5 Ways You Can Spend Your Work Breaks

/in /by

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Productivity|5 Ways You Can Spend Your Work BreaksIn this day and age, there is a major focus on productivity in the workplace. Employers want to be sure that they’re getting their monies worth from each employee and maximizing their potential as a business. However, for the sake of balance, employers are also realizing that employees aren’t robots and need healthy breaks during and after work hours. It is also left to employees to know how to utilize such breaks so that they don’t feel overwhelmed and overworked. Here are five ways that you can spend your work breaks.

Go for a Walk

It’s always good to stop and get some fresh air after hours of focused work. A good way to go about doing this would be to take a walk. Whether it’s a five-minute or twenty-minute walk, it could do your mind a lot of good. Some benefits of going for a walk are that it can help lift your mood and get your creative juices flowing. These are two things that you need to get your best work done. Also, pulling away from the computer can help your eyes and concentration.

Play Games

During your work break, another thing you could get up to is playing a few games. This is actually great for your brain as game playing can likewise improve concentration and enhance your social skills.

In addition to this, it’s an ideal way to distract yourself from work which you need if you want to come back with a fresh mind. You could play the lottery online if you want a short and fun game. Online games also have their benefits as they can be entertaining and social seeing as you can play with other people.

Meditate

If you can find a quiet space during your break, use it for meditation. This is the perfect opportunity to clear your head and relieve any work-related stress you’re feeling. If you’ve never meditated before, it’s easy to learn. Also, you can start with as little as 2-5 minutes and then gradually work your way up. In terms of how to meditate, start by committing to a daily practice.

This should outline what time you’re going to do it every day and for how long. Once you’re ready to start, sit comfortably, keep your back straight and rest your hands in your lap or on your knees. You should then defocus your eyes, breathe deeply, and ensure your body remains relaxed. By the time you’re ready to go back to work, you should be refreshed enough.

Read

If you’ve got a book or novel you haven’t had a chance to read, why not go through a couple of pages during your break time? It’s a way of redirecting your attention and also unwinding.

You will need a quiet place to read in order to avoid distractions unless you have noise canceling headphones. It has been stressed that you should try and read every day. Doing so enables you to tick that off of your personal development list.

Exercise

Some places of work happen to have a gym on their premises. Others offer discounted gym membership for places nearby. Consider going for a quick session during your break to get rid of any negativity and tension that may be triggered by work. It’s also a way of boosting your wellbeing and ensuring your mind and body are in a healthy space.

Boost Your Business With License Plating

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |License Plating|Boost Your Business With License PlatingDoes your business entail supply management on a large scale? Do you think your company can still grow if only you have better infrastructure and more manpower to handle the workload? Do you have concrete plans for your business, but is hindered by budget constraints? Perhaps you would like to consider improving your current processes, employing better supply management practices, and adopting modern technology.

With that it mind, you should check out and learn more about license plating. Yes, the same practice you’ll find in vehicle registration also works great with supply management. Simply put, license plating lets you intelligently manage a batch of items, taking them as a single unit. The assigned plates determine the batch/unit, and it improves the efficiency of your warehouse operations, streamlining inventory transfer within the supply chain.

Can this really improve my business?

Imagine this: you’ve been managing your supply the same way throughout the years. The process, assuming you have one in place, follows several steps from one point in your supply chain to another. If you can introduce a better, more efficient way to do things, you can take out several steps in that process and move your products faster from your end to your consumers. It’s not really a question of “will it work,” because it will make your existing supply management process work better. Say for example you have a diverse supply to take care of. You can assign a “container” for these, either by pallet, carton, truck, or a large freight box. These are then assigned license plate numbers and use this information to group the items for easier management.

Get a snapshot of the information that matters

The license plates assigned are unique for your business. You can customize it however you want. By “customized,” we mean adding the associated information on the plates, including the item type, quantity, part numbers, serial number, manufacture date, expiration date, and more. You can add all of these and more, as necessary, to make tracking and grouping your items easier. By using the license plates, you’re simplifying the handling process by eliminating the need to distinguish on the item or product level.

