Is Your Onboarding Process Up To Scratch?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Onboarding Process|Is Your Onboarding Process Up To Scratch?The happiness of your staff is important, and making sure that they feel settled, happy and valued from day one is a must for your business.

The onboarding process for new starters is something that can affect your turnover and many other elements – get it right, and employees will say great things about your business. Get it wrong, however, and you’ll not only affect that particular employee’s experience, but it could also lead to negative word of mouth what will deter future candidates from applying to your company.

Is your onboarding process up to scratch? Perhaps it’s time to reconsider ready for your next new starter.

Why the onboarding process matters

While most people have suffered from a poor onboarding process at some point in their career, it isn’t something that has to happen. A study on the state of the American workplace revealed that 70% of workers did not feel engaged at work, a statistic that should cause concern for most business. When employees feel disengaged, they’re likely to feel undervalued and unsatisfied with their roles, and more likely to accept a position elsewhere. Feeling engaged from the outset is important for new starters, and will help to make sure that they start their new role feeling confident that they know their place and are receiving effective management.

Onboarding begins before the first day

While an employee doesn’t technically work for you until their first day, there are some things you can do to help make the process easier in advance of their start date. An invitation to a welcome lunch is a great way to ease a new starter in and allows them to get to know some key people before they start work. You can also provide them with some literature that will help them get to understand the company a bit better and help them feel more prepared for their first day. It’s quite rare for companies to carry out any early onboarding, so your business can get ahead of the curve by making a part of your process going forward.

Making that first day a success

Effective onboarding will make sure your new employee is left wowed rather than worried. You can make a new starter’s first day a success by making sure they’ve got a prepared itinerary that includes a tour, meet and greets, and a nice social event like a team breakfast or lunch, you’ll already be getting their day off to a great start. Speak to your current employees about things that would’ve made their first say better and try to implement their comments as much as you can.

Help them settle in

There’s nothing worse than being sat in a new office with nothing to do. New employees left to their own devices can feel nervous and disheartened – they’re there to work after all! Giving your new starter some tasks to get on with can help them start to settle and get to grips with their new role. Put together an onboarding checklist that includes some small, manageable tasks to help keep your new recruit busy while also getting a feel of the office. This can help them prepare for their role and ensures they get the opportunity to ask questions along the way.

Touch base regularly

The first few days and weeks of a new job can be a lot to take in for a new starter. While they might be showing a smile on the outside, things might not be so rosy on the inside. It’s important that you meet with your new employee regularly to find out how they’re getting on and how things can be improved. Many businesses are using onboarding surveys as a way to get authentic feedback about the onboarding process and can help improve things going forward. New employees will form their impressions of an employer quickly, so you’ll want to do everything you can to make that first impression a great one.

If you’re looking to recruit the highest quality staff for your business, you need to nail your onboarding process. By engaging employees from the moment they set foot in your door, you stand a better chance of establishing company loyalty and making your staff feel welcomed and valued. New starters can breathe fresh life into your business, but that will soon disappear if you don’t give them the welcome they deserve. Work on your onboarding process and help boost the reputation of your business as a top employer.

Smart Ways To Enhance the Efficiency of Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Business efficiency|Smart Ways To Enhance the Efficiency of Your BusinessEvery entrepreneur and business manager is constantly working to improve the efficiency of their business. Business efficiency entails maximizing your outputs from your input and making the most out of your resources.

Failure to notice stagnation or regression in your business can ultimately lead to a decrease in profits or the eventual closure of your business. It is, therefore, essential to apply smart tactics to improve the efficiency of your business. They include the following;

Delegate Duties

While delegating duties might seem obvious for business owners, it is often quite difficult to practice. Many entrepreneurs hold their business close to their heart, and they prefer to have a direct hand in everything involved with it. While prioritizing the quality of your products or services is quite okay, checking on every small detail rather than delegating can lead to wastage of everyone’s valuable time.

Instead, consider delegating responsibilities to the most qualified employees and entrust them with performing the task well. Doing this gives your employees the chance to learn new skills and gain leadership experience, which are ultimate benefits for your company.

Assign Tasks According to Skills

Knowing the behavioral styles and skills of your employees is vital for maximizing efficiency. For instance, a creative and extroverted person who thinks out of the box will probably be the best at pitching proposals to potential clients. However, they may not show the same excellence when it comes to a more detail-oriented and rule-intensive task.

Efficiency doesn’t call for expecting your employees to be great at everything. Instead, it requires that you determine that an employee is suited to perform a specific task before you assign it to them. If they cannot perform the task as expected, it means you might have to find someone else whose styles and skills match your needs.

