Everybody desires to work in a protected and safe environment, making workplace safety a priority. In the US, 5,250 people died from work-related injuries, but the figure is expected to reduce by the close of 2020 due to the pandemic. This is why employees and employers are expected to take precautionary steps to ensure safety at the workplace – as everybody benefits from workplace safety. How have you created a thorough safety protocol for your employees? Here are some reasons why you should.
1. To limit a resurgence of the pandemic
Across the world, there has been a worry of a possible resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is why employers should ensure that they do their part in preventing such an occurrence from happening. Ensure that your employees follow the safety protocols highlighted by WHO. Be sure that employees showing symptoms of the virus are isolated from a healthier workforce. In doing so, you can play a part in limiting an insurgence.
2. Statutory office inspections by government health officials
Formal office inspections are carried out in different ways, depending on your form of business. They range from safety tours to samplings, surveys, and incident inspections. The first deals with the general inspection of your office. Safety sampling is a systematic approach to specific risky activities or workplace areas. A survey is similar to safety sampling; however, it focuses on a general overview of dangerous processes and activities.
An incident inspection is only carried out by health and safety authorities after a workplace accident, injury, or death. In some instances, it may be required when an employee reports a case of ill health to the enforcing authority, based on negligent office processes. These checks are increasing this year, and you do not want to be in any trouble.
3. To reduce liabilities
A safe work environment would prevent you from being held liable for injuries or other health wrongs. For example, Walmart got sued for a wrongful death lawsuit when two of its employees contracted the virus and died from complications. Every step necessary must be taken to prioritize health and safety so as to prevent such lawsuits. For example, if you work in an office with long-standing water pipe issues, you should seek services such as Water Mitigation from HL Restoration to resolve these problems and avoid getting sued for putting staff at risk. No company wishes to be slapped with such a suit.
4. Continually changing data
Data on the Coronavirus disease changes every day, putting more burden on research and safety professionals. As scientists learn more about COVID-19, businesses become better equipped to handle the crises and its ripple effect on operations. With a second wave threatening the United States, it is quite challenging for companies to forecast correctly. As a result, they need to be extra careful while adhering to all protocols set out by the WHO and CDC.
The world is moving into new trajectories, especially concerning health and safety. Follow these tips to ensure that your company is not left behind.
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When you’re in business, you’re in competition with a great many people. They might be working in the same industry as you, in the same sector, even in the same niche, and they will all be looking for the same customers. In order to be the one who secures those customers and makes the all-important sales, you need to set yourself up with a real competitive advantage. This is not as difficult as it sounds, although it will require planning. Once you have something in place, you’ll start to see the difference right away. Here are some of the ways it can be done so you can get started as soon as possible; the old adage about time being money holds true in business if nowhere else.
Good Marketing
Good marketing is going to be vital to your business no matter how big it grows or how much of an expert you can prove you are. If you sit back and do nothing, relying solely on your reputation to give you customers, sooner or later someone will overtake you, and they will be the experts, not you, taking your customers.
Good marketing relies on two things. Firstly, you need to market to the right people. Secondly, you need to convert as many prospects into customers as possible. In other words, it’s no good just having people visit your store or website if they don’t actually buy anything.
The first point will come from good market research. The more in-depth you can go, the better. You can then make your advertisements tailored exactly to the people who are most likely to buy from you. This will help with conversions, but it is also a good idea to hire a conversion rate optimisation agency. With their help, you can ensure you have all the right tools in place to persuade as many people to buy from you as possible.
Become the Expert
It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to find customers and prospects. It would be far better if they would come to you rather than you having to go out and find them. This would put you at a great advantage over your competitors, so it’s something you’ll need to plan for and put into action.
One way to ensure people come to you rather than someone else is to prove that you’re the expert in your field. Being the leading authority in whatever niche it is your business works in means that, once you have established yourself, your name – or your business name – will be the one that first comes to mind when potential customers are looking for your product or service. When you’re in this position, you will still need to search for customers, so your marketing is still crucial, but you will also have a steady stream of customers coming to you.
So how can you be the expert? There are a number of ways including:
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Just when the unemployment numbers were looking pretty good, along came the COVID pandemic. The result: millions of people are out of work, trying to make ends meet and wondering how they’re going to land their next professional role.
To make matters worse is with so many people out of work, landing your next job just became that much more difficult because the competition is fierce. Even those applicants who are highly qualified are struggling in their quest to land that new position.
The good news, however, is there are things you can to do help yourself standout. There are many characteristics that hiring managers look for in candidates that go way beyond your qualifications.
Here are six things to remember.
