Steps For Optimizing Your Company’s Processes

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Whether your business or company venture is new or just in need of being redesigned, then keeping on top of rules for optimization is crucial to effective business management and room for growth. In business, time is money, so, in order to maximize sales, longwinded and time consuming processes and procedures must be avoided.

Processing documents digitally can save you a significant amount of time, providing the software you’re using is running as efficiently as it can and you’re utilizing your business’s capabilities for success. Optimizing how your business runs concerns more than simply improving software; however, having said that, it does a long way in helping your business succeed. Over the course of this article you will learn how best to optimize your company’s business processes.

Healthcare Processes

Make tired processes an act of the past and ensure that your staff can do their job to the best of the abilities and giving them the adequate tools to do so. If you work in healthcare or any medical practice, then you’ll know the importance of having efficient coding and billing processes. As complex as the procedure of billing can be, once you know the best medical billing features to look for in software, then you can save yourself time and resources. Open Practice Solutions offer fully integrated revenue cycle management to help your company succeed, which can be found at www.openpracticesolutions.com. You want your software to be doing the very best it can to take some of the pressure of you and any other the billing and administrative staff.

Optimizing business management wherever possible will give rise to easier processes, and ones that once fully understood by those using them, will speed up time it takes for a claim to be paid.

Identification

Once you’re aware of which business processes need attention, then you can get the overhaul underway. Figure out what the desired goal from changing processes needs to be, and make firm steps to getting these changes made. Identify which of the processes is most important and change that first, even if getting this altered is the most challenging business process to oversee the change of, do it with speed and accuracy. Throughout the time it takes you to implement change, always have the desired outcome at the forefront of your mind, address potential areas of improvement by brainstorming with those on your team and if a general consensus is that a qualified candidate needs to be hired, then prioritize this and begin the process of finding the candidate by conducting application reviews and interviews.

Process Mapping

Map your processes as you go. You can list the procedures you’re going to undertake by categorizing them into a list of importance, relevance to finished and completed outcome, and how they stand by way of priority. Start with the processes that needs the most immediate attention and work through the process map. By effectively mapping, you can visually keep track of what is being taken care of and which processes still need to be finished. Understand who is a part of the process and what their specific role and feature is in the redesign process.

What to look for when hiring college graduates

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | What to look for when hiring college graduates

In business, hiring new recruits is crucial to success — they bring fresh thinking and can challenge the existing paradigms of your corporation. A steady stream of prospective employees is likely knocking on your door daily, and even more so around summer time when college and university students finish their final year.

As a recruitment officer, it’s your responsibility to bring in the talent. With so many resumes and applications to decipher, what should you look for, to ensure you interview — and ultimately hire — the best possible candidate?

Evidence of critical and strategic thinking

Use your application process to pose salient questions, requiring candidates to evidence strategic thinking and the ability to address both sides of an argument. You’re not so much looking for the individual’s ethics or values here, but their capacity to form and deliver their point of view in a creative and compelling way.

The ability to work in a team

An applicant’s college experience will illustrate if they are a team player — whether they played a team sport, or performed in college stage shows, you want employees who understand and respect the significance of working together towards a shared goal.

Look for specialized degrees

Most resumes include an abundance of experience, however, you need to learn how to filter out what isn’t relevant and focus on what is useful. While many people will mention all their experiences, if someone only has leadership skills as a secondary skillset and no actual qualification in this area, then you may have to find someone else who does have the qualifications you’re looking for.

If you feel you need more information, then research the institution where they received their further education. While some colleges offer a multitude of degrees, some colleges have a more focused curriculum, so their students can specialize in certain fields. For instance, if you’re looking for a new head teacher, then someone who has studied at NEC (New England College) and undergone a Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) could have more honed in leadership skills than someone who didn’t.

Resilience

‘Resilience’ is defined as the ability to withstand the pressures of college life, and emerging positive and ready into the professional world. You want to build your company around people who thrive under pressure, rather than falter.

Interpersonal skills, if relevant to your business niche

Not all professions require advanced social skills — indeed, businesses in Silicon Valley are famously seeing past prejudices and assumptions, to hire individuals on the autistic spectrum in their computer technology and software development teams.

However, if the ability to work collaboratively is pivotal to your work then you’ll want to test prospective employees on this skill. Building upon evidence of team and relationship prowess, use the interview to pose challenging questions to delve further — “Tell me about a time you’ve had to manage conflict in a study group?” or “You’ve seen that a friend is going through a bad time, how would you intervene to help?” are both revealing questions to ask.

How to Save Money for Your Business

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We don’t tend to be very thoughtful when it comes to business spending. Truth be told, most companies wait until they’ve hit a cash crunch before they start looking at their spending levels and end up having to cut key personnel because of that. Avoiding losing valuable members of staff because the business overspent when the good times were rolling along and expected to never end should be a priority for any CEO who understands that people are the lifeblood of their business.

