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The youth of today is confronting many more serious challenges than their previous generations used to do. We are seeing a surge in the cases of depression and other mental illnesses which are mainly linked with high stress. What’s worse is that their countless problems are making them rebellious too.
This discussion is important as youth play a major role in the development of a country, be it socially, politically, or economically. So, there is a certain obligation from all of us to guide our young people onto the right path.
In this article, we will explore some of the basic problems that are concerning young adults today and also the solutions for it. If the youth can somehow beat these obstacles, their social wellbeing would be guaranteed in the forthcoming years. So, let us ponder over those issues one by one.
Materialism
We are living in a society where materialism is encouraged pretty heavily. Success today is measured by how much material or wealth is acquired by a person. It is only natural that this kind of thought process gets into the younger generation quickly. We have come a long way since the days when we used to buy things only if it was required. Now we see a trend where the youth wants to acquire everything that comes in front of their eyes. They should be made understood that owning stuff is never related, either to success or happiness.
Social Media
Most youth today are dependent on social media for showing their personal worth. Also, according to a survey, 7 in 10 teens ages 13-17 report checking social media more than once a day. This behavior is nothing short of dangerous as excessive use of social media can be a way to avoid reality. Online crimes like cyber-bullying can affect the personality of the victim, even wrecking their career. So, if you are a parent, you may need to ensure that your child is not spending endless time on social media.
Hitting Puberty Earlier
The innocence of today’s children seems to be fading away too quickly, mainly due to the environment and habitat they are exposed to now. The internet also seems to be bombarding their delicate minds with unwanted information and adult-related content. As mentioned above, parents should be vigilant of their online activities and also must encourage healthy habits in them. Teaching them about the importance of hobbies also goes a long way in channelizing their energy into creative things.
Addictions
Stress and peer pressure, to some extent, can make an average teenager today addicted to several substances. We are seeing a huge rise in cases where young working adults are dependent on alcohol and smoking relieves their stress. Addictions may seem like a stress buster on the surface, but in reality, they only add to the misery. Those who are into binge drinking should consider trimming their quota to quit the habit slowly. For smokers, there are various alternatives to smoking, to kick the habit of cigarettes pretty quickly.
Obesity
Most of the youth today have the habit of traveling in climate-controlled cars and living in a climate-controlled environment. This has made them accustomed to sitting ideal for a long period of time. Their unhealthy diet also creates a situation where they gain a lot of weight in a short period of time, commonly known as obesity. The health consequences of obesity in children need to be taken seriously, and hence it is imperative to make a positive change in their lifestyle.
Facing Bullying at school
The kind of atmosphere a school provides plays a crucial role in a child’s overall development. It is hence essential that schools be clear and strict against the practice of bullying. Kids who are bullied develop increased feelings of anxiety and depression. This can even threaten their future as bullying also leads to a severe lack of concertation in studies. Teachers and administrators need to be aware of what is happening around the school premises and also intervene if any cases of bullying are happening.
Youth are important segments of society, and their wellbeing decides the trajectory of a country’s development. Empowering them is extremely important if we are to create a happy and peaceful world. By effectively addressing the above challenges, we can ensure our youngsters are staying in superb physical and mental health, which is also the need of the hour now.
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Climate change has become a major source of concern worldwide. Many industries are assessing their operations to see how they can reduce the effects. Surprisingly, the banking sector is one of such. Financial institutions are constantly working to solve this global challenge through sustainable banking. Wondering how they do it? Well, relax for we have all that covered in here. Just read to the end.
Often, banks and credit unions are the strongholds of every community. They affect how their customers do their jobs. And since climate change is triggered by what we do for a living, banks that focus on sustainability and green economy have a role to play here. Through loans and any other funding, these banks participate in fuelling certain industries, not to mention affecting purchases.
What is Sustainable Banking?
Green or sustainable banking is a term that was coined in the 1990s to describe a variety of products and services. Generally, the program refers to the steps taken by financial institutions to decrease their carbon footprint, promote environmentally friendly activities, and assist clients in their efforts to be more environmentally. Environmental and social governance (ESG) is another name for this approach.