They don’t expect you to be perfect
Think about the last time you went on a job interview. You probably spent hours picking out the perfect outfit, preparing the perfect answers and put together the perfect looking resume. Hiring managers do expect a lot of things, but contrary to popular belief, one thing they do not expect is perfection. In fact, one typo on your cover letter, taking a little longer to respond to a question or other little imperfections shows them that you are human.
They are looking for someone with high EQ (Emotional Intelligence)
Being smart in the traditional sense is all well and good, but how do you interact with customers and colleagues? Do you think before you speak? Are you empathetic toward others? Do you make your point known or go with the crowd? EQ has become the new IQ and it is here to stay.
The most important skill they want you to have is being a problem solver
There are going to be many candidates who are just as qualified as you. The most important skill hiring managers look for is what you do when things go wrong and the pressure is on. Will you have a meltdown or be able to think of a potential solution with the resources available to you? Be ready for the question: Tell me about a time when things didn’t go according to plan and how you solved the problem.
It’s not what you say but how you say it
There will be many candidates who are well-qualified for the position. One characteristic that hiring managers look for is presentation skills. In other words, do you speak with confidence? Are you passionate? Do you offer personal experiences and stories to back up your point? Are you persuasive? Do you make and keep eye contact? How you speak is just as important as what you say.
They expect you to have some knowledge about the company
Do yourself a favor before you go on any job interview: learn a little about the company. You can be the most qualified candidate in the room, but if you show up and don’t know anything about the company, it shows that you are unprepared and leaves hiring mangers wondering just what kind of work ethic you really have. Familiarize yourself with the background of the company, what the current market is like, who the key people are and who are the company’s biggest competitors.
They expect you to send a thank you note
Sending a thank you note after your interview is always a good tactic. This must be done within 24 hours of your interview. It shows the recruiter that you appreciate the time he or she took to conduct the interview, and it also shows a lot about your character. It reveals how you may interact with clients and colleagues.
The takeaway
The job market is very competitive right now and candidates have to do everything in their power to land their next role. This means paying attention to the finer details and honing in on what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for. It also means really focusing in on your people skills. To be the next hire, you have to be the total package.
About the Author
Angela Civitella is a business leadership coach. She is founder of Intinde. www.intinde.com
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Schools from pre-schools to universities have turned into online tutoring as most of the interactions have become virtual due to the COVD-19 pandemic. With this shift, online tutoring has increasingly become more common and important.
Moreover, students seeking guidance from online tutoring are becoming increasing worldwide due to the convenience and flexibility offered by online education. As the current spike in online education isn’t going to change anytime soon, it has become the new norm. For the same reason, many online tutors are trying to establish their presence in the online tutoring market.
This blog is a guide to get started and work your way into building an extremely lucrative career in online tutoring and excel as a professional online tutor.
Tips to become a successful online tutor
To become a successful online teaching brand, having valid expertise as an educator is not just enough. You have to be present in the online class and invest your valuable time in communicating with your students and take efforts to make your classes efficient and engaging. Here are some of the tips to become a successful online tutor.
Be available for your students
When running online tutoring classes, understand what your students want to learn and allocate sufficient time to pay attention to them. Pre-announce your class schedules and make sure you are present in the class at least sometime before.
Never make the mistake of communicating with your students through messaging only as this could result in less engagement. Most learners require more intimate support as they need to see and hear from their teacher directly to be truly interested in a subject area.
Conduct regular review sessions so that you can collaborate with your students efficiently and see how their learning curve shapes up.
Implement fun learning
The best online tutors don’t just stick to a particular strategy when taking classes. Instead, they constantly experiment with different strategies to make the learning experience fresh and fun.
Constantly encourage your students to take up new assignments, write blogs about the topics they are learning, participate in different activities so that the learning experience becomes engaging for them. Even the most disciplined students need a change to stay motivated when attending your online classes.
Encourage critical thinking
Education is not confined to learning facts, it must encourage learners to share opinions, analyze ideas, and take steps to implement theoretical knowledge to solve particular problems. A good online teacher not only helps their students to pass an assignment, but also encourages them to be responsible citizens who can make a change in the world.
Allow students to learn at their own pace
Each student has their own learning style and speed when it comes to learning anything. Some learners might take a short time to grasp a subject, whereas others might take a long time. Some students enjoy social interaction, whereas others prefer to participate indirectly.
It is important to communicate with students who are not interactive in classes as well. These students might be leaning fine, but they might need a bit of support from your side to progress. Keep track of their progress by setting regular assignments to make sure they stay top of the learning process.
Make learning personal
As already said, each student has different learning interests and styles. To cater to your online classes to suit the individual needs of your students, try to understand your students and their requirements.
