StrategyDriven Talent Management Article

8 ways to increase employee productivity

Are you the proud owner of a successful business? Are you determined to run a profitable company, whilst providing a wonderful work environment for your employees? Do you struggle to strike the right balance between appreciating your workers and pushing them to do more? If your answer to these questions is yes, you will need to pay close attention to the following eight suggestions. They will help you to increase employee productivity at your company, without pushing your team members over the edge. It is possible to enjoy the best of both worlds, so what are you waiting for?

Improve your communication strategy

First and foremost, you will need to improve your communication strategy. It will be impossible for your employees to reach their maximum levels of productivity if they are struggling to connect. Your workers should find it incredibly easy to reach out to one another. They should also have no trouble getting in touch with potential or existing clients. If you are worried that this is not yet the case, you should learn more about Gamma Telecom. They will help you to take control of your company communications, so that all of your staff are left satisfied.

Update your company technology

The next suggestion is to update your company technology. Instead of forcing your workers to make do with outdated bits of kit, you should give them a helping hand. By investing in your technology, you will be saving your workers a lot of stress. You will also be taking away their excuse for lack of results. If your employees can blame poor results on a terrible internet connection or a faulty system, you will find it hard to hold them account. However, if your employees are working with the best technology money can buy, you will be able to identify any slackers.

Overhaul your office space

If you are left with more money to spare, you should consider overhauling your office space. This is a brilliant way for you to motivate, reward, and inspire your team. However, you should only make changes to your design scheme if you have total confidence in your choices. On the other hand, if you are unsure about what changes to make, you should call in an interior designer. A trained professional will help you to optimize even the smallest of spaces. They will also be able to direct you towards colors, shapes, and textures that are perfect for promoting productivity.

Give your employees regular breaks

Although it may seem counterproductive, giving your employees regular breaks is a great way to promote productivity. As a manager, you need to make sure that your workers aren’t running themselves into the ground. It is important that they have plenty of energy and enthusiasm to inject into their work. It is also important that they view you as a reasonable boss, as opposed to a hard taskmaster. Why not sit down with your workers to discuss their options? Perhaps they will prefer to take short breaks on a regular basis. Or, maybe they would rather take one long break over lunch. It might be that they would like to step outside your office space. Or, it could be that they want a social area to escape to. Involving your employees in the decision-making process will help you to settle on an outcome that works for everyone involved.

Adopt an open-door policy

You can also encourage positive suggestions from your employees by adopting an open-door policy. This is a great way for you to position yourself as a more approachable employer. It is also a fantastic opportunity for you to learn more about the productivity of your workers. If you are currently failing to meet your targets, you should ask your employees to come to you with suggestions. You should also ask them to look out for any potential problems that could be holding your office back.

Introduce a competitive element to your workspace

Once you have gained a deeper understanding of the way in which your company operates, you should think about introducing a competitive element to your workspace. This won’t work for all organizations, as some employees will resent the additional pressure. However, in other workspaces, a competitive element is the secret to success. Why not opt for a trial run? You could temporarily introduce an employee of the month program. This will look great on your worker’s resumes and could be taken into consideration if they apply for a promotion. Alternatively, you could experiment with giving your employees access to commission. Depending on the results, you will know whether or not to make this change a permanent one.

Introduce an exciting reward system

If you decide against introducing a competitive element to your workspace, you could always introduce a company-wide reward system. This will operate on the understanding that if one element of your business succeeds; everyone is rewarded. For instance, if you manage to hook a high-profile client, you could treat your workers to a meal out. Or, if you save money on one of your suppliers, you could give everyone in your office the afternoon off. These rewards will be at your discretion, so it is vital that you weigh up the pros and cons each time. Yes, you want to please your employees, but you don’t want this to be at the expense of your levels of productivity or your financial security.

Ask for feedback

Even after you have implemented all of these positive changes, it is still possible that your workers will be looking for more. The only way that you will find this out is if you ask for regular feedback. When you are working so hard to do the right thing, it can be tough to take constructive criticism. However, in the long-run, it is the best chance you have of maintaining a great relationship with your employees. You can’t put a price on productivity, so it is essential that you get the answers you need.

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article

Industries That Provide Stable Careers

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article
 
It’s important to find a job that feels like the right fit. Any job is going to be challenging and exhausting, at times, but that doesn’t mean you should go for a role that you hate. The key is to focus on your preferences as well as your academic ability or experience. But you probably want to pursue a career path in an industry that can provide a stable long-term job. If you’re trying to find a career that both suits your personality and promises the possibility of financial stability (for as many years as possible) then here are some of the best industries to consider.

