Improving Employee Efficiency

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee Productivity|Improving Employee EfficiencyIf you are able to save time in the office, then it can be something that can be really beneficial to your business and to your employees. These days, employees are spending more time at the office, and in many instances, are exceeding the typical hours that should be worked in a working week. However, simply working more hours isn’t something that is going to make much of a difference, as productivity can be lost over time. If the team is tired, asking them to keep working more than they should won’t be a good thing to do. So how can you as a leader in business help to improve the productivity of your employees, while still doing things to save time? Here are some of the top things to be thinking about.

Delegate

While this tip can seem like something that is obvious, it can be hard for some leaders to delegate and share the load. Your business is going to be your baby, and you’ll want to be in control of it. There is nothing wrong with checking on how something is going, or what the finished product looks like. But if it means you are wasting your time to check every small detail, then it can be detrimental to you, as well as the team of people you are working with. So instead, look to give responsibilities to the qualified employees, and then you just have to trust that they will perform the tasks. This helps the team to grow, as well as feel needed in the business, and can let you get on with other things, being more productive overall.

Train and Develop Employees

If you want to reduce training, or even stop it altogether, it can seem like you will save money as well as time. Although people can learn on the job, it can actually backfire, as learning on the job can be quite inefficient for some. So one thing to do, that will help productivity in the long run, is to take a day to train them in something, and carry on doing this from time to time, to show they are valued and that you want to keep them improving their skills.

You can get people in to train them, though with a corporate training platform, you could also perform the training yourself. Offer some continued employee development and help them to expand their skills. It will be what helps your business to grow and grow. You could also offer some specific courses, or things like mentoring, if they are ultimately looking to achieve something specific.

Embrace Telecommuting

If your business is one where just a laptop and a phone are all that is needed, then encourage and allow your team to work from home from time to time. You might think that they won’t get much done from home, however, the reality will be the opposite. Working from home can be much more productive, as they won’t gossip with colleagues, go to the coffee machine, or take a full lunch like they might when working in a city. Plus, you have the option to keep productivity high for your business. For example, an employee with a cold might feel a little rough to come in, though they are still able to function. Instead of them calling in sick, they can work from home, as that will be easier for them to do when they aren’t feeling completely at their based. In bed checking emails and getting things done, will be better for the business than that person doing nothing that day.

Ways To Create A Harmonious Workplace

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | Ways To Create A Harmonious Workplace

Nobody wants to come to work to be unhappy. More importantly, when you consider how much time your employees actually spend in the workplace, you can appreciate the need to need for your team to be happy at work. An unhappy and stressful work environment can have a very real impact on the mental health of your employees. As a business leader, you have a duty of care to ensure that the health and happiness of your team are maintained at a high standard.

From a business point of view, creating a happy workplace means that you will have a more productive team. There will be less sickness due to stress, and your team will work together in a more effective manner.

But, how do you prevent internal conflict and problems that stem from the way that the company is managed? Here are some ways that you can create a harmonious workplace.

Get Outside Help

If there are signs of any conflicts within the workplace, or the way that you are running the company seems to be bringing about stress and unhappiness, then this could end up being quite costly.

Seeking external help will mean that you get an outsider’s point of view. And a company that deals in dispute resolution and litigation solutions will be able to provide operational support and advice from a legal standpoint.

Have Policies In Place To Protect The Team

Many insecurities and stresses in the workplace stem from concerns over the fact that there are no policies that allow the team to feel secure. By making sure that all of their rights are taken into consideration in their contract and in the company policies and procedures will ensure that they feel secure and protected.

Foster A Policy Of Open Communication

Your employees have a right to know as much as possible about their workplace. Of course, there will be matters that they don’t need to know. However, if there are changes that may occur, consulting with your team and being open about them well ahead of their implementation will provide the time for any adjustments.

Be sure that you have an open-door policy, where you are approachable and free to answer any questions or deal with any concerns that your employees may evert have.

Encourage Your Team To Celebrate Each Other’s Successes

Success is something that should always be celebrated. You need to make sure that you create a workplace where this is standard practice.

