise that many employees love to work from home, but it’s easy to lose touch with some of the great benefits of working with a team that’s all in one place. Check out Scott’s suggestions for turning that experience around.
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These 13 Exercises Will Prepare You for Work’s Toughest Situations

Maggie Leung’s got quite the story for how her business started, and this article in First Round Review explores some of the ways in which her experiences can benefit anyone. Trying to improve internal processes? Planning on mediating a situation between 2 employees? Practice these exercises, and you might find that some of the toughest situations at work become a little bit easier.
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Why Most Sales Coaching Fails

Using a meerkat-based analogy (yes, you read that right), Lisa Earle McLeod explains what tiered coaching is, and illustrates the benefits of breaking down end goals into bite-sized chunks. It might seem like more work, but McLeod explains that tiered coaching is actually less work, since employees learn more quickly – plus, once they learn it, they’ve learned it forever.
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Discover how the University Of San Diego used job benchmarking to help more than 300 students’ careers. Our new case study is available as a free download!

So there you have it – 10 articles from around the web that we think really stood out in 2017. Hopefully there’s something in here that speaks to you. And if there’s a blog post or article that became a highlight through the year for you, let us know in the comments!