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Ways to Help Your Workplace Function Smoothly

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Workplace Function|Ways to Help Your Workplace Function SmoothlyRunning a business means having to do your utmost to run a functioning workplace too. That’s often easier said than done when there’s a lot going on and you have a whole team of people to manage. But when things get too messy and chaotic, it eventually takes a toll on the business and its ability to function as it should and hit its targets.

If you’re having problems in that department right now and you feel like the lack of structure and focus in your workplace is holding your business back in some ways, there’s never a better time than now to act and make a change. The longer you allow these kinds of problems to fester, the more deep-rooted they’ll eventually become, and that’s not what you want to be dealing with.

So if you’re looking to make some changes to the functioning of your workplace and you’re not sure where to start, read on now and find out more. Each of the changes discussed below will put your workplace on a better and more sustainable path.

Create a Culture of Trust

First of all, you should try to create a culture of trust inside the workplace. Thaat way, you’ll find it much easier to get the most out of each member of your team. If your employees feel like they’re not trusted to do their job, that’ll impact their morale and you’ll create a vicious cycle over underperformance that’s good for nobody. So if you want to create a culture in which people trust each other and believe in each other’s abilities. It’ll also create a more collaborative workplace and one with fewer conflicts.

Communicate Standards Clearly

Communicating what’s expected from employees is important in order to maintain high standards and avoid a slipping of standards. You don’t want to allow standards to slip too far because that’s ultimately damaging for the business and the impression you give to clients and customers. At the same time, it’s your task to communicate standards so that everyone in your workplace can live up to them. Inaction will only lead to a furthe erosion of those standards and that’s not what you want. Be sure to communicate them clearly without being dictatorial.

Share Out Authority

Sharing out authority is a concept that’s alien to a lot of bosses and managers. But when you pass on the authority to make relevant decisions to more people within your workplace, it spreads responsibility and encourages more people to step up to the plate. It essentially stops the workplace from becoming too centralized, which is important because over the top centralization of your workforce tends to be bad news for everybody. It’s far better when there’s input from various different sources and decision-makers.

Avoid Micromanaging

Micromanaging is one thing you definitely don’t want to do if you’re serious about making improvements to the way in which your workplace functions. When you try to micromanage every little situation and piece of work, it simply undermines your employees. And if you’re not going to let them get on with their jobs, you have to wonder why you bothered to hire them in the first place. Try to place more faith in them and see how it goes. You might be surprised by what they do and how much they impress you when you set them free and let them got on with the tasks at hand.

Encourage Two-Way Feedback

Feedback is an important asset for your business if you want to continue pushing in a positive direction and making the right kinds of changes moving forward. That’s why you should encourage everyone to participate in giving and receiving two-way feedback. That means you provide feedback to your employees, and they give their own feedback to you. That way, everyone can improve and the business will move in the right direction. You just need to ensure feedback is kept positive and constructive on both sides for this to work.

Train Your Team in New Areas When it Becomes Necessary

As your business grows and its priorities and focuses change, you might need different things from your workforce, and that’s something you should be mindful of. If you’re expecting new and different things from your employees, you’ll need to offer them the relevant training to smooth that transition. You can’t expect their jobs to change and for them to adapt immediately, especially if they’re not being supported and provided with the right training to make that possible. So whenever something changes for your business, explore whether your team needs to be trained differently.

Promote From Within Your Team

When you promote people to higher positions within your business, you should definitely think about promoting people from within your own team. When you do that, you give people the motivation to keep pushing and working hard because they’ll know they’ll have a chance of eventually clinching a higher position within the organization. Whereas, if they don’t see that opportunity ahead of them, they may lack the drive to keep pushing to achieve more, which is definitely not an environment you want to create. It’s a small change but it can make a big difference.


Offer Flexibility

These days, people tend to want and expect a little more flexibility in their work and work hours. That’s certainly something that your business should think about offering if it’s not doing so already. When your team is able to work in a more flexible way, they can set their own hours and balance the different priorities in their life. That results in a happier and generally more positive workforce. If you want everyone to be on their game and working as they should, flexibility will definitely help you get there.