Real estate

The property market provides a very stable landscape for anybody looking to build a long-term career. If you have a passion for socializing with new people on a daily basis then you could translate this skill into a sales environment. Essentially, that’s the core requirement of a real estate representative; you have to know how to sell properties to potential buyers. But this is definitely one of the best sales environments in which to be based because you’re dealing with an asset that’s always going to have a market. The better you are at selling, the better your commission will be. It’s a career that can earn you a substantial income. If you’re interested then you should look into potential routes for pursuing a career in this industry. Usually, you need a license if you want to practice real estate.

Construction

The construction industry is another one that can provide very stable job opportunities. Governments, businesses, and even individual homeowners always need experienced professionals to help them construct things. There are so many different routes to take in this industry, but many of the job positions can provide a long-term career that spans years or decades (depending on your aspirations). If you’d be looking for a senior role in a well-paying career then you might want to consider becoming a civil engineer. You could study to get a civil engineering degree online. Getting qualified at such a high level would open many different doors for you in the construction industry. It all depends on the type of job role you want to secure.

Marketing

What’s the one thing that businesses will always need? Marketing. It’s a very smart industry in which to pursue a career if you’re looking for stability. If you’re a creative person who wants a job role that’ll allow them to tackle different challenges with every new project then there are plenty of paths you could pursue. You could design artistic adverts, write captivating marketing copy, or simply communicate ideas with an equally-passionate team. Marketing is a great career path to pursue if you’re creative, sociable, or you simply want to be part of a constantly-changing industry. With technology and social media driving the new landscape of advertising, you won’t have to worry about becoming bored of this career route; the industry is always adapting to a changing landscape.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article

Top Ways to Promote Your Business

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticleGetting your business to stand out from the rest is something that every company struggles with at some point. With more businesses emerging every day than the last, there is no surprise that this is a struggle that is deepening. However, that doesn’t mean it is impossible. When more people are dealing with the same issues, there are more solutions for businesses of any kind to follow. Whether you are a new start-up hoping to make a storm, or a business giant falling on hard times, there are some old and new tricks you can follow that are the best ways to promote your business.

Flawless website design

When you are thinking of promoting your business, you must always bear in mind that it is not just customers you should be impressing. Investors, clients, prospective employees, and competitors should also be at the forefront of your strategy. Ideally, you should start by visually impressing people. Often, the first thing they will see is your website; moreover, its design. Focus your efforts on building a sleek website that can tell everyone what your business is about from a first glance. You can do this with color, font, and your logo, and it’s best to employ a trusted professional to help achieve your vision.

Regular blog posts

Content marketing is one of the oldest methods of promoting a business. The reason it has stuck around is that it works. If you put out regular content related to business practices and your company’s relation to the wider world, you will be able to put a more human face to your brand. Where content used to mean just the written word, it has now moved on to include high-quality images, sound and video, which you can use to connect with readers more. These are also an excellent way to bolster an ethical message, which is an important business feature in today’s world.

Social media

Having great content is always a plus, but it means nothing if you don’t promote it on social media, as SEO only does half the work. As a tool which is becoming increasingly hard to ignore, you should make sure your business has a presence on every social media platform appropriate to your business, even the smaller ones. Once there, you can engage with your target market, and run advertising campaigns that are guaranteed to help your business make a name for itself. When it comes to selling a product or service, it becomes even more useful.

Marketing influencers

Businesses have always made use of marketing influencers, where they partner with people who can promote their brand or products on different platforms. Where it used to mean having contacts within the press, it now also alludes to those who have a big online following. From bloggers to social media influencers, there are many people you can contact that can promote your product for either a small cut of the business profits or simply a free product. Sometimes, this helps you reach a much larger audience, but it will also ensure your conversion rate is much higher.

Good customer service

It seems that social media is shaping the way businesses promote themselves, and customer service is no exception. Although it’s wise to have customer service providers active on telephones and via email, there are some other ways you can connect with customers. Social media allows businesses to engage with customers in a more efficient, friendly way. There is no better publicity for a business than your customers going on to tell their family and friends about the great care they have received. Make sure you capitalize on this the most by making use of instant messaging services like WhatsApp.

Build a community

Building an online community has never been easier with innovations like social media, but you should also build one in your local area. If your business has humble roots, you should make sure you never pull yourself away from these. Holding charity days and promotional events are just a few ways you can maintain your community at home. Even better is if you document these days on your blog, as this will encourage your online community to grow even more after connecting emotionally with your brand.

