When an employee who may not merit a raise asks for a hefty one, Alison Green, columnist for Inc., advises leaders to explain what the company can realistically offer and what the employee would need to do to get a more significant bump down the line. Green also addresses two other sticky office conundrums, including how to recover from sending a personal email to the wrong recipient.

When pitching for a raise or promotion, create a slide deck or presentation documenting how you improved the company's bottom line, sales, customer service or workflow. This will help your manager remember highlights of your work, but this doesn't have to wait until a year-end performance review, writes Ben Gran.

Having a deep understanding of a subject may undermine your teaching effectiveness if you use long explanations, present information out of order or offer too many examples from personal experience, writes Justin Hale. Instead, Hale recommends keeping presentations simple, reading from your slides and ensuring your audience clearly understands the processes and concepts you're teaching them.

Audio and live content increases LinkedIn posts' engagement 40% and posts with polls have 2.2 times the median reach, Richard van der Blom's annual Algorithm Insights study reveals. Personal storytelling, thought leadership and event content form the top three pillars of content strategy for the platform.

CareerViewXR, in collaboration with the Be More Colorful platform, has donated hundreds of virtual reality headsets to North Dakota schools, allowing students to explore more than 65 different work experiences using 360° technology. The initiative aims to provide students with immersive career exploration opportunities, showcasing behind-the-scenes perspectives of various job sites and enhancing access to unique vocational experiences.

Nearly three-quarters of people younger than age 45 feel flexible gig work eventually could replace full-time employment as the predominant work model in the US, according to results of a recent survey. Traditional employers should take this as a sign of the importance of flexibility to today's workers, and companies and organizations should assess work-life balance and staff scheduling to achieve greater flexibility, researchers said.

Look for potential hires who have solved problems and shown adaptability rather than focusing exclusively on their past jobs and skills, writes Renato Agrella, founder of Acerca Consulting. "Experience is a fixed and finite resource that is context-dependent and domain-specific, while the ability to learn is a dynamic and infinite resource that can be transferable and adaptable across different situations and domains," Agrella writes.

Current methods to combat coastal erosion often involve the expensive practice of repeatedly replenishing sand deposits on a given stretch of beach. A new erosion management strategy called a "sand motor" is gaining popularity as cities and countries look for solutions beyond neverending cyclicals of beach nourishment. The sand motor involves sculpting an extended section of the shoreline into the sea at an angle, and over time, natural wave action spreads the sand along the coast to offer longer-lasting protection.