Put the Stuff You Don’t Need Right Now Into Storage

One of the reasons why your workplace might be currently lacking a bit of structure and clarity is an abundance of stuff. When you have lots of stuff that shouldn’t really be there, you should move it out and make some extra space. Use a storage solution so that your employees don’t feel crowded out by excess clutter. If something isn’t serving a genuine purpose and doesn’t have a real reason to be in your workplace, simply don’t leave it there. A more minimalist approach to the workplace should serve everyone’s interests.

Use Project Management Software

It definitely makes sense to start making use of project management software if you’re not doing so already. Keeping everyone on track and working on the right tasks will help ensure the team meets deadlines and clients are kept satisfied. In the end, that’s what really matters more than anything else when you’re trying to create a workplace that functions in a smooth and cohesive kind of way. It’ll help you to operate things in a much more productive way and ensure that your projects get to where they need to be on time.

Facilitate Opportunities for Collaboration

If you’re going to get the most from your team, you want the members of that team to be operating together as a cohesive unit. That’s why you should find ways to facilitate collaboration among the different members and even among the different departments of your business. Of course, how you go about doing that will depend on the kind of business you run and how big it is. It’s up to you and the rest of the management team to find ways of pulling the team together and making the most of all the talents being brought to the table.

Put as Many Tasks on Autopilot as Possible

It’s a lot better for you if you can put things on autopilot and avoid getting bogged down in unimportant details when trying to run your business smoothly. If there are tasks that can be automated with the use of software, make use of those tech options. When your team has less admin work to take care of, they’ll have more time to focus their efforts on the things that really matter most to the business.

Maintain a Positive Attitude, Even When Times Are Stressful

Finally, you should try your best to maintain a positive outlook and attitude when you’re managing your team. When things become negative at the top of the business, that can feed down to the rest of your team and everything else that happens in your workplace. So even when things are stressful and stretched, you should try your best to remain positive. A generally more positive attitude will also yield better results when working for clients and trying to impress them too.

A smooth functioning workplace will ultimately only aid your business in getting closer to its long-term goals. So if you think that your workplace needs a little more organization and structure, be sure to make the most of the tips and ideas we’ve shared here today. Each of them will serve you well.

Build a Strong Workplace Culture With These Quick Tips

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StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article | Build a Strong Workplace Culture With These Quick TipsBusiness owners know that satisfied employees lead to a more profitable company. Creating a cohesive company culture takes a well-developed plan, organization, and teamwork. When you define your corporate philosophy, you give your teammates specific goals and expectations. Your employees feel appreciated, and they strive to meet goals. Valued employees are more productive and stay longer. There are many ways to build a corporate identity. Here are some ways to make a positive impact.

Know Everyone’s Job

Many employees feel frustrated and believe that management creates procedures in a vacuum. Do not implement new policies without feedback from the teammates performing those tasks. As CEO and Executive Chairman of DaVita Kent Thiry established “Reality 101.” This program required all new executives receive the same training as frontline teammates. Knowing the daily challenges helped management understand how to implement procedural or policy changes.

Define Values

Creating a mission statement is an important step in defining your company culture. Mission statements communicate your purpose to employees, management, and customers. Common values in mission statements include:

  • Improve the environment
  • Respect diversity
  • Create a workplace of trust
  • Encourage creativity
  • Expect excellence

Examine Expectations

Define your overall corporate goals. Review each position in your organization and determine how each teammate can help achieve your objective. As with any planning strategy, make sure your goals are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based. Recognize your teammates’ accomplishments and challenges. Manageable goals are key to success.


Redefine Hiring Procedures

Traditional hiring techniques rarely identify the ideal applicant for your company culture. Build interviewing teams from all levels of your teammates. Have prospective colleagues ask questions to help understand the candidate’s personality and motivation. After interviewing, have candid conversations with everyone to make the best hiring decision. Some questions in a cultural interview are:

  • Tell me about your ideal day at work.
  • What qualities do you think are important for this position?
  • How do you handle work-related stress?
  • Describe your ideal work-life balance.
  • What do you think will be the biggest challenge in this position?

Review Benefits

Reexamine your company benefits package. Make sure that employees’ needs are met effectively and efficiently. Create surveys to ask employees what benefits they enjoy most or would like added to the package. Consider low-cost benefits, such as flex time.