As habits and behaviors are learned parrot fashion, you need to lead by example. Find the time each week to point out the success of the team, but also to highlight different personal successes. Don’t just focus on the same people each week though, and try and demonstrate a variety of skills and successes to celebrate.

A great way of encouraging your team to share in each other’s success is to create a noticeboard where they can leave positive thoughts about other members of the team. A ‘motivation station’ is great for building morale and making sure everyone feels part of the team.

How Much Should You Pay Your Staff?

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article, How Much Should You Pay Your Staff?

If you’re a start-up business looking to hire employees, you’ll need to consider how much money is enough to keep your staff happy without your business suffering. To stop you skimping out or overspending, here are some ways to budget for your staff and ensure they get the most suitable rate.

Know how much you can spare

Consider how much you need to comfortably live on and if you will need to make any cuts. You will need to be making enough money from your clients to cover the cost of your staff’s wages, plus compulsory insurance schemes such as employer liability and vehicle insurance if they are planning to drive. You’ll also have to account for any training and any wastage that may occur as a result of that (if it’s a restaurant you may need to prepare practice dishes resulting in wasted food, if it’s a professional electrician business you may have to pay for health and safety courses).

If after all this you still can’t afford to pay your staff minimum wage, you should reassess your business plan before making the decision to hire employees. Taking on a financial advisor or accountant temporarily may be necessary in order to budget this.

Commission or salary?

Next you’ll have to decide what kind of contract to give your staff. For businesses in which payment is not always guaranteed from week to week, commission pay may be more appropriate. In some sales jobs this can be a great incentive to make those big sales. However many employees may be put off by the uncertainty of not always being paid. Salary-based pay works best when you have a regular enough income to always assure payment to your staff. Failing to be able to provide for your staff could get you into a lot of trouble, so make sure you have that regular income to fall back on.

Account for age and experience

For young employees, the minimum wage bracket varies. This ranges from £3.40 for apprentices to £7.20 for those 25 and older. For businesses wanting to take on staff cheaply, apprenticeships are popular choice. However, apprentices are limited to what work they can legally do, and may still have to do their apprenticeship alongside a college course, so don’t look at them as a full-time solution.

It’s important to also account for experience. If you’re hiring an assistant manager, they should be getting more than your average worker. When advertising for experienced workers, make sure you’re charging more than the starting rate to ensure they don’t choose another business over yours.

Compare other businesses

A great way to gage the going rate is to find out what other businesses are charging. Job sites are a good indicator of this, as you can see what other employers are charging. For an even better pointer, you may wish to pay for a salary benchmarking and comparison survey. This involves paying a professional to review similar businesses to your own and find out exactly what they are paying their staff. From here you can set your own rate and know that you aren’t being too tight-fisted or over generous.

Incentives and bonuses

On top of regular pay you may want to provide extra incentives to keep staff happy. The most popular form of incentive is to offer bonuses to staff that perform well. This could include setting a yearly target that the whole team must aspire to or individual targets. Of course, make sure that these targets are realistic so that staff want to achieve them and don’t alter the goalposts halfway through the year – find a target and stick with it to keep people motivated (keep it on a big board or continuously talk about it weekly meetings).

Another incentive is to offer your staff stakes in the company. John Lewis is the most famous company to have pulled this off, but you don’t have to be retail giant like them – small business can offer shares too.

You can also offer other incentives such as free dental care, childcare vouchers, a company car or free lunches. Christmas parties and social events can also be provided to improve morale. These are some of the best incentives as they don’t just offer workers money but offer experiences. Such benefits are often known as employment packages. It is important to realise that these are affected by tax and NIC implications (another thing you may want to ask a financial advisor or accountant about).

Key Strategies For Increasing Productivity

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Productivity|Key Strategies For Increasing ProductivityProductivity is an area that has a direct impact on the success of a business, but it is also an area that can fluctuate drastically. When you are able to keep productivity high and find ways to boost productivity when inevitable dips occur, it can help you to take your company forward and keep your employees working at a high level at all times. This is an enormous challenge for business owners, but there are a few effective strategies that should help to increase your productivity and, in turn, help your business to find greater success and improve the performance of your team.

