Unique & Creative Employee Incentives You Could Be Offering

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Everyone who is a part of a business expects to work for a company who cares. It’s one of the very basic needs of an employee, that they are treated well and rightly so. There is an increasingly competitive marketplace for top talent out there and companies are desperate to recruit people who have charisma, brains and talent for the role that they work in. Due to the need to attract the top talent, the standard salary/pension/overtime benefits are no longer enough.

An employer who is caring about their employees needs to think outside the box. When you need cash fast for your business because you decide an impromptu meal out for your team is needed, you would do everything you can to get it purely to show your gratitude for the work that they put in. To that end, as a good employer you are expected to go above and beyond for your employees in the same way they will for you. Check out our unique incentives to keep your employees excited to be working with you.

Travel. Everyone loves a trip, and if you can incentivise that those who hit their personal and professional development goals a paid sabbatical to travel, people will be flocking to your doors, resume in hand. Employee burnout is a real issue in a world where we put a lot of pressure on our people and giving people a break – a paid break – is a great way to say thank you.

Staff Lotto. Having a staff lottery every week is an exciting way to generate office buzz and camaraderie. You can generate real prizes by matching the ticket money that the staff bring together, and then add smaller prizes for more staff.

Savings. Your staff may be appreciative of the idea that you could help them to save money. If you offer the chance to speak to the company’s financial adviser, as well as exciting employee discounts, your staff will know you are trying to do more for them.

Duvet Days. A business has to keep running, we all know that, but offering a flexible duvet day system is a great way for your employees to take paid personal days last minute. This avoids bogus sick days and employee burnout, while allowing your staff to feel like they matter.

Flexible Working. Offering your staff the chance to work from home is the ultimate carrot dangled in front of a prospective staff member. People lead busy lives and if you give them a chance to be able to attend family events and doctor’s appointments around their work, you are going to gain a lot of respect from people.

Offering incentives has to be a big part of your budget. Keeping a strong working capital in the account for last minute meals and fun nights out can mean that you are solvent and covered when it’s a time for celebration. Give your staff a reason to want to work for you and you’ll benefit from their loyalty.

Professionalize Your Business

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The world of business is always seen as professional. But how professional is yours? If you’re a new business then the chances are high that it might not be as good as it can be. The main things customers look for is professionalism. Both from yourself, and how your business is run. You need to give the customers what they want if you want to keep bringing them back. There’s so many different areas you can focus on here as well. It isn’t just your business as a whole, there’s just so much more to it than that. So we’re here to show you the main areas in which you need to be focusing on, and the areas in which your customers are going to be looking at. The more of a professional image your business has, the better it is going to do. Read the advice below to find out more.

Your Image

Your image as a whole is what defines your business. Once you get a name for yourself so to speak, it is hard to get rid of it. One bad review and that’s what people will hold against you no matter how many good you get. It is just how the world works. Maintaining a good business image does take a lot of control because there’s just so many things you need to think about. One is how you compose yourself when dealing with customers and how you deal with difficult situations with them. But we’ll cover that more in the next paragraph. Your image massively relies on the products you’re selling and the quality that they are. If you want to be professional, you can’t start cutting corners with this. Make sure you’re always using the highest standard of materials to make your products. If it is an online service that you sell then you need to make sure the finish product is exceptional. For example, if you’re a website building company, you don’t want to be handing back a website full of glitches and one that is completely different from what the customer wants. Listen to the people and give them what they want, that way your business will always remain professional.

Your Customers

Your customers are up there with the most important part of your business. They way in which you compose yourself around them and deal with the situations they might bring is so important. One of the best ways to remain professional is to remember the customer is always right. Don’t argue with them, if anything let them argue with you. They want to leave your shop, or finish that phone call knowing that they were alpha male. If you’re mainly dealing with people on the phone then keeping things professional is a little harder. It is easier for you to change your tone of voice just because they can’t see you. But they’ll still pick up on it. Just make sure you’re handling things as professional as possible at all time. To add that final touch of professionalism you could think about invoicing. Not only does it help you track your money, but it is a lot better than just saying to a customer ‘oh you owe me this’. Having it in a more formal writing style is going to look so much more professional and put both your minds at ease. Just find yourself some templates and you’ll be an expert at invoicing in no time. Just make sure you’re keeping copies of everything for future reference just in case. The last thing you want to do with customers if you want to stay on top of being professional is always taking feedback on board. They aren’t just moaning for no reason, most of the time they have a valid reason and can give you some sound advice about what can make your business better.

Your Staff

Last but not least, you need to remain professional at all times with your staff. But the trick here is to make sure you’re not being too overbearing and taking on the horrible boss approach. Take a firm but fair approach and you’ll have a much better work ethic from them. If you’re a small business something you might not do is writing up contracts, but this is so so important. Not only does it look professional, but it protects the both of you from so many different scenarios. If you’re struggling with it a lawyer will be able to help you draw up a legal contract that’ll cover all the basics for you.

Starting Your New Business on a Budget

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While many business owners would love to have enough money to start their business the way they want, the reality is that most companies struggle for capital when they first start. That doesn’t mean that you cannot start your business, it just means you will need to be prudent and cautious when it comes to spending. There are many ways that you can get your company up and running, even on a budget.

Don’t Borrow Unless You Must

While there is a big urge just to borrow the money you need and get the things you want; you need to be careful. You want your business to start earning you money, not generating the money to pay another debt. You must also be aware of the fact that your company might not survive. If that’s the case, then you will be saddled with the repayments for your business loan. If you do have to borrow money, only borrow the smallest amount that you need to get started, that way if your company takes off, you will still get some profit.