Change It Up

Review your mission statement and cultural identity when you experience new challenges or exponential growth. While it may seem counterintuitive to change what has been successful, your business goals have probably changed, and how you achieve them will also. Use your SWOT analysis to evaluate external opportunities and threats and guide your company into the future. Changing your culture is not something to be taken lightly, nor should it be done quickly or frequently.

A thorough understanding of the impact you want your company to have on your employees and the environment is important to building a strong company culture. Once you define goals, you can implement the steps needed to strengthen your company from the inside out.

Top Talent: How To Keep Your Best Members Of Staff

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Keep your best staff members|Top Talent: How To Keep Your Best Members Of StaffBusinesses will know the huge expense of recruitment, so when you have a team of skilled team members, it’s in your interest, and theirs, to remain part of the company. The success of your organization depends on having a talented team in place, but it’s all too easy to take people for granted and only realize you should have done more when it’s too late.

Holding on to your key employees is essential in maintaining great results in your business, saving time and money when it comes to recruitment, and retaining employee engagement. Here are some tips for creating an environment that people want to work in long-term.

Stay up to date with the market

Pay is one of the primary reasons people take on jobs and show up for work every day, so it stands to reason that it’s also one of the top reasons employees might be inspired to leave a company. If you’re not continually assessing the compensation you’re providing to your staff in relation to your competitors and industry standards, you could be at risk of losing your top members of staff.

Make sure that you’re offering an attractive salary to retain talented candidates and offer regular raises or bonuses, particularly for highly skilled or hard-to-fill roles, to minimize the risk of compensation-based staff turnover.

Keep progression in mind

If your staff feel as though the role they’re in is as far as they’ll go in the company, they’re not going to be inspired to stay. But if you can offer them career development, mentorship and opportunities on the career ladder that they can climb if they choose to, they’ll be more inclined to stay loyal to your company. Succession planning not only motivates your staff, but it also means you’re building a highly skilled team that will provide value within the business. Take the time to talk to your employees, find out where they ideally see their career going and work together to make it a reality that benefits both your team and your business.

Create a positive work environment

No-one wants to head into work five days a week only to feel lonely or miserable. As a business owner, you have a responsibility to provide a happy, healthy work environment for your employees. Your employees will be motivated to come into the office if there is a positive workplace culture coupled with great amenities, such as chill-out spaces, on-site gyms and pool tables, or free coffee and snacks, as well as communal benefits such as happy hour on Friday after work or team days out.

The physical workplace is just as important when it comes to creating a positive work experience for your employees with benefits, regular socials, meetings and team-building activities. Engaging staff helps them to not only perform their best at work but also want to stay part of the team.

Don’t overwork your team

Your A-players are likely to give their all at work. After all, their dedication and engagement is part of what makes them your top members of staff. But over time, that can take its toll. Employees that don’t have a healthy work-life balance will begin to burnout, and that can result in them leaving for a job that offers more flexibility. With only one third of UK employees happy with their work-life balance, businesses that want to retain their skilled staff need to be conscious of making sure that their employees are getting ample rest, that they’re not working excessively and that the workload they’re being given is realistic.

Prioritize two-way communication

Communication is critical in any relationship, and when it comes to keeping your employees happy and engaged, it needs to be a priority. This means putting sufficient time aside to sit down with your employees to talk about their performance and your expectations, as well as giving them the opportunity to voice their thoughts and concerns. Two-way dialogue is vital if you want to retain your top performers for a long time, as no-one wants to work for a company that doesn’t value their opinion or take their feedback on board. When communication is open and honest, it creates a culture of trust – something that employees value highly.

Recruitment can slow your business’ ability to scale up and achieve goals. A high turnover takes its toll on a company’s productivity, reputation, and workflow. It is both costly and time-consuming, and can have a negative impact on morale if staff turnover rates remain high. So, it’s in your interest to keep your team on side for longer, especially when it comes to retaining your top-performing employees.

The Ultimate Guide to Upgrading Office Space on a Budget

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Office Space|The Ultimate Guide to Upgrading Office Space on a BudgetWhile there are several appealing benefits of upgrading your business’s office space, you may be dreading the high costs of renovating and investing in new office equipment. However, even though you will need to spend on certain items, there are effective ways to upgrade your office without spending a small fortune in the process. Therefore, before you start replacing printers and moving furniture around, here’s how you can upgrade your office space on a restricting budget.