Some students like to learn through interactive activities, whereas, some are reflective learners who like to read through the learning materials and process it. Good online tutors would offer online classes according to the learning style of each student by deciding what approach to follow in each scenario.
Keep your video tutorials short
If you are offering video tutorials to your students, make sure you keep your videos short instead of delivering long lectures. Videos no longer than 15 minutes can cause distractions and slow downloading.
If you have to include a lot of points about the same subject, consider recording two or more short videos. Also, be precise when crafting the content on your videos, never drag the topic.
Craft great presentations and learning materials
Educators must be aware of how poor presentations can affect the reputation of their online classes negatively. Use online tools that are present in your online tutoring website to create engaging presentations that will not only add a professional look to your classes but also helps in advancing the pace of learning among your students.
To facilitate the same, use professional virtual tutoring software that features essential features and functionalities to create professional-looking and functional learning resources.
For example, you can use a software like Pinlearn that is blended with the tons of the best features that allow you to create an online tutoring brand. Make sure you use modern technology to grow your online tutoring brand in a way it makes the learning process convenient and efficient for your students.
Provide interactive learning activities
Most online tutoring platforms feature a wide range of functionalities to create engaging learning activities like assignments, quizzes, and puzzles.
Along with creating interactive activities for your students, provide step-step guidance to your learners on how to complete them successfully. Creating engaging activities for your student will help to foster their academic and creative skills.
Set reasonable expectations
When you create assignments and learning activities for your students, make sure you set reasonable expectations. Ensure that all the assignments can be successfully completed by your students by referring to the given learning materials.
Also, ask your students to write a summary of your video classes. These kinds of small tasks will help to bring the best responses and results from your learners.
Leverage group communication carefully
Group collaborations should not be used for general teaching sessions regularly. Use group communication carefully. Use group classes to offer support to your students and to check if there are any issues that need to be addressed.
These sessions can also be great to collect learner feedback on your online classes and teaching style as well. You can either make group classes mandatory or optional according to the interest and requirements of your students.
Conclusion
Online education has grown leaps and bounds since its inception. These days’ educators are looking for how to create an online course and take their business forward. Students across the world are looking for online teachers who can deliver personalized learning experiences to suit the personal learning objectives and learning styles of students.
For becoming a successful online tutor, you must be able to customize your classes by adapting to the strengths and weaknesses of learners along with delivering classes to the learner’s medium of interest.
Following the above-discussed tips will help you evolve as a successful online tutor. Hope this blog has helped to gain some significant insights on growing your online tutoring brand. Please share your valuable feedback as comments below. We would like to hear from you.
About the Author
Kathy Alameda works as leading expert on building and implementing learning strategies. She has led learning & performance improvement projects form last few years. Currently marketing consultant at https://www.pinlearn.com/
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In business, most pertinent is to sell off goods and effectively market services as quickly as they are available on the market.
Some services and businesses offer perishable goods that can expire on the shelves. However, it’s different for the hospitality industry. While it is almost as though the services that hospitality businesses offer can never expire, this simply isn’t true.
There are periods where the usefulness of a service runs out as long as it remains unused. In the hospitality industry, services and products are only useful when utilized and, of course, paid for. Plane tickets, train tickets, hotel rooms, etc., are only useful if people pay for and use them.
However, these services’ market demand is not fixed and can go for long periods with minimal requests. The fixed prices of these services do not allow the business to make up for the losses incurred on days where demand is deficient.
To remedy this situation in the hospitality industry, a new pricing strategy was developed; the Yield Management strategy.
A simple answer will be that Yield Management is a pricing strategy developed for the hospitality, air travel, tourism, and related industries that helps to produce maximum returns from their services. However, that may be an answer that barely scratches the surface.
Yield management runs mostly on the tilt of the supply and demand of the market. When the demand exceeds supply, the prices increase, and when the supply exceeds the demand, it drops. It first began from the air travel industry.
Have you ever tried to book a flight at the last minute and found that the price of the ticket is now jaw-droppingly higher than it was a few days ago when you procrastinated on concluding your booking? You most likely have been affected by yield management.
Many passengers aboard the same plane are most likely not paying the exact fare for the flight. Many took advantage of some unique early-bird discounts and other special pricing plans offered to passengers for booking early.
Unfortunately, a few people would still have to pay higher than those who booked early flights.
Yield management involves strategically editing prices of goods and services in the hospitality industry to match with the right customer in varying instances of demand and supply.
This works in such a way that businesses can balance their lost revenue by tweaking their prices when demand is less than supply and vice versa.