Start in a Modest Way

Although you might have the dream of a nice shop or a large office, you should avoid such things until you are on the more stable ground. The best thing to do at first is to start from home to keep costs down, or perhaps share office space with another company. If you need to be out there to sell products, start small by going to fairs and markets and going from there. Once your company is making money, you can rent a small store to sell your products.

Think About Refurbished Items

Buying a new printer, computers and other office equipment can become expensive in a short space of time. To cut down on those costs while still getting the equipment you need, why not consider buying refurbished or used items. Many companies offer used office copiers and other electronics that have been refurbished, so they are working perfectly. You can get desks, chairs and other furniture from used office suppliers. They are usually in good condition, just taken from offices that have been refurbished.

Be Smart with Your Services

To run your business effectively, you will need a phone line with the internet, though getting these set up especially with a business rate can be expensive. Do plenty of research into the best deals you can get for your business, and see if there are deals that offer extras such as a business mobile or free web space for a website. To cut costs further, try to develop your website yourself using the many website building sites that are on the internet. It might not be as polished as you want, but it will be free, and it will be a good start until your business takes off.

By trying to plan your spending and by using used or refurbished goods, you can start your new business with minimum capital.

Optimize Your Work Environment With These Simple Tips

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Your workforce

The efficiency of your workloads depends heavily on the speed of your workforce, and how good they are at their jobs. Having work done fast is one thing, but having quality is another. Often quality work is hard to guarantee if the employees are under a lot of stress on a daily basis, and it can often be hard to focus. In this case, it’s important to make sure you’ve created a much more stress-free environment for everyone to work in. Many factors can go into creating this calm environment; you just have to know the people who work for you if you want the best results. Firstly, bringing everyone closer can help out a lot if you want to raise the moods.

Teamwork is an essential part of any workforce, as it determines how well everyone can work with one another. If you assign jobs that have to be done in teams, the quality and rate that they’re done at will depend on how much they all trust one another. There are many occasions where you should organize team building activities to strengthen the bond, as not only can it bring a more relaxed environment, but it can inspire more productivity. It gives people a reason to value their jobs more, especially if they can get along with their colleagues.

Team building isn’t the only method, investing in other ways to encourage teamwork can also help over time. Products like onsight connect – Librestream can help not only to allow teams to work together, but also help with their efficiency. Having a medium for everyone to work at the same level while being able to actively assess and learn from one another is an extremely effective tool, and is sure to improve individual productivity.

Your workplace

Your workplace also has an impact on how well everyone can get through their work. It’s important to make sure there’s nothing around to distract people while they’re fulfilling their job. Usually, an effective method would involve not allowing the use of phones or other devices that may cause distractions. Even with the simplest of tasks, losing focus can be as easy as receiving a text. It’s not because of the importance of said text, but the lack of motivation to do their job.

When it comes to making your office a better environment, you should focus on creating something that’s not too dull. While it’s not distracting, dull can often be depressing and demotivating, which is never good for efficiency. Creating your optimal work environment should involve light coloring, possibly some music, and not too many decorations. You shouldn’t have anything that’s likely to catch the eye or attention of your employees, but you also need to make sure you’re sparking creativity. Hence the use of music; which relies heavily on the demographics of your workforce.

Creating the ideal workplace can be difficult, especially if you’re looking at a pretty diverse group of employees. With that said, making sure you’re making a relaxing environment is the best you can do, along with enforcing employee synergy. It’s effective if everyone can get along, else you might need to think about finding new employees who will. As harsh as that sounds, you have to make sacrifices if you’re looking for efficiency.

How to Improve your Productivity

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Staying motivated and productive can be a major struggle for a lot of people. If you find your attention wavering while you work, then you might just need a boost.

Here are some of the ways that you could boost your productivity, at home and at work.

Reward Yourself

Treating yourself to a small break or snack after you finish a task will keep you pushing forward. Sprint style working, where you work for a set period quickly and then take a break, is big in business for this reason. Treats can be small items, like a snack or a walk around the building, which you can easily fit into your working time.

Set Goals

Setting yourself goals gives you something to work towards. This can be great for keeping you motivated with a larger task, as you can split it into smaller tasks to keep you on track. Being able to check smaller tasks off your lists will make you feel accomplished, instead of slogging towards a larger, overall goal.

Track your Progress

There are lots of online tools that you can use to track yourself and what you’ve managed to complete during the day. Some of them will even allow you to break this down into individual tasks, so you can see which tasks take you the longest. This serves two purposes, you can see what you’ve spent your day on and you can also budget time more accurately for these tasks in future.

Have the Right Equipment

There’s nothing worse than having to undertake a job without the right software or equipment. Even small things, like having the most up to date versions of Word and Excel, can save you time. Dynamics 365 software can be kept up to date by a Dynamics 365 partner to make sure that you always have the right tools to get the job done.

Tackle Undesirable Tasks

The amount of time that you take putting off tasks that you just don’t want to do can be costly. This is a pitfall that we all fall into from time to time, sometimes it’s better for your productivity to face this head on. If you do so, you will get the worst tasks out of the way and you can enjoy the rest of the task with this in mind.

Steer Clear of Distractions

Distractions are the enemy of productivity, so try to keep your workspace clear of them. This could be a digital distraction, like Facebook, or a physical one like your phone. Stay logged out of digital distractions and put any physical ones away where you won’t be as tempted by them. Remember that these are designed to grab your attention, with notifications and pings, so try to avoid them where possible.

Staying productive can be tricky, but if you track your time and push yourself to complete goals then you can keep this motivation up. Take breaks when you need to and come back refreshed, ready to smash the task at hand.