How You Can Boost Productivity Within Your Small Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Productivity| How You Can Boost Productivity Within Your Small BusinessWhen you’re the owner of a small business, it can often seem like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Unanswered emails, unfinished tasks, rising stress levels, and a to-do list as long as your arm are all fairly common, and can often leave you feeling overwhelmed. You can relax, though, because we’ve come up with five great ways to boost productivity in your small business.

Utilize Organizational Tools

To stay on top of daily, weekly, and even monthly tasks, the best thing to do is to utilize some of the great online tools available for businesses. Asana is a brilliant work management app that allows you to organize and plan your workflow more easily; tasks can be scheduled either for yourself or for other team members, and there’s also a great built-in messaging feature which can easily replace traditional emails. Microsoft Teams is fantastic for coordinating staff messages and arranging meetings, and also includes a handy conference call element.

Choose Business Coaching

There’s nothing more helpful when you’re struggling than receiving motivation and tips from someone with more experience and knowledge. INFIX are a team of consultants who provide small businesses with coaching packages on how to grow your company, via one-to-one online video sessions. Covering everything from strategy and goal-setting to growth and pricing, they’re a one-stop shop for anyone who has hit a stumbling block within their business.

Motivate Your Employees

One of the secrets to a successful small business is happy employees; it’s proven that motivated and upbeat staff provide better results, so it pays to take this into consideration. Setting reasonable working hours, providing fair pay and being supportive are all great ways to stay on top of staff morale – and remembering to give credit and encouragement is also key. Another great tip is to seriously consider flexible working requests; parents and guardians often require time off at short notice, and being understanding in these situations is beneficial.

Delegate Tasks

As the owner of a small business, it can often be tempting to try and manage all of the most important tasks yourself – but this is often a one way road to unfinished work and dissatisfied customers. Many employees will be keen to progress within the business, take on more hours or further their career, so increasing their workload can be beneficial to everyone concerned. Giving employees more autonomy and responsibility isn’t only helpful to you – it can also make them far more productive.

Pick the Right Foods

Eating the wrong foods at work can put you on a fast track to flat energy levels, sluggish thinking and low motivation, so ensure you fill your body with the good stuff throughout the day. If you’re super busy finding time for lunch can be tricky, so make sure what you do eat is packed with nutrients; avocados, quinoa and chia seeds are all superfoods which stick with you, and can easily be mixed into a quick and tasty salad. Keeping healthy snacks on hand is also a great tip (and one your staff will thank you for!); nuts and seeds, dried fruit and even the humble banana are all great for keeping hunger at bay throughout the day.

Tips for Retaining Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Retaining Employees|Tips for Retaining Employees During the COVID-19 PandemicThe coronavirus pandemic has changed the landscape of employee and employer relations. Before, the retention of employees could be greatly influenced by the environment and relationships. Yet, for many businesses, now the only interaction they have with their employees is online.

More than ever, people struggle with their work-life balance, struggle to maintain their productivity, and struggle with their mental health.

When looking to retain employees through the pandemic, hopefully to the other side, it is important to consider the specific issues COVID-19 has caused.

Excellent Communication

One of the greatest struggles employees are facing right now is feeling out of the loop. Communication may have been easier before, when you could call someone into your office and speak to them face to face. But it’s different now.

Just because you can’t speak to your employees face to face doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep up that level of communication.

Ensuring everyone is on the same page and understands what is expected of them is key. Still, in the mental health crisis we find ourselves in, communicating more generally will help too.

More people than ever will be dealing with loss, grief, and poor health. Alongside that is the general anxiety caused by the pandemic and the listlessness and depression that has plagued many due to the new lifestyle we have had to adopt.

Taking time to ask your employees how they are doing and speaking to them personally will create a working environment employees will want to stay with, effectively retaining them through the pandemic.

Compensation and Perks

This may have been easier to dish out pre-pandemic, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still consider them to retain employees. Benefits are a crucial pillar of the employee experience, even more so now than before.

In an increasingly difficult world to navigate, aspects like paid time off, health packages, and retirement plans are more important than ever.

If employees feel like they’ve been treated well over the pandemic, they are more likely to stay. However, if they feel as though you didn’t support them enough, you will lose their trust, and they will be unlikely to stay long-term.

Wellness Activities

Providing a focus on wellness within your business is essential right now. Many are suffering through the pandemic and need relief.

Wellness activities focus on keeping your employees healthy – whether mentally, physically, or emotionally. Whilst this will help you retain your employees as they feel supported by the business, it will also help you out as employer. A healthy workforce means a productive workforce.

Kill two birds with one stone, and invest in your employees’ wellbeing.