Factors that may help to influence yield management
One factor that influences yield management is the weather. For example, you would find that Uber prices get spiked when it’s raining because everybody is looking to be dry and safe in a vehicle and still get to their destinations.
Paying a little bit extra for this service that would ease their inconvenience at that moment would seem insignificant. The time of the year is also another critical decision-influencer when it comes to the prices of many services in the hospitality industry.
During Christmas, passengers are willing to pay exorbitant prices as long as it guarantees that they would get home to celebrate festivities with their families. Another one is the level of demand.
Tell people that only two available planes are willing to take them out of a virus-ridden town and watch flight tickets get sold out in minutes, no matter the price cap.
Competitors can also create a distortion in the level of demand for a product or service. Is there a new company on the block offering similar services like yours? Depending on the glitz and affordability attached to that new company, yours might suffer a drop.
With yield management, you can rectify the situation and show the new kid on the block who’s the boss. In a nutshell, yield management offers different clients different prices for the same product at different times based on varying factors to maximize business returns.
How do you implement yield management in hospitality businesses?
Find an equilibrium price zone where you can maximize your revenue
Yield Management has a very streamlined focus and approach to profit-making in business. It ensures that you get the best possible revenue or returns by critically analyzing your volume of sales and selling price.
In the hospitality industry, businesses use this demand-forecasting technique to determine how to offer prices to their customers and still make the highest profit possible. Many companies offer the highest prices to customers and examine how many clients are still able to book for their services despite that high price.
If they find that the demand for the service drops below the supply, they modify the price again to accommodate more customers who can afford the new, reduced price.
To be a great yield manager, finding an equilibrium price zone where you can maximize your revenue is key. Once you’re able to get this equilibrium price, your business is already working at its max capacity.
The best way to do demand-forecasting is not by guesstimating but doing thorough research from existing data and trends gathered from customer behavior and purchase patterns. Using historical data to calculate how much price should vary to accommodate fluctuating demand should be your go-to strategy.
It helps to effectively predict and make demand-forecasts so that you can strike a balance between the availability of your product/service and the price.
For hotel managers, cab hire services, tourist agencies, etc., being able to manage your yield effectively can not be overemphasized. It has so many benefits for your business that boosts revenue significantly.
Let’s examine a few of them below:
1. Flexibility of pricing
Yield management boasts of a flexible nature, and this affects both customers and the business positively. Suppose there’s a drop in demand for any product or service, with accurate yield management, the company can modify its rates to an equilibrium price to accommodate more bookings or orders.
This way, you can serve more clients and bring in revenue at the same time. Offering discounted rates or double-service in one package at a slightly reduced price can be an effective way to entice your customers back.
While you may not make as much as you would during a busy period, you’re able to make some revenue, unlike when there are no bookings at all. You also manage to satisfy your clients who may feel like they got a great package at lesser rates. It’s a win for both ends.
2. Improved seasonal pricing
This is also an offshoot of the flexibility of this concept.
Because customers are willing to do anything for some particular services in some peculiar seasons, a hike in price during these periods will not affect demand, such as high costs of flight tickets and hotel rates during the rush-hour Christmas season.
In this period, where the business is in high demand, you can make more revenue than when there was lesser demand for the service. Customers can also receive the services they need, howbeit that they have to pay slightly higher for it.
3. Enhanced forecasting skills
WIth accurate historical data analysis and customer purchasing patterns, your business is able to accurately demand-forecast. This way, you learn to know how to better prepare for times where business may not function at a high.
By using automatic forecasting strategies and techniques to keep track of the different parameters or factors that affect demand, you are able to make more accurate predictions. Tracking these parameters by hand may lead to errors or inaccurate data.
You would find useful cloud solution software like Bedvine.com to help you monitor a wide range of these factors simultaneously for the best results.
4. Enhanced coordination among sales channels and the customer relations team
With accurate yield management, there becomes uniformity across board, from the front desk to the prices on the different sales channels. There’s no case of one price from the customer relations team and a different one at the website or on the travel advisory.
You’re also able to make planned and coordinated responses about prices when guests or clients call to place reservations or inquire about bookings. It helps to plan ahead to determine when there will be discounted prices or not and how much discounts to take off the prices.
Conclusion
It’s easy to make losses in the hospitality industry, and it’s also easy to make gains. When you realize that it’s impossible to run at the same demand level throughout the year, the need for a middle ground becomes essential.
Yield management serves as an in-between for customers and businesses where you try to create a balance between demand and supply.
The goal is to make a maximum profit in business while also satisfying your customers by offering a reasonable price in exchange for your services as the market demands.
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