Focus on Functionality

When it comes to evaluating your current office equipment condition, you should consider functionality and quality as primary factors. Instead of opting for the most affordable printer, scanner, copier, or any other essentials, you should evaluate printing solutions that offer multifunctional devices. You can find duplex scanners and multifunctional printers at brother-usa.com that will streamline processes and help you save substantially in the long run. Quality is a factor that will ensure you don’t have to spend extra on replacing devices regularly over time. Upgrading the equipment in your office will be the main cost when improving your office space.

Decor Details That Enhance the Atmosphere

Professionals won’t be as productive and happy if they work within a space that feels cold, concrete, and suffocating. Therefore, upgrading your office space can be done by making small changes to the decor details. Adding a few vibrant plants, painting offices, and putting up a few canvas prints can truly transform any space. You don’t have to spend a fortune either, as decorating on a budget is a widespread practice.

Adjust the Spatial Arrangement

The spatial arrangement of equipment and furniture will have a massive impact on your office’s overall appeal and productivity. Therefore, merely adjusting your office layout is a method of upgrading that won’t cost you anything other than effort. When changing your office space’s spatial arrangement, it is best to draft a layout design on paper, which will enable you to give each employee adequate space and privacy while also determining each item’s best place to enhance productivity and overall functionality.

Promote Modern Workplace Culture

Modern workplace culture focuses on ensuring employee needs are met. As a result, ideal work culture can improve productivity and motivation by enhancing employee positivity. To achieve a modern workplace culture, you should focus on improving employee engagement and ensuring your team is comfortable enough to move around the office freely. Fostering collaboration and communication are also crucial components in creating a modern work culture. This office space upgrade also won’t cost you anything as you will be making changes that improve the atmosphere within your business. Empowering employees is another way to achieve a modern workplace culture that boosts productivity to fuel business growth and success. Because your employees are at the core of business functions, caring for their needs and enhancing the environment to create an ideal working space should be a priority for all businesses.

How Your Company Can Benefit from International Recruitment

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |International Recruitment|How Your Company Can Benefit from International RecruitmentAlthough international recruitment is on the rise, many companies and businesses are still reluctant to try it. If you are undecided about taking this bold new step, these key benefits could help!

Access to a Wider Talent Pool

International recruitment means you are no longer confined to finding the right candidate in your local talent pool. Now, you can select a diverse group of the most qualified and productive employees from anywhere in the world. Additionally, the new international hires might have unique skills that are not available in your country of origin, thereby affording you yet another benefit.

Insights into New Markets

Every business that has a unique insight into an emerging market will always have an advantage over other similar businesses. International hires allow businesses to get a better insight into different and new markets as well as customer types. For example, if you want insight into a market like China and the types of customers your business is likely to encounter in that market, you could use a China PEO to find candidates who will give you this unique insight.

International teams also offer your business more productivity and creativity. This is because international hires bring unique experiences and perspectives with them. This boosts the whole team’s productivity and creativity by helping the team think outside the box.

To ensure this creativity, innovation and increased productivity, companies should partner with a global recruitment company to find the right types of candidates. Incidentally, New Horizons Global Partners comes to mind. They help companies such as yours to find the right candidates in Asia, manage your payroll, and a lot more. If you are expanding into markets like Indonesia or any other country in Asia, you can learn about how they can help your business do just that at nhglobalpartners.com.

A Better Workplace Culture

Many companies struggle to hire people who diversify their workforce and enrich their workplace cultures in a meaningful way. Hiring internationally can solve this problem. Hiring internationally brings in different types of people who think differently and who can enrich the company through their unique cultures.

Building this better culture has its benefits including making for a happier and better-connected workforce, developing a global community of employees, and helping employees build professional and personal connections across the globe.

Helps You Cover Multiple Time Zones

Hiring internationally gives you access to candidates who will be working different hours should they choose to work remotely. This will allow your business to provide services round the clock if you can assemble a team that covers every time zone provided your business is large enough.

These increased hours also give customers and clients confidence in knowing that no matter the time of day or night, they can get served by your business.

Additionally, your business can bring in clients from different time zones if you have employees who will be focused on working with those customers and clients.

Hiring remotely might seem like a scary and expensive prospect, but it doesn’t have to be. If you have an experienced international recruiting company behind you, it is possible to hire great candidates who can help your business grow into new markets and beyond.