An effective pitch

You will be aware of the business ideal of always having an elevator pitch saved in your head. Before you can start giving your pitch out to investors, it’s wise to make sure it’s polished, snappy, and effective. Sitting down and working this pitch out may seem tedious, but you never know when you need to pitch your business. It often happens in times you don’t expect, hence the nickname of being an elevator pitch. If you have a pitch that works, you can successfully promote your business to investors and business partners alike.

Networking

This pitch should also be reserved for special networking events, where you can promote your business to a wide range of prospective investors. It is also great to have if you want to do a one-off partnership with another business. At such events, you should remain cool and collected, but it is also essential to take promotional products with you. Having the right ones made by expert companies such as Dynamic Gift will ensure that anybody you meet is reminded of your business long after you have met them. They are also great to give out to your target consumer market at promotional events.

Free samples or trials

Consumers love free products in all their forms; giving out promotional ones like pens and bags is a great start. What they also love is having free samples of products and free trials of services. These are a great talking point and will create a handy ripple effect among your target market’s friends and family. If they like what they are using, they will more likely talk about it online and come back for more. If they don’t, you can collect feedback and make the appropriate changes to market your product the next time around.

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article

How To Improve Customer Satisfaction

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management ArticleOne area of your business you should pay special attention to and make more of an effort is your customers. After all, they’re the ones handing over their money to help keep your business afloat so never underestimate their importance.

Your company will begin to thrive once you can ultimately improve your overall customer satisfaction scores. When clients are happy, then the entire business will experience less mayhem, and your employees start to like their jobs better. However, you first need to accept that you can always be advancing in this area and then put measures in place that are going to help you pick up your performance.

Ask for Feedback

Improve customer satisfaction by proactively asking for and seeking out feedback from your clients. Send out surveys, pick up the phone or meet one on one and confront them about what it is they do and don’t like about how your business operates. Dive deeper into the specifics so you know exactly what it is you can change that will truly make a difference and draw in more customers. It’s common for companies to make assumptions about what it is clients are looking for and then head in the wrong direction. It’s a wise idea to have the data to back up your claims and only commit to certain modifications if you know your customers are onboard.

Be Available & Responsive

In this day and age, it’s important always to be available to your customers and ready to help. Not only do you want to be available to answer questions and inquiries during your regular business hours, but it’s also a wise idea to provide support across multiple channels. What will help you out the most is to make sure you’re staffed appropriately by using an online employee shift planning software. You can read more here about how you can get this going in your workplace, so you’re always properly staffed and no customer is left wanting.

Train Your Employees

Your company culture should include making customer satisfaction a top priority if you’re going to succeed in this area. It’s worth you taking the time to train your employees and make sure everyone understands how to interact with clients properly. Pay special attention to your customer service department and confirm that your staff knows best practices and how to handle all sorts of difficult requests and inquiries. Create policies and procedures that both your employees and customers are to follow to make your jobs easier.

Listen on Social Media

One place where you can actually learn a lot about your customers and get a better idea of how they feel about you is on social media. Assign staff members who are in charge of this responsibility and can spend a good amount of time listening and jumping into conversations where appropriate. Use this as a way to collect a lot of valuable data and then have these individuals report back to everyone in the company about what they’re discovering. There may be aspects you’re unaware of that are hurting your business and causing customers to feel dissatisfied. If you need more clarification about a specific topic or complaint, then reach out to that individual privately and collect more information on the matter.

Build Relationships

Communicate to your team that you want them to work on building relationships with customers and not simply thinking of each person as a number or transaction. Get to know your clients on an individual level and show that you care about them as people. Encourage staff members to create an open dialogue with customers and find out more about why they do or don’t enjoy doing business with you. Be able to recognize and reward your most loyal customers and be sure to treat everyone with respect no matter how much money they’re spending with you. It doesn’t look good for your business when you don’t remember people by name who are consistently making a lot of purchases from you and are loyal advocates of your brand.

Exceed Expectations

You can improve customer satisfaction by not only delivering on your promise but also going above and beyond on a regular basis. Work to not only meet expectations but to exceed them time and time again. Instead of aiming for mediocre, shoot for the stars and show your customers that you truly want to see them satisfied after having made a purchase with your company. Not only take care of any problems that come your way but offer up a freebie or discount code they can use the next time they shop with you. Throw in an element of surprise once in a while and watch how quickly their faces light up and they’re willing to share their positive experiences with others.

Track Your Progress

You’re not going to know how well of a job you’re doing or how satisfied your customers are unless you track your progress. Set goals, keep score and monitor how you’re performing as a team throughout the year. Hold meetings that revolve around this topic specifically and get input from your employees about how you could be doing a better job. The only way to improve is to set goals and define metrics and then be diligent about observing how you’re performing and making changes where necessary. You should eventually notice an upward trend. Otherwise, you may have to adjust your approach and regroup about how you want to proceed.