Outsource Intelligently

Intelligent outsourcing can make your business run efficiently without alienating your employees and customers. The best way to do this is by outsourcing the non-core activities of your business. For instance, you can find a company specializing in human resource management and payroll or outsource for QuickBooks bookkeeping services if no one in your team is savvy with accounting.

Outsourcing also allows you to focus on the core activities that make up your business. You can also put the money you saved up from outsourcing into marketing, innovation, and any other aspects that are vital for the smooth running of your business. It also allows you to focus your attention exactly where it belongs and see a quick boost in the productivity and efficiency of your business.

Automate

While some entrepreneurs are reluctant about automating their business, it is also likely that their businesses are incredibly inefficient. Technology is a vital tool for improving the efficiency of your business, and you should consider incorporating it as soon as possible if you haven’t already done it.

Automation doesn’t mean that you have to replace your employees with robots and software. It only requires that you incorporate such technology to increase the efficiency of your workforce. You can also use software to host meetings, which saves a lot of time and money used for travel to the meeting venue.

Incentivize Your Employees

One of the best ways to encourage your employees to continue performing exceptionally is by giving them a reason to do so. You can achieve this by recognizing them whenever they do a good job, making them feel appreciated, therefore increasing their productivity.

Ensure that you take every individual’s preferences and needs when rewarding your employees. In addition to simple words of gratitude and appreciation, you can give them incentives like a handwritten note, taking them out for a meal, or implementing a workplace wellness program.

Make Communication Easy

Miscommunication or the lack of communication is another aspect of inefficiency. While a meeting can sometimes solve this problem quite easily, they are difficult to schedule, and you may end up wasting a lot of time.

Fortunately, all the available technology makes it easy to have streamlined communication at all times. Whether you opt to utilize a fast-paced chat system software or easy face-to-face conversation via webcam, you can ensure that your employees get the relevant information as fast as possible. Effective communication can also sidestep confusion and ensure that your employees can get to work and improve the productivity of your business.

While selecting the tactics that will help improve your business’s efficiency, you must first identify the issues present and then work to determine their solution. You should also keep in mind that working for your business efficiency is a continuous process that requires you to continually find loopholes and work towards implementing an effective solution.

Four Best Practices for Managing a Remote Workforce

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Remote Workforce|Four Best Practices for Managing a Remote WorkforceIf it hasn’t happened yet, it’s bound to come soon — your employee wants to transition to working remotely full-time. Maybe you’ve had to experiment with remote working in the last year like much of the world or perhaps your team members have friends or family members that have discovered how great remote work can be for quality of life and now they want their own shot at making it work.

Before you write off the idea completely, it’s important to consider the benefits of offering remote work to your employees. From helping with recruitment to reducing expenses, offering flexibility in work location can be a great alternative to a traditional office for the right employee. It takes planning, great communication, and a little creative thinking but it’s an idea worth considering.

Before you dive in to offering remote work as an option for your team, here are four best practices to consider.

Set clear expectations from the start

As with any new working arrangement, setting clear expectations is mandatory. By communicating what you expect from the beginning, you dramatically reduce the chance of conflict and disappointment later. Take the time to set clear boundaries around business hours, attendance policies for team meetings, and technology requirements (like keeping video on for calls) and in the end, both the employee and the business will benefit.

Keep remote employees engaged

It can be difficult to manage both in-person and remote team members simultaneously. Take a moment to check in with remote employees daily, either through email, virtual chat, a video call, or text and let them know they are valued. If the “out of sight, out of mind” approach is taken, employee performance and motivation can suffer and lead to unwanted turnover.

Take advantage of remote resources

Some positions are more easily adapted to remote work than others. For example, an analyst or researcher who spends a great deal of time behind a computer is more likely to adapt to a remote-working arrangement than a receptionist or assistant who answers calls and serves other team members throughout the day. However, this doesn’t mean those employees don’t deserve a shot at working from home, too! If your business requires someone to frequently answer incoming calls and yet you also want to offer a remote working arrangement, call answering makes good sense. By taking advantage of resources designed to help businesses adapt to having a remote workforce, you’re more likely to see the benefits of virtual working like having more productive employees and cutting costs on in-office expenses.

Get creative with the technology

It’s easy to fall into a rut of using Zoom or Google Hangouts to conduct yet another video conference call or relying on email to answer the latest questions about a report or project. Instead of risking employee burnout by holding every meeting via Zoom, consider getting creative in your approach. Ask everyone to take the afternoon meeting call outside and turn their cameras around so team members can virtually enjoy some new scenery. Send a fun “get to know you” poll via instant messaging on Fridays and ask team members to participate in sharing their favorite recent book or tv show. By demonstrating that technology can be used creatively, employees can see their remote-working circumstances as a valuable benefit and become more grateful in the process.