Retain your employees easily

The pandemic has thrown up so many issues for business owners. Retaining your employees through this time will be difficult, but it offers you a chance to prove yourself to your employees. If you manage to retain them through this difficult time, you’ll be able to retain them through anything.

Remote Positivity: Emulating Optimism for Your Work-From-Home Employees

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Work From Home| Remote Positivity: Emulating Optimism for Your Work-From-Home EmployeesThe work from home dynamic has come into our society in full force. Since the pandemic’s effects have significantly impacted our ability to congregate in groups, many companies have used remote work to keep their workflow on a proper level and collaborate with employees working from home.

There are numerous ways that technology has adeptly adapted to this, with apps and services across multiple platforms able to aid in employee communications no matter their location. However, one must remember that there are psychological effects on social isolation, ranging from anxiety to sleeplessness.

It starts with a company leader addressing these issues and taking the initiative to create a realm of positivity for his or her working community. Once done, employees can more easily thrive in a workplace with core values of workplace strength and support.

Collaborate and Listen

The applications that the tech world has developed have been a mainstay in the work from home atmosphere. No longer do people need to leave messages, wait hours for contact, or wonder which roles they have on a company project. Whether utilizing instant messaging, video conferencing, or campaign tracking, apps like GoToMeeting and Slack have all been heavily downloaded and integrated into remote work environments. Digital transformation will only continue to evolve with further refinement of workflow customization tools.

However, it’s important to note that “collaboration” is an integral part of these workflow collaboration apps. That means rising together towards the desired group result–but more than anything, it means a leader willing to step up and create a constructive and enthusiastic environment.

Project management is an essential part of any brand, for example, but proper communication with employees is necessary to steady productivity. Make sure that your working community knows that they’re valued on a personal level. Checking in for friendly workforce chats weekly, making employee onboarding a priority for future work efforts, and rewarding especially excellent efficiency with warm messages are all ways in which you can exemplify your positive work atmosphere.

Zooming the Right Way

If you’ve been working from home, then you’ve probably been using Zoom: the video communications service that’s connected a multitude of remote work employees through web conferencing. However, during the past few weeks, there’s been a concern over the notion of excess comfort in personal home office use with Zoom.

The concept of “Zoom etiquette” is one that has recently been in conversation across multiple sectors. Specifically, there is debate about how many behaviors one may or may not allow when videoconferencing in groups. Addressing this topic with your employees will eliminate any chance of discomfort for them during video conferences.

For example, if one hasn’t had the time for a lunch break and needs to eat during a long meeting, should one wait and not interrupt? The consensus seems to be that it is alright. However, temporarily switching off one’s camera and muting one’s microphone so as not to disturb the other members with possible sound interventions is best.

Other possible scenarios involve establishing that social media alerts or other interruptions don’t divert your employees. These will limit their ability to remember aspects of your video meeting, as well as demonstrate a lack of professionalism that other employees might catch onto.

However, ensure that your workforce member isn’t excessively stressed if a child or pet causes a minor interruption. Know that there are some elements in the new normal that you can control as an authority leader and some aspects that you cannot. Your working community will notice you, and your bolstering environment, more for it.

Communicate and Know the Purpose

With an untold amount of startups in the current atmosphere and a market that seems to change every second, there is a measure of instability that can occur when a company operates on an unstable foundation. Profit may be coming in with a trending product or service, but long-term success is built upon leadership that understands its key areas of skills and fortitude. Having each of your employees understand your brand’s–and your own life’s–mission will give better clarity to your organization, helping align short-term wants with long-term goals.

But communication doesn’t just come from one direction. Through videoconference, asking your employees what they believe their strengths to be and what they want to achieve in life will open up mental pathways on both sides. It will give them a sense of purpose and resolve, knowing that you have a sincere interest in their skillset.

They’ll see that they can chat with you if they notice an additional lead or avenue that the business can take in the future. And for you, as a leader, you may learn an additional power area from one of your working community members that you can now count on moving forward.

Communication has evolved to a level that few of us expected to see a year ago. With digital transformation, we’ve seen video conferencing and webinars take hold in our day-to-day work experiences. However, this doesn’t mean that the foundational aspects of a positive work environment need to lessen. Using the proper strategies, an optimistic working community can advance and lead to a brighter future for every work-from-home member.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor |Veronica BaxterVeronica Baxter is a legal assistant and blogger living and working in the great city of Philadelphia. She frequently works with Todd Mosser Esq., a busy criminal appeals lawyer, Philadelphia PA.