Many large companies have begun to publish annual ESG reports in recent years to keep investors and clients up to date on their efforts and results in this area. For example, the Western Union's most recent report describes their objectives and pledges. Some of them include energy-efficient office location criteria, waste reduction initiatives, and digital alternatives to physical travel. By doing so, they aim to achieve sustainable banking.
Customers prefer sustainable banking
Unsurprisingly, the banking sector is always crowded. People need to save money while others want loans. However, customers don’t just pick a bank at random. Their selection is always based on how trustworthy the institution is. Therefore, any bank intending to remain healthy in the competition must incorporate strategies to win customers’ trust. One of the notable strategies is environmental conservation.
Banks focusing on sustainability and green economy tend to stand out from the crowd. Most customers trust financial institutions funding environmental initiatives. As such, they’ll remain loyal to such banks. This means that the bank will continue making profits. And by the way, the environmental initiatives will help the banks reach more prospective customers. Therefore, the institution itself is one of the beneficiaries.
Advantages of sustainable banking
Sustainable banking is not just about reducing or preventing emissions or environmental damage. It defines how a company operates as a steward of the environment at large. Furthermore, it reveals the relationship between customers, employees and the community at large. Therefore, banks with sustainability will have such strong relationships. This will help them outdo their counterparts by attracting and retaining customers.
What’s more, green banking is much more cost-effective. It helps reduce or even eliminate some, if not all, costs. For instance, doing away with checks will save printing costs. More so, customers will no longer need to present the checks in banks physically. This will save them transport costs. Besides, this will make management easy as the bulk of paperwork is eliminated.
Is sustainable banking right for your institution?
While making the transition to green banking may be a daunting task, it’s the right move for any financial company. Compared to risks and costs, the benefits are more. Besides, it won’t just benefit you as the bank. Customers too will be happy. Isn’t that what you want for them? Interestingly, no big changes are required. Just a few adjustments and things will be in place.
Getting started with green banking
Green banking is a continuous process that requires commitment to be productive. Through several baby steps, you’ll be surprised to see the bank achieving this goal. Notably, nothing unique needs to be done. Just simplify tasks and you’ll find yourself doing better than you even intended. Also, keep in mind the social issues surrounding your business environment. From diversities to labor standards, be sure to manage everything well.
Using technology to get things done
Arguably, every industry uses technology in one way or another. The key objective is to simplify things because that’s exactly what technology does. During older days, all banking transactions needed in-person attendance. Therefore, people had to travel long distances hereby incurring travel costs. However, banking online can solve this problem. Clients can send and receive money from the comfort of their homes.
Moreover, sending and depositing checks is costly and time-consuming. When you switch to electronic payment options, you’ll notice significant savings on the time and cost. Who wouldn’t want that? However, we can’t deny the risks involved. When security measures are ignored, technology can do more harm than good. Therefore, you should integrate robust security protocols into your systems to make sure that customers’ money is always safe.
Final thoughts on sustainable banking
As with any other industry, climate change is largely affecting the banking sector. So, green banking is inevitable. And it’s no longer a choice. According to Mark Carney, a governor in England, failure to adapt will render you bankrupt without hesitation. The best thing is that sustainable banking will work to your organization’s growth. That’s why this is the future of finance.
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You must have heard of big data at least once in your life. It is not a new term, which has been around for more than 15 years. Its origin can be traced back to the development of Web 2.0.
It is remarkable that despite businesses collecting user data for decades, not all of them have a well-defined data management policy and structure.
If you are looking to restructure your data management systems, you can leverage the following trends to attain your objective.
Augmented Analytics
You can expect a deviation from the trend of data analysts spending most of their time collecting, preparing and organizing data for analysis. Once augmented analytics occupies the mainstream of data analytics, things will change. It will automate most of the data analysis process, allowing human data analysts to spend more time finding use-case scenarios.
Machine learning and natural language processing are what augmented analytics uses to automate the analytics process. Moreover, it can help businesses with artificial intelligence models. For example, augmented analytics can help companies collect and review thousands of customer reviews in a day.