Increase Collaboration

One of the most effective strategies to try is to increase collaboration. People tend to step up their game when they are working in a pair or as part of the group as not to let down the other group member(s). Collaboration can also help your team to come up with different solutions, create a strong team-based mentality and lift morale.

Remote Working

Encouraging remote working can also have a positive impact on productivity. It may seem like allowing your staff to work from home would have an adverse effect, but you will find that productivity increases because morale is high and stress is lower, plus it can also be easy to work remotely thanks to cloud computing.

AV Design

Utilizing the best audiovisual and video conferencing systems can also help you to maximize productivity by creating technologically advanced workspaces that can allow you and your team to work to a high standard and collaborate with ease. Specialists like Interactive Solutions can work with you to understand your needs and then deliver high-tech, state-of-the-art spaces which will certainly have a positive impact on productivity.

Recruitment & Training

It is also worth addressing your recruitment policy to make sure that you are hiring the right people for the job. In addition to people who have the right skills and knowledge for each role, you should also make sure that you are hiring passionate workers who will come into work each day ready to perform. Additionally, you need to train your staff and give them added responsibilities to keep them engaged and on their toes at all times.

Improve Work Environment

You cannot expect your team to be productive if they are not working in a healthy environment. This is why you should take a careful look at the office environment to see if there are any improvements that could be made, such as increasing natural light, increasing airflow, allowing staff more room, or by investing in ergonomic furniture.

Hopefully, these strategies will give you a few ideas for how you can increase productivity in the workplace. This needs to be an area that all business owners keep a close eye on as there can be times where productivity will inevitably drop and so you must understand why this is. You can then take action to make improvements and maintain high levels of productivity for continued success.

Why Your Business Needs Workforce Management Systems

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | Entrepreneurship | Why Your Business Needs Workforce Management SystemsWorkforce management systems are some of the most revolutionary features that can handle everything online from HR to hour registration and scheduling with one single tool. Handling paperwork for an organization is something that the HR department can confirm is not that interesting, not to mention the small errors that can lead to taking a whole day to discover why the books are not adding up.

HR is one of the departments that do not directly contribute to profits or productivity, yet it can take a huge chunk of a business’s operating budget. With a workforce management system, you do not have to print a handful of paper copies or place scanned pages in a hard to organize folder on your computer. This saves the labor needed to operate this department and you can save a lot of money. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider installing workforce management systems in your organization:

Cutting costs

It requires dozens of people to prepare the paperwork that is necessary for calculating and making the payments for labour in good time. You can save this labor and reassign those employees to more productive tasks. The workforce management system pays for itself through the savings you make from reducing labor costs. You can get this software from Synel-Americas and integrate it into all of your management systems.

Higher employee morale

The systems allow your organization to automate almost all of the payroll and timekeeping functions. The software captures the employee’s data to calculate payroll more accurately to eliminate mistakes with pay and benefits. Mistakes in benefits and payments are among the things that demotivate a workforce most and many unhappy workers cite it as a reason for attrition. It can also lead to workers organizing for collective bargaining rights, which is not a good image for the organization.

Compliance

HR is responsible for making and keeping records for legal and financial purposes. This provides the statistics necessary to prove that the business is in compliance with its legal obligations. This data is also needed by unions, individuals with employment contracts, and by company policy. A small gap in compliance can cost your business a huge sum in fines and the organization’s reputation.

Analytical function

Workforce management software helps management to obtain accurate and comprehensive data. This data can be used to evaluate the actual performance against the budget to measure the success of the management. Data management can help you discover interesting trends in your business to make better decisions. Having available data at all times and in a simplified form also saves you the time you need to react to sudden changes in the business.

Customer satisfaction

A well-motivated workforce will always give satisfying services to your clients, which is crucial for business growth. The system can be used to evaluate the employees’ performance and the organization can give rewards in a fair and justifiable manner. This leads to healthy competition within the organization and increased customer service performance.

Conclusion

Workforce management systems offer a lot of important benefits for business whether large or small. The software helps companies to move forward with the best human resource technologies available. The money saved also enables the company to attain ROI and direct the resources to more investments.