Remote working is likely here to stay so by using some of these best practices, you’re more likely to benefit from the “new normal” and might even end up enjoying it!

This Is How Effective Managers Always Get The Best From Their Employees

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Effective Managers|This Is How Effective Managers Always Get The Best From Their EmployeesThere are many resources that a manager must effectively maximize for the success of their business, but by far the most vital and often the most tricky is the resource that is their employees. Fortunately, you can get some insight on how effective managers deal with this aspect of business in the post below.

Behave in a clear and consistent way

Effective managers understand that they need to lead from the front. That means they need to set the tone when it comes to work-appropriate behavior and attitude. Central to this is their ability to act consistently and communicate clearly.

Clear communication is crucial because, without it, employees can become confused as to what is expected of them. Consistent behavior on the other hand is so important because it helps to define the boundaries for the team that is working under you, as well as ensures they feel safe to get on with their tasks to the best of their abilities.

Encourage teamwork

Great managers are adept at encouraging their team to work together and become a sum more than their parts. However, depending on the team you have, such an achievement requires a range of skills and strategies including active listening, being able to tap into the intrinsic motivation of others, as well as being able to step back from a project and allow your employees the agency and responsibility they need to be able to succeed.

Another vital part of encouraging effective teamwork as a manager is being receptive to the input of everyone on your team. Indeed there are so many insights to be revealed from hearing what everyone from your 2nd in command to the front line workers have to say.

Match their solution to the problem at hand

You will find reams of advice online on how managers should deal with any problems that arise. However, what separates a good manager from a great one is that they always consider the unique factors of each issue they come across. This means they never apply a stock or one-size-fits-all patch to an issue, but instead craft one that is specifically designed for the issue in hand.

Of course, there will be a time when they will need the input and advice of others to help them do this. That is why great managers always consult with their team and even seek the advice of business management experts like Colby Wegman from time to time. After all, if you can find someone that has been through a similar situation, they may be able to provide some unique insight that you may not have considered.

Praise in public and criticize in private

Finally, the best managers get so much from their teams because they tend to criticize in private and praise in public. Indeed, public praise can serve to motivate not only the individuals involved but the entire team.

Criticism on the other hand needs to always be constructive. That includes things to work on rather than being personal. Also by going through this process in private managers can help to retain the individual morale and so ensure maximum productivity.

Remote Work Is Here To Stay, Let’s Make The Most Of It

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Remote Work|Remote Work Is Here To Stay, Let's Make The Most Of ItWe need not discuss how the last year has had a massive impact on your business and what measures you likely put in place to secure your survival – you know that story only too well. Of course, it’s true to say that something as increasingly turbulent as the last year will have its effects, some of them bad, and perhaps a few of them good.

For those businesses who have survived, lessons have been learned from the experience. This begs the question of what practices we should keep after life returns to normal, and how we can begin to make use of a market so radically changed by the norms that have shifted.

One of these considerations is of course that of remote work, and its impact on industries far and wide. In fact, understanding this can help us more readily focus on solutions and practices that work from now into the future, what that means, and how we might retain the benefits of these conveniences from now on. Remote work is clearly here to stay in some capacity – let’s try and make the most of it.

Remote Event Planning & Delivery

Remote event planning and delivery is a natural follow up to how events have been scheduled in the past year. That said, using an event registration website, even public events such as press releases, discussions, online keynotes and more can be held and attended. This means that no matter what your strategy is, you always have a remote alternative that can be used either for convenience, to expand your online reach in an online world, or as a backup you may wish to utilize when necessary.

Communication Tools

Communication tools are worth keeping around, as is quite clear, but especially in the hyper-accessible format, we have come to expect. For instance, renewing our consolidation of team communications in apps like Slack, or making sure that remote software is installed to ensure virtual meetings can take place at short notice can really help when trying to get back on your feet, and even when trying to be more productive from now into the future. Other firms will surely not alleviate the conveniences they have been grateful to use over the last year – why should you feel obliged to?

Utilizing Devices

It’s important to consider how investing in our staff can help them be the best employees they can be. Investing in granting them devices with pre-installed security software and workflow utilities can ensure everyone is on the same page, or at least offering a support scheme to help every staff member get up to standard when working from home can prevent issues like poor webcam or microphone quality in group meetings, and so on. Remember, if you’re going to remote work, it’s best to do so in a manner that speaks to the quality and values serving as the backdrop of your staff management.

With this advice, we hope you can make the most of remote work, as it does seem like its here to stay.