Is Your 5S Process Missing This Critical Step?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |5S Process|Is Your 5S Process Missing This Critical Step?5S, also known as workplace organization, is a method that’s used in practically every company that implements lean systems. Consisting of a five-step process for organizing work, 5S’s first order of business is called “sort” and entails removing unnecessary items from work areas. For example, obsolete supplies and equipment will be removed to free up space and leave fewer things to organize.

While sorting is a vital first step, there’s a critical issue that often gets overlooked in the process: ensuring a workforce is left with everything it needs to do its job.

Although lean principles imply that a workforce should be provided with the right materials, tools, and information, this step is not formally part of 5S. While some might think this measure goes without saying, assumptions should always be avoided.

To ensure that employees are properly outfitted, ask these questions when assessing a work area:

Are all necessary materials available:

  • When needed?
  • In the right quantity?
  • At the right quality?

Are all required tools available:

  • When needed?
  • In the right quantity?
  • In working condition?

Is all necessary information:

  • Easily available?
  • Accurate?
  • Complete?
  • Understandable?

Obviously, every answer to these questions should be “yes,” or lean efforts will be compromised. While these questions are all important, pay special attention to tool and equipment function. Check whether tools work at all, and be sure to verify:

  • Accuracy: Can the tool maintain its required precision?
  • Safety: Are all safeguards present and functional?
  • Markings: Are tool markings easily accessed and legible?

In addition to equipment function, information is generally a weak link in many operations. Two common examples of information problems include:

  • Blueprints: Are blueprints inaccurate or difficult, if not impossible, to interpret?
  • Work instructions: Are employee directives riddled with incomplete information? Do employees often ask supervisors for clarifications?

Clearly, none of the aforementioned situations are good for productivity, and they’re likely just two of many areas where information might need improvement.

While 5S is powerful, explicitly ensuring that your workforce has everything it needs will take your lean performance to the next level. Provisioning your employees is just one of many overlooked measures that will amp up your business’s performance. With continual improvement of continuous improvement, much can be accomplished!

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Sean FieldsStrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Michael SandersSean Fields and Michael Sanders are co-authors of Quantum Lean: Taking Lean Systems to the Next Level. They are a network member and the co-founder, respectively, of BeehiveFund, a nonprofit organization that assists small to medium-sized manufacturing and service businesses in areas such as production scheduling, inventory control, and quality-management systems. Learn more at beehivefund.org.

4 Employee Experience Trends That Defined 2020 and Are Expected to Play a Huge Role in 2021

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee Experience|4 Employee Experience Trends That Defined 2020 and Are Expected to Play a Huge Role in 2021A whole lot changed in 2020 for everyone. The emergence of a global pandemic has transformed the way we live, interact and work. It has forced many employers to reconceptualize workflows and the minimum number of staff needed to operate. Brand new employee experience trends have emerged, and some of them are showing no signs of losing their grip. Here are some trends that ServiceNow HR expects to have a huge impact in 2021.

1. Working Hours Flexibility

In the past, location has been more of a focal point for employers. But as we move forward in 2021, time is going to be the focus or flexibility. As more and more employees begin to return to in office working, employers will need to offer greater flexibility regarding when employees are expected to work. A 40 hour work week or a 9 to 5 schedule may not be necessary for high performance, productivity and efficiency.

2. Mental Health Support

With all of the separation, and isolation in some cases, that people are experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the mental health of employees cannot be overlooked. The longer this pandemic wears on the more mental health will impact the efficiency and productivity of the workforce. Employers who choose not to address this very serious issue are likely to suffer. Things like extended parental leave and emotional well-being programs will be well received by current employees and even be a priority for potential employees.

3. Workplace Technology

Due to the number of remote workers, employers have had to put some checks and balances in place to monitor the productivity and workflow of employees. Many employees are distrustful of the technology being used to monitor their work. Since remote working and hybrid working are becoming more of the norm, there will need to be some regulations for just how much information is being gathered, how and where it is being stored and who has access to it. We can look forward to state regulations at a minimum about what employee information can and cannot be recorded and how it can be used.

4. Social Stance

Not only do people want to purchase from businesses that espouse their personal beliefs and values, but they also want to work for an employer that is aligned with their values. Most employees are looking for employers to take a position on issues and politics. There is little room for neutrality in this climate, and attempting to remain in the middle may do more harm than good. Whether it’s giving to charities or causes, sponsoring an event or investing in an organization, there are plenty of ways to morally align your business. Undoubtedly, potential employees and even current employees will be watching.

Although 2020 was a history making year of epic proportions, what was put in motion is far from settled and will continue to impact the way we do business for quite some time to come. It’s a good idea to do what you can as an employer to keep up with what’s going on and create an improved employee experience.