A new working paper suggests the stigma associated with regional accents -- such as a Southern accent in the US -- can decrease an employee's earnings potential by as much as 20%. The research found employers often have to charge consumers a lower price, or pay co-workers a higher wage, to entice them to conduct business with an employee with a stigmatized accent.

During your job search, make a list of companies that you would like to work for and then follow the company as well as key executives on social media and check their job site frequently, suggests Caroline Ceniza-Levine. "Once you have your target list of companies, find the competitors for each company on your list to make sure you're covering as many relevant companies as possible," she writes.

If you fear your job might be eliminated because of a merger or restructuring, make sure you are maintaining your network. "When you build your network before you're in crisis, you can show people how passionate you are about what you do and reveal your capabilities from a place of job stability," writes Susan Peppercorn.

People are known to lie on their resume, with 60% claiming they have full knowledge of a skill while they actually have limited knowledge, according to a recent Checkster survey. Other lies, which most hiring managers overlook, include inflating a job title, fudging time spent at a company and not giving the real reason they left a job.

Hot desking, the relatively new office system whereby employees don't have assigned seats and instead occupy any empty seat, saves companies loads on real estate costs. However, one survey found employees waste an average of 18 minutes a day simply looking for a place to sit, while other concerns have been raised about increased costs associated with work time lost due to musculoskeletal issues.

To form a new habit, try stacking it with existing ones, such as adding yoga poses while your coffee brews, writes Tara Parker-Pope. Another way to get a habit to stick is to start small, such as taking a daily walk, and then build momentum from there, says Stanford University researcher B.J. Fogg.

City planners in Melbourne, Australia, have come up with a concept that could change the way people experience urban life. "20-minute neighborhoods" are based on urban planning that aims to have most of the things people need for everyday life located within a 20-minute walk, bike ride or public transportation trip.