Here are a few ways to begin reducing the spending levels to give the company breathing room in difficult economic times; possibly even allowing for expansion plans when competitors are having to cut back.

Better Contract Negotiations

When negotiating with suppliers, making payment arrangements that spread the cost over a longer period makes cash flow easier to manage. Even if the sales don’t add up to as much as hoped, at least the costs of the purchases are distributed well. Make the payment terms part of the agreement, not something to tack on at the end. If the sales staff intimate that that’s not their area and try to brush it off, then ask them to bring the finance people into the meeting (by phone if necessary) to get a deal done to your liking.

Sub-let Space You’re Not Using

Does the business currently lease more space than it needs? Whether it’s a warehouse facility or an office, other people will pay dearly for the convenience of an office (or part of a larger one) that’s near to where they live. There are plenty of ways to rent an office out without needing to pay a high fee to a broker, which would make it a bit pointless otherwise.

Renting a “hot desk” is all the rage with digital nomads at the minute because they can grab a desk for a week or a month and use the photocopier, the internet, and the other facilities while there. Eager to fill the need, sites like Desks Near Me and Deskcamping act as an intermediary, connecting spare desks with people who need one.

Frugal Spending & Money Management

Spending less and managing money better go together. There’s not much benefit to watching the pennies if the dollars are flying out the door faster than you can cut back. A company that’s lost its way when it comes to the financial management side of the equation will struggle mightily as a result.

One way to get a handle on this is to study for an Ohio University masters in financial economics, which covers financial markets, business accounting, and touches on a broad range of subjects to better understand money. The Ohio University course delivers a well-rounded education on financial matters, which is bound to help staff who are struggling to manage the money well. This Ohio University online course is accessible over the internet, so no time is lost in traffic getting to the campus on time.

Managing money helps in all aspects of a business because when there’s too little of it available, all the clever strategic thinking in the world won’t save the company. Just like with the foundations of a house, getting the money management right provides something solid that can be built upon.

Why Automating Your Digital Marketing is The Way Forward

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Digital marketing is vital to your business, but do you ever find yourself living your life in reaction to social media notifications or emails?

The digitally connected world we live in, can be incredibly harmful to living a balanced and successful life; particularly in terms of our emotional wellbeing and social lives.  One of the best ways to ensure a more balanced life, is to automate your digital marketing by creating a network of automated process, systems, and apps to automatically take care of marketing tasks such as following up on emails, posting to facebook, and so on.

This will not only free up physical time, it will give you peace of mind, and a sense of certainty that things are being taken care of.  Essentially, it will allow you the time you need to be calm, focused, and responsive rather than reactive; contributing to a more stress free working environment.

Tim Ferris in his New York Times Bestselling Book, The Four Hour Workweek talks about the importance of automation in our work lives so that we can focus on managing our business in the sense of working ‘on’ the business rather than working ‘in’ the business.  Whilst Tim, along with several other millennial productivity experts urge us to go one step further and outsource our tasks to a virtual assistant; ideally someone living in India or Asia on the basis of cost – this article looks at automation as it relates to technological systems.

In this article we’re going to look at automating a number of the most time consuming digital tasks the majority of business owners contend with; things such as being inundated by emails, following up on sales leads, keeping our files organised, and managing our social media presence.

1. EMAIL MARKETING

There are plenty of time-starved business owners frantically sending out an email to a customer thanking them for their order and letting them know when it will be shipped.  The key point with automation is that it frees your time to be working ‘on’ the business at a strategic level rather than ‘in’ the business where you are wasting your time doing the same job as a low-level employee.  You could use something like mailchimp in order to start automating your emails at very low cost.

2.  FILE TRANSFER

If you’ve ever accidentally spilled a glass of water on your laptop, lost your phone, or had the despair of hard drive failure you’ll have most likely heard the words “did you back-up your files” and if you didn’t, this is the point where you begin to feel overwhelmed by a sense of frustration and kicking yourself.  That said, keeping on track of backing up your files can be time consuming, which is why automating your file transfer can make your life a lot easier and offer a sense of security and certainty that allows you to relax.

3. MARKETING FUNNELS

Your marketing funnel is made up of several stages through which browsers (who will hopefully go on to become customers) move from first awareness of your brand or website through to making a purchase.  A marketing funnel is essentially the process of converting a visitor or browser into a paying customer, and sites such as Clickfunnels can automate this process in a very efficient and visually engaging way.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Managing your social media marketing campaigns can be extremely time consuming.  Many business owners consider hiring a virtual assistant in order to manage this time consuming task though there there are several free apps such as hootsuite and buffer that can help you automate this task.

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.