You get more freedom to customize as you see fit, and you can choose to have a barcode or RFID tag for scanning purposes. From these alone, you can see how free you are to customize your supply chain based on your specific requirements.

Other Benefits

With license plating in place, you’ll be able to receive your shipments faster, track them for better response times, and adjust accordingly when problems arise. You can group items in “kits” for better packing and unpacking, depending on the supply needs or your customer requirements. If you’re working with raw materials, you can create license plates for every part you need and group them based on the order. You can also manage the consumption of materials, to ensure that you don’t over or undersupply. You can easily view inventory balances through the plates, so that you can adjust in real-time and avoid any downtimes and other similar issues.

How to Optimally Align IT with Your Business Processes?

/in /by

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |IT architecture|How to Optimally Align IT with Your Business Processes?IT is an important subject for any organization and it becomes increasingly interwoven with business operations. The information should be accessible for any relevant person and it should be structured logically, so that everyone in an organization relies on the same, up-to-date information and is able to use it efficiently. Structuring business information is also referred to as enterprise architecture.

How Does Enterprise Architecture Add Value?

IT should be connected to a functional process in the organization. This is necessary for organizations to be efficient and for IT to generate value. The market a company operates in should also be taken into account for enterprise architecture.

In order for enterprise architecture to be effective, a company must be agile. The word “agile” is popular in the business world and it is bandied about frequently. However, agility is crucial in this article; it does not appear in this context, because it sounds interesting. To illustrate, enterprise architecture tools provide an opportunity to respond to inefficient and ineffective situations, but organizations must be able to benefit from these opportunities, before the relevance of an action has already passed.

For the IT architecture to be effective, it should be between centralized and decentralized. The enterprise architecture should manage changes in the architecture, but input by other employees should be appreciated. As a result, opportunities in the environment can be consumed.

Architectural centralization requires sharing knowledge, uniformity and standardization. Because randomly sharing knowledge could result in organizational chaos, it should be accompanied by the other two requirements (uniformity and standardization). Standardization of enterprise architecture can involve the process level, IT level and data level. In this, IT can be considered the bridge between data and process.

Balance between Centralization and Decentralization

To apply and appropriate balance between centralization and decentralization, the information pyramid can be implemented. This approach is developed by Aloys Kregting, who was entitled as CIO of the year twice. The pyramid presents questions that arise when changes in the architecture are proposed. The bottom layer represents requirements that must be met for the idea to be implemented.

The bottom layer of the pyramid is related to governance and involves leadership and organizational structures that are fundamental for the attainment of primary organizational goals. The second layer concerns the roles of employees and the behavioral adaptations that are necessary for the proposed architectural change. The subsequent layer represents data matters, such as key performance indicators. In the top layer Kregting referred to IT systems by which employees are supported. A proposal for change should correspond with the primary organizational objectives. If a requirement relates to one of the higher levels, without meeting a lower level, the implementation of the architectural change is suboptimal.

Two Views on IT

Gartner, a consultancy company, initiated the distinction between two modes of IT. The first mode concerns security and accuracy, whereas the second mode concerns innovation, which is less structured. Additionally, mode 2 requires agility. Mode 1 is related to non-distinctive IT: products and services are not directly influenced by it. And example of a mode 2 process is employee skills management. In mode 2, IT is part of products and services and serves as a competitive weapon. For instance, the customer journey could be a mode-2 aspect.

The Importance of Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture provides guidance for organizations. It could be part of strategy, tactics and operations. Especially for IT companies, it can be effective to apply the bimodal view. Every action should add value to the business.

In conclusion, IT architecture should allow members of an organization to process information and contribute to the architecture, applications and processes. Information should be available to individuals in the organization to whom it is relevant. Also, organizations should distinguish between the two modes of IT. If these recommendations are executed, organizations will reap the benefits of enterprise architecture.

About the Author

Rianne Koopmans is a graduate in International Business Administration. In 2019 she will start her Master’s program in Digital Business. Currently, she is working as an online marketeer and is predominantly occupied with link building and web development.