When augmented analytics matures in the future, companies will significantly benefit from its continuous intelligence. It will enable businesses to conduct real-time analytics, reduce time insights generation and use them in decision-making processes, increasing the efficiency of companies.
Self-Service Tools for Sales and Marketing Teams
With the growing competitiveness in the business landscape, front-line sales and marketing professionals will need data democratization. They need self-service tools to analyze and manage data assets and require no technical expertise.
It will help empower your marketing and sales teams to deal with data independently to minimize their dependence on your IT team.
Therefore, ensure that you equip your sales and marketing teams with tools to help them to handle their daily operations smoothly.
Give them the tools they need to execute their data management operations.
Cloud-Native Solutions For Data Analytics
You will get to see a notable shift in the analytics trend in the days to come. Businesses will tend to prioritize the best solutions over money savings. And the result is that you will see the cloud analytics sectors proliferating.
Much on-premise analytics come into play when you implement cloud analytics. However, one of the most significant advantages of cloud analytics is that it frees up the in-house data team from maintaining hardware and uses the time in executing essential tasks.
Cloud analytics also helps to operate machines seamlessly, helping you to cut down overhead costs. With cloud computing bringing efficiency to businesses, it will increase your business' performance.
Cloud analytics services provide data models and advanced analytics tools for which businesses have to pay for the use.
In this context, Garter says that 90 percent of businesses will use the cloud computing model by 2022.
On-Boarding A Chief Data Officer
If the data amount in your business has crossed a threshold level, you need to hire a chief data officer (CDO).
Data scientists were unknown entities in many companies about a decade ago, but they slowly began to appear as software engineers taking up extra responsibilities. And the result: the data science field began to grow.
Essentially, businesses today should employ C-level officers to leverage the benefits of big data technologies. Their role involves governance matters and identifying improvement areas. In other words, they are responsible for improving the user experience and productivity of the business.
Typically, the CDO reports directly to the chief executive officer (CEO). And the CDO handles a team of data analysts, engineers and developers. Thus, the CDO is a strategic role.
Data Exchange
Data can also be a source of revenue. You can monetize the data you collect by reselling it. Apart from earning income, you can also develop good relationships with other businesses through data exchange, eliciting unavailable insights.
But, you need to ensure that your data is of high quality. And that is why you need to have an internal process to guarantee such data's accuracy, security, and organization.
So, you can set up an actionable policy on data governance, but you will encounter challenges in the process due to ethical and privacy issues. But, you can deal with challenges with prudent tactics. A CDO can play an important role in exchanging data.
Use of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology
In a gradually growing trend, some businesses are replacing traditional databases with a distributed ledger system, ensuring more secure transactions, smart contracts, asset tracking and audit trails.
But, there is a challenge to the usage of distributed ledger technology. It is the lack of understanding among the general business professionals.
The uniqueness of the blockchain and distributed ledger technology is that it can store data in a decentralized location. And the stored data is unchangeable, creating an easy-to-audit and foolproof trail.
Interactive Dashboards
In today's fast-paced business environment, a simple dashboard will not work at all. It would help if you used interactive data stories that are more compelling than static dashboards. You should ensure that you present your data findings so that it highlights the importance of the information. So, it will help if you use an interactive dashboard to contextualize everything.
Remember that data visualization is a part of data management that involves creating a description around each chart and making meaningful and dynamic presentations.
Conclusion
The implication is clear. No business can flourish without the right data management strategy. Companies must collect and analyze data to generate insights for decision making. You might visualize it as a complicated affair, but it is not. And the availability of cloud services makes data analysis quick and non-technical. Therefore, you can regard it as a democratization of analytics and intended for all sections of employees.
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Keeping your employees happy and motivated is not only good for their satisfaction but also your bottom line. Now more than ever, a happy employee is a productive employee, which means employee satisfaction is one of the best investments you can make for your small business or startup. Making sure your workers feel valued is huge for morale, and is essential for creating a culture of loyal and motivated employees. Not sure where to start? Here's a quick and easy guide to get you started on keeping your workers happy, motivated, and productive at the workplace.