Conclusion

Customers aren’t automatically going to be impressed with your business just because you have a solid product or service in place. They’ll want to be wowed and impressed in their interactions with you and see that you’re putting forth an extra effort each time they reach out or spend money. The good news is that you can use these tips to help you improve your customer satisfaction scores and make sure your business is offering your clients an unforgettable experience. It’s important you never stop learning and growing in this area if you want to guarantee a bright and steady future.

StrategyDriven Diversity and Inclusion Article

5 Strategies, Tactics and Traits to Support Diversity in the Modern Workplace

StrategyDriven Diversity and Inclusion Article
 
Whether it’s embracing differing cultural backgrounds or bringing in workers from abroad, modern businesses are becoming more diverse than ever in terms of talent.

However, bear in mind that today’s companies aren’t adopting a sort of “melting pot” mentality “just because.” In fact, there’s a strong argument to be made that embracing more diverse backgrounds is a net positive for modern businesses.

Think about it. Beyond data that supports that more diverse companies reap higher profits, casting a wider net in terms of backgrounds and culture means dipping into a deeper pool of talent. In other words, hiring the absolute best people possible to meet your business’ needs.

Also consider the need to expand into new markets and connect with other cultures from a business standpoint. The more diverse your team, the easier it is to tap into those markets.

And if nothing else, diversity can ultimately lead to a more connected, open-minded workplace. Fresh ideas and perspective can be powerful motivators, if nothing else.

That said, it takes a thoughtful leader with strong attention to detail to ensure a positive, diverse work environment that products results. Below we’ve broken down a list of strategies and traits necessary to make sure that your team thrives while also supporting workplace diversity.

Conduct Individual Check-In’s

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of creating a stronger team is taking the time to understand your workers on an individual level. This is especially true of workers who are coming from abroad.

According to Gallup’s most recent State of the American Workplace, many employees feel like their concerns, strengths and needs completely go over the heads of higher-ups. On the flip side, having stake in your workers’ personal lives alongside their professional ones ultimately makes you more approachable in the long-run.

In other words, take the time to have one-on-ones to understand the motivations of your employees. Perhaps they could only climb the career ladder in a new country. Maybe they regularly send remittance payments to family back home and therefore have a huge stake in their jobs. Either way, regularly one-on-ones create that ever-so-important bond in the office.

Collect Frequent Anonymous Feedback

Consider that not all workers will be so forthcoming in one-on-one meetings, particularly those who might be nervous about concerns over discrimination or bullying.

To address such concerns, collecting anonymous feedback is a must-do for any office. Providing multiple avenues for feedback gives you a more comprehensive view of your teams’ strengths and weaknesses, while also holding workers accountable.

Whether through anonymous email surveys, engagement surveys (think: a employee net promoter score) or a digital suggestion box, you’d be surprised at what you can by asking the right questions. Feedback received from workers serves as valuable insight as you strive to continuously improve your company’s working environment.

Encourage Group Collaboration

Allowing employees to frequently work in groups, whether through an open office setting or on their own terms, is a smart move. This does double duty of helping people from different backgrounds assimilate while also driving home a “team” mentality. Rather than allow departments to become siloed, collaboration can be the catalyst your company needs for fresh ideas.

Be Aware of Bias

The epidemic of unconscious bias in the workplace is a serious issue that is overlooked simply by nature. In short, people don’t realize that they might have biases against someone’s background until it becomes an outright problem. This not only opens companies up to legal trouble, but could ultimately lead to improper treatment of workers which is unacceptable.

Acknowledging bias is a must-do, and anyone found to display bias should be held accountable. A company culture of empathy and open-mindedness is a good starting point, yet also think about biases that occur during hiring such as disregarding someone for their background or perceived lack of experience.

Rethink Your Onboarding Process

A huge factor in making any team member feel welcome and comfortable is how you onboard them. There is no “right” way to onboard employees, but there are ways to ease people into your company without overwhelming them, all the while celebrating their diversity. For example:

  • Introduce your new hires to current team members in “waves,” ideally allowing them to mentor or be shadowed by someone who they can form a working relationship with
  • Convey your company culture of acceptance from the word “go”
  • Make their success a priority, with frequent check-in’s as per usual in addition to giving them multiple points of contact for questions and concerns

While the concept of diversity in the workplace is nothing new, many companies struggle when it comes to adapting to new backgrounds, cultures and experiences. By emphasizing these tactics and traits, you can manage your team with more peace of mind while also embracing diversity.