8 Reasons Why You Should Recruit Recent College Graduates

/in /by

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |College Graduates|8 Reasons Why You Should Recruit Recent College GraduatesMost companies wrongly believe that they should recruit experienced candidates only. But the truth is that a talented college graduate can become a better employee, than an applicant with ten years’ experience.

If you doubt whether recent graduate can benefit your company, read this article. Here are eight reasons, which prove that if you hire a young, ambitious candidate, you will make the right choice.

Cheap labor force

Let’s be frank. A recent college graduate doesn’t expect to get as high salary as a professional with 20 years of experience under its belt. So if your company operate on a tight budget, don’t hesitate to hire a graduate. It will save you lots of money.

The truth is that new graduates deal with a Catch-22 situation. To get a job, they need experience. And to gain at least some experience, they need to land a job. And it’s very challenging for an inexperienced applicant to break this circle.

So it’s not a surprise that some recent college graduates are ready to work almost for free. They are interested in gaining experience more than earning money. Why don’t you take advantage of it?

Benefits and perks

If you run a small business, it’s highly likely that you can’t offer such benefits as health insurance and retirement plan to your employees. But it’s not a big deal when it comes to recruiting recent graduates. Graduates will not decline your offer just because you can’t pay for dental insurance and vision care.

The trick is that most young professionals have no concerns regarding their health and retirement. If you want to win their attention, you can offer such small bonuses such as free coffee and cookies.

But keep in mind that you should always be open and honest with the applicants. Don’t try to trick the naïve college graduates. If you don’t provide insurance or other perks, just state it clearly.

Ambitious

Recent graduates are ambitious and dedicated to work. And they tend to set high career goals. They are ready to work really hard to get promoted.

As a rule, young people don’t mind to stay at the office after 6 p.m. or work on weekends. They clearly understand that their theoretical knowledge is not enough to build an outstanding career.

So they work as hard as they can to gain more experience and to present their talents in the most favorable light. They dream of being noticed.

So if you are looking for a dedicated, hardworking employee, you know what to do. Hire a recent college graduate and provide him with opportunities to gain more experience.

Learn fast

Naturally, young graduates are the most effective learners. They are able to absorb new knowledge and master new skills much faster than others.

So if you are going to implement a new training program, or incorporate new sophisticated software, you need graduates in your team. They will learn everything fast and then will pass knowledge to other team members.

Does your company operate in the industry, where it’s crucial to apply innovative solutions as soon as they appear in the market? If yes, then it’s crucially important to invite new graduates to your team. They will help your current employees to adapt to a new system.

Business trips

Are you looking for an employee, who will be able to travel a lot? You can look no further than recent graduates. As a rule, they have no kids and no family. So they are not attached to the place.

If you need someone who will never complain about having ten business trips a month, hire a graduate. You can be sure that it will be the right choice.

As you know, most young people like to travel, so they will be happy to accept your job offer. However, you should never hide information about the frequency of business trips. Also, you should be ready to answer all the questions related to travel expenses.

Educate new leaders

Most corporations like to hire recent college graduates. They also offer plenty of internship programs. Do you know why?
Big companies don’t want to attract leaders from the outside. They prefer to grow their own leaders who know the company from the inside. They need someone who will not break the existing corporate culture but keep developing it.

If you want to achieve success in the long run, you should also try to grow leadership from within your company. To hit this goal, you should recruit recent college graduates and do the following:

  • Empower new employees through mentorship
  • Delegate as many tasks as possible
  • Be patient and don’t set too high expectations. A new employee will not turn to be a perfect leader overnight
    Grab the talents

A successful company is always about the right set of employees. The more talents you have in your team, the more likely your business will be profitable in the long run.

An effective talent acquisition strategy is a must in the following situations:

  • Your company operates in the following sectors: technologies, medicine, or financial management
  • Your company faces intense competition
  • Your company is growing fast

It’s important to understand that an applicant shouldn’t be experienced to be talented. If you believe that a young graduate has great potential, recruit him without having any doubts. Otherwise, your competitors will do it instead of you.
As you know, there is always a lack of true talents. So if you miss an opportunity to hire a brilliant college student today, you will regret that later.