Promote Camaraderie
Even as remote working becomes more and more popular, the vast majority of employees are going to be spending most of their days at work for the foreseeable future. That means it's important that the workplace be a positive and enjoyable environment. A big part of creating a good workplace environment is promoting bonds between your employees that go beyond just working relationships. After all, who doesn't like spending time with their friends? Workers who have good relationships with one another are happier in the workplace, and can more easily collaborate or team up with their co-workers. The best way to build rapport between your employees is through events outside of work. Try hosting events like free lunches, parties, trivia nights, even just regular birthday parties. Giving your workers a space to socialize outside of work is a great way to build their relationships. Just make sure not to make it mandatory! Free time outside of work is precious, and hosting mandatory events after hours can breed more resentment than camaraderie.
Don't Be Stingy With Rewards
Sure, technically a salary is the reward your employees get for all their hard work. But money isn't everything, and even highly paid workers can feel like they're not being appreciated as they should be. Make a point of calling out your employees when they succeed, and make sure they know their achievements are both seen and appreciated. Praise lets your employees know that their work is being valued and that they're an important part of your company. This is especially helpful in a small business like a startup, where a smaller workforce necessitates that people work more closely together. This kind of change can start with something as simple as a "good idea!" or "great job!" in a meeting. It's also a good idea to hold meetings every week or so to mention everyone who's been doing a good job lately. You can also offer more tangible rewards, like gift cards or trophies. Just make sure that you're not coming off as condescending! Let these rewards come from a place of genuine appreciation, not cynicism.
Get Help From Outside the Company
A lot of these tips are managerial techniques you yourself can use, but that doesn't mean you have to be personally responsible for everything. If you're looking for a quick and easy boost for your employees' morale, don't be afraid to look elsewhere for what you need. Motivational speakers are always a great idea and can deliver a powerful message directly to your employees. Though there's always the initial cost up-front, finding the right motivational speaker can be a great investment for the productivity of your employees. The right speaker can elevate your employees, motivate them, or even provide some skills and techniques to help them elevate their own work. They offer a new perspective that can be difficult to find within the company and a fresh voice that can uplift productivity for your workforce. You can also consider using speakers for yourself or your managerial team, and pick up some new tricks and techniques to make you a more effective leader.
Embrace Remote Work
Even as the effects of the covid-19 pandemic start to slowly recede, there's one aspect that seems like it's here to stay - remote work. The past year and a half has doubled as an extended test of working from home, and the results have been very positive for both employers and employees. Many workers have shown that they can work from the comfort of their own homes without resulting in any loss of productivity, which is great news for startups. The flexibility of remote work is something you can use to your advantage, allowing you to hire workers from all over the country instead of just drawing from local applicants. It's also great for your employees, many of whom prefer to work from their own living rooms and avoid the hassle of a daily commute. Remote work isn't the answer for everyone, and it's still a good idea to have people coming into the office on a regular basis, but there's no reason why you can't allow certain workers to stay at home, now more than ever. It's a win-win and can be a great boost for morale.
Set the Tone Yourself
One of the most common reasons why people leave work to find another job is because of an uncooperative boss. Everyone who's ever worked as an employee has stories about unreasonable managers who wouldn't listen and respect their workers. That's why one of the best ways to keep your employees happy is to avoid being that boss. Make sure you're treating your workers with respect on a personal level. Be kind, courteous, and don't demand unrealistic things of them. Try to make yourself someone that people will want to work for, instead of just someone that people don't mind working for. People talk, and your reputation will get around within your industry, so make sure it's a positive one! Otherwise, you might find yourself losing some of your best and brightest employees to other, more agreeable bosses. This doesn't mean you have to be a pushover, of course! It's all about finding a balance between you and your employees.
All the business plans in the world won't be enough to make your startup profitable if you don't invest in your employees. This means management techniques are meant to uplift them, not keep them in line. Invest some time and effort into making sure your workers feel satisfied and valued, and you'll be amazed at the difference it can make.
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Smoking is one of those habits that can wreak havoc on a human being’s health. The reason is that the main constituent of cigarettes known as tobacco holds over 3000 harmful chemicals that are detrimental to the human body. So, it is always advisable to quit this dreadful addiction at the earliest.
