Can You Monetize These Trends? A recent article in Small Business Solutions looked at some trends that were predominant in 2021 and seem likely to continue to prevail in 2022 and beyond. The question is, can your business afford not to consider them?   Remote work It's obvious to all that this trend will continue. The genie is out of the bottle and it's not going back in anytime soon. In fact, with technological advances being introduced everyday, it's just making it easier for a large segment of the workforce to provide their services remotely. This will be especially true in financial services and...

Why don't people want to work?   This is a question that business owners and economists have been asking for a while now. Starting in May of 2020, the Census Bureau has conducted a monthly Household Pulse Survey in which they ask that very question.   At first, the answers were on track with what was expected. A significant plurality of people cited layoffs and furloughs due to the pandemic. But then something unexpected occurred:. Societal forces previously unseen started to emerge.   The first unpredicted finding was a surge in retirements – many due to the very real threat of the coronavirus weighed against the...

ASN will be closed Monday, January 17, 2022, in support of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day mission of service.     Did you know that in 1994, Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, which transformed Martin Luther King Jr. Day into a day dedicated to volunteer service in honor of Dr. King's legacy?     We would like to inspire you to serve your community during this leg of the pandemic. Be safe, get vaccinated, wear a mask, and practice social distancing. These are ways we can all serve our local community; stay well and reduce the stress on our healthcare workers. Thank you. 

Job Descriptions Can Be Causing You to Miss Out on the Best Employees   Are you sure that’s the job description you want to go with? Inevitably, job descriptions focus on the specifics of what exact skills, education, and experience are obvious requirements for the position. All others need not apply.   In fact, resume processing algorithms are keyed to spot the specific words that indicate a candidate may be suitable. If all or most of the key words are there, their resume might make it through the sorting hat. If too few are seen, the candidate never even gets a first look.   The purpose...

2022 Economic Predictions     How we got here The best way to answer this first question is to describe what we mean by here? The whole world was anxious to get out of 2020. What we didn't know that 2021 wasn't going to turn out much better. For a few brief, shining weeks in mid-summer, we thought we had finally emerged from the shadow of pandemic into the sunshine of normalcy. It turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking. Who knew we needed to squeeze a year's worth of fun into two weeks in July?   Despite Delta and Omicron, the U.S. economy...