Creativity

College graduates are able to take a new look at old problems, which exist in your company. They can help you to find a brand new solution and optimize major business processes.

The point is that inexperienced employees tend to see everything from another angle. They are curious about everything that is happening in the company.

Graduates are like superheroes. They have a super ability to spot the issues, which you haven’t been noticing for years.

Life experience

Also, you shouldn’t forget one important thing. If a college graduate doesn’t have work experience, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have experience at all.

Let’s say your company is looking for a content marketer. One of the applicants is 23 years old girl Jessica. She has just graduated from college. Consequently, she has no working experience.

However, it’s known that she was a volunteer at found raising organization where she was responsible for managing social media accounts. Also, she had a freelance job – she was a moderator at college essay editing service reviews website.

Well, these skills and experience are not enough for taking a management job. But if you want to add “new blood” to your marketing team, Jessica will be a perfect fit.

Wrapping it up

As you can see, it’s not a bad idea to recruit college graduates. If you choose the right candidates, they will help you to take your company to the next level.

Don’t hesitate to invite young professionals to your team. Provide them with the opportunity of career growth and they will move your business up.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Daniela McVickerDaniela McVicker is a freelance writer, blogger, and a contributor to RatedByStudents. She graduated from Durham University and has an MA in psychological science. Her passion is traveling and finding ways to enrich students’ learning experience.

4 Ways to Improve Customer Care in Your Call Center

/in /by

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Care|4 Ways to Improve Customer Care in Your Call Center If you’re managing a call center, customer care is the name of the game. You’ll undoubtedly have all kinds of targets to meet, and it’s in your interests to make every call a customer care success. How can you make this a reality? Sometimes, customer care is less about focusing on the caller, and more about investing energy in your staff. Here are four ideas on how to improve customer care in your call center.

Service with a smile

Did you know that a smile can be heard on the phone? Picking up the phone with a smile on your face can make your voice sound warmer and friendlier, and encourage the caller to trust you. This all happens subconsciously, without the customer really being aware! It’s a free, easy way to build a connection instantly. With a smile, you can set up in the right way even the most challenging of calls. Train your staff on this simple trick, and you could see customer satisfaction shoot up!

Celebrate your staff

If you want your staff to smile on the phone, you’ve got to give them plenty of reasons to beam off the phone, too. Working in a call center can be energetic, fast-paced, and fun. But it can also be draining and repetitive. Not to mention the exhaustion of dealing with angry customers. Keep spirits high by celebrating your staff regularly. This is how BPOs in the Philippines motivate their employees. They recognize employees achievements monthly, quarterly, and annually, and provide perks that they can enjoy. Your celebration could be as simple as some targeted praise after a perfect call that you overhear. Or you could create a reward system, perhaps where coworkers nominate each other, or based off a leaderboard related to departmental targets.

Create a positive environment

So much of excellent customer service comes down to brilliant representatives. But even if you hire the very best representatives available, if the environment is poor, they will either leave or become disengaged. The culture of the call center should be all about support and positivity. Then these elements will feed into the service provided. Remember, the culture is often dictated by what happens at the top. Think about how senior staff communicate and how they handle challenges. The team will look to them to set the tone for the entire department, so it’s vital they set a shining example. Positivity is everything.

Get the right tools

Making use of the latest tools like Knowledge base software could really boost your call center and make customer service a breeze. Artificial intelligence applications can make life easier for representatives as well as customers. You should also invest in analytics tools which will enable you to track and record statistics relating to calls and customer experience. This can be useful for training, appraisals, and rewards.

It might be possible for some of the processes within the department to be automated completely. For example, you can use RPA tools for real-time automation. This can improve productivity and allow for proactive staff training. Saving time and boosting productivity means benefits for you and your customers. You could even take the bold move of asking your staff what tools might help them better do their job.

Conclusion

Getting call center operations right can be extremely challenging. If you wish to outsource call center services as a business, read this comparison guide first.