There are so many wonderful ways to quit cigarettes. Nicotine Therapy is one such method that helps you drop this addiction and also helps you fight the withdrawal symptoms effectively. If you are a fan of vaping, there are some best e-juice flavours available that will help you overcome the craving for nicotine very fast. There are many more techniques like these that do a great help in making you quit smoking in phases, instead of forcing you to go cold turkey.
In this article, we will be emphasizing the importance of quitting smoking. We will be seeing all the benefits that an individual can avail when he is on a path of recovery. So, let us get started with it.
Quitting Breaks Your Addiction Cycle
Quitting smoking can rewire your brain and also help you break the cycle of addiction. The large number of nicotine receptors in your brain will return to normal levels after about a month of being quit. You will regain that vitality you had before you fell into the addiction to smoking.
Makes Your Hearing Sharp
Quitting smoking will keep your hearing sharp. Remember, even mild hearing loss can cause problems (like not hearing directions correctly and doing a task in an incorrect way). One of the main reasons why smoking affects hearing is that tobacco is a substance that can cause inflammation in the ears. So by quitting cigarettes, you can surely retain your sharp hearing senses.
Boosts Your Eyesight
It is a fact that quitting smoking can improve your night vision and also help preserve your overall vision by stopping the damage that cigarettes have done. Also, if you have eye problems, it is important that you visit your eye doctor once you have quit smoking. They will help you reveal any signs of underlying infections if there are any.
Restores Good Oral Hygiene
Nobody likes a dirty mouth. After a few days without cigarettes, you will start noticing that your smile has become brighter. Not smoking now will keep your mouth healthy for years to come. It is also important for people who smoke cigarettes to regularly visit their dentists, in order to check any signs of infection or diseases. Nevertheless, it will be better to quit it altogether.
Helps you Get a Clear and Healthy Skin
You might be surprised to know that quitting smoking is far better than the anti-aging lotion you use daily. Quitting can also help clear up blemishes and protect your skin from problems like premature aging and wrinkling.
Decreased Heart Risks
Smoking is the leading cause of heart attacks and heart disease. But many of these heart risks can be reversed simply by quitting smoking. Quitting can lower your blood pressure and heart rate almost immediately. Your risk of a heart attack declines within 24 hours.
Thinner Blood
Another effect of quitting smoking is that your blood will become thinner and less likely to form dangerous blood clots. Your heart will also have less work to do, because it will be able to move the blood around your body more easily.
Makes the Cholesterol Level Low
Though quitting smoking will not get rid of the fatty deposits that are already there, it will significantly help to lower the levels of cholesterol and fats circulating in your blood. This plays a vital part in slowing down the buildup of new fatty deposits in your arteries. If your arteries are fine, then know that your heart will remain healthy and will work at its optimal level.
Stops the Lung Damage
You should know that scarring of the lungs is not a reversible process. That is why it is so essential to quit smoking before you do permanent damage to your lungs. Within two weeks of quitting, you might notice it’s easier to walk up the stairs because your breathing has become fine. Don’t wait for some opportunity to quit smoking, quit today!
Prevents a Lung Condition Called Emphysema
Though there is no cure for emphysema, quitting smoking when you are young can protect your lungs from getting into this condition. It is better to quit early before one starts doing years of damage to the delicate air sacs in your lungs, which will help protect you from developing emphysema later.
Helps the Cilia Regrow
Cilia start to regrow and regain normal function very quickly after you quit smoking. In fact, they are one of the first things in your body to heal. People sometimes notice that they cough more than usual. start dropping the cigarettes for the first time. This is an excellent sign that the cilia are coming back to life. There is nothing to worry about the coughing problem as you’re more likely to fight off colds and infections when your cilia are working properly.
On the Whole,
As you have seen the biggest benefits you will experience once you quit smoking, it may certainly boost your motivation. But realize that though motivation can be a good fuel, it is certainly not a sustainable fuel. You will be requiring discipline as your motivation will run out sooner. A small amount of willpower can also go a long way in making you stay strong in this journey of overcoming this tough hurdle.
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