8 Software Platforms To Improve Productivity

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Improve Productivity|8 Software Platforms To Improve ProductivityYour business relies on maximum productivity at every level, whether it’s planning your marketing campaigns or improving your customer service. To support productivity and keep on growing what you need are the right tools.

1 . Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft is a top marketing solution, designed to help you deliver highly effective campaigns. Using Infusionsoft you can automate and improve your marketing, ensuring consistency and high levels of quality. The platform offers solutions for CRM, marketing automation and e-commerce. There are plenty of features to boost your productivity levels including sales reports, opportunity management, social sharing and inbuilt metadata. Infusionsoft also provides referral program management, and lead scoring.

2. LiquidPlanner

LiquidPlanner fuses collaboration software with amazing project management features. There are features for project managers, and separate features for marketing professionals and development teams. LiquidPlanner is adaptive depending on your needs. With this software you can take advantage of time tracking features, manage clients and resources, and create risk assessment roadmaps. Liquidplanner permits you to share data with your staff, partners and suppliers. Some of the best features of LiquidPlanner include baseline view and project analytics.

3. Zoho Cliq

Zoho Cliq provides video, voice and instant messaging options so your teams can collaborate better. With Zoho Cliq it’s possible to operate multiple channels, simultaneously. It’s simple to separate important posts from long threads with a setting called ‘fork’. You don’t need to waste time attaching files, just use the drag and drop function to transfer files via the chat window. Zoho Cliq can be integrated with Zoho Business, along with a few other useful integrations. With Zoho Cliq you can access features such as SSL encryption, task bot automation, and slash commands.

4. Periscope Data

With this powerful analytics platform you can visualize, report and analyze your data. The platform has an easy-to-use interface, complete with query tools. Using Periscope you can transform complex analysis into a simple task. The software saves you time, and improves the collection and cleansing of data. You don’t need to mess around with lots of code, Periscope makes it easy to conduct simple calculations, and arrive at insights faster.

5. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is a fantastic time tracking platform, helping you to create reports, send invoices, and track time. The software permits you to oversee scheduling and track staff activity. Hubstaff allows staff to monitor the time they are spending on various projects. With this data you’ll gain productivity insights. When you’re running a business it’s vital to make the best use of all your time, and with Hubstaff, you’ll make that task considerably easier.

6 . Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is a powerful cloud platform, offering businesses the best solutions in storage, cybersecurity, networking and more. The platform offers cloud-scale analytics, helping companies turn data into valuable insights. There are robust disaster recovery and backup features, meaning you’ll have a cost-efficient way to minimize disruption. Need a digital marketing solution? With Microsoft Azure you can create high-performing campaigns and deliver them on a mass scale. Microsoft Azure Service Providers can help you to make the most of this software. To access all of the benefits it’s important to learn how to use and manage the software.

7. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is a fantastic website optimization platform, allowing you to gain insights about customer behavior. With the heat mapping features you can see how you customers behave on your site, and which parts of your website get the most attention. Some of the great features of Crazy Egg include conversion rate optimization, A/B testing, analytics, CRM, scroll map tools and a simple set up. Converting more consumers is one of the most important end goals, and with this software you can gain the knowledge you need to improve your campaigns. Improving your user experience is the best way to convert leads.

8. Sendible

Sendible is a platform designed for social monitoring, analytics and audience engagement. Using Sendible you can track ROI from the dashboard, providing you with a clear picture of your successes. The software helps you to automate your marketing and drive leads, plus there are some great CRM tools. With Sendible you can manage clients, schedule posts, build your brand, and improve customer engagement.

Boosting productivity relies upon creating the right environment so that creativity and innovation can thrive. It can be helpful to ask your team for feedback about how to improve productivity. With the insights of your team and these powerful tools you’ll improve the efficiency of your business operations.

3 Important Tactics to Boost Morale of Healthcare Workers

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |boost morale |3 Important Tactics to Boost Morale of Healthcare WorkersThere are over 6,100 hospitals in the United States. The people who work at these hospitals are responsible for providing top-notch medical care to sick individuals regardless of what time of day it is. As time goes by, healthcare workers can get overwhelmed and overworked.

If you are the manager of a healthcare facility, one of your main concerns should be to boost morale. Learning how to boost morale at work is more complicated than you probably realize.

Are you looking for ways to keep your healthcare workers happy and motivated? If so, check out these great tips below.

1. Recognizing the Signs of Employee Burnout

Perhaps the biggest problem you will face as the manager of a healthcare facility is employee burnout. Healthcare employees work long and irregular hours, which puts them at a higher risk of getting burnt out. It is your job as a healthcare facility manager to recognize the signs of employee burnout and taking steps to prevent it.

If you see that an employee is down and always tired, take some time to speak with them. Making sure their mental health is not being affected by their stressful work environment is imperative.

Ignoring the signs of possible employee burn out can result in lots of problems. The last thing you want is for a valued employee to quit due to being overworked. This is why taking steps to prevent employee burn out is so essential.

2. Team Building Activities Are Important

The key to creating a great work environment is placing a priority on team building. If everyone works together in your healthcare facility, you can avoid issues with high employee turnover rates and out of control stress levels. Scheduling routine team building is crucial when trying to keep morale levels high.

Taking your team to volunteer in the community is a wonderful way to put things into perspective. Helping out people in need is a great way to show your team how valuable they are to the community.

You also need to schedule routine meetings to let employees vent any problems or frustrations they may be dealing with. Once you hear the problems your workers are dealing with, you need to show them you are passionate about finding solutions. Doing this will allow you to create valuable and lasting relationships with your healthcare workers.

3. Show Your Employees You See Their Hard Work

Healthcare employees work extremely hard to provide care to sick patients. As the manager of a healthcare facility, you need to work on showing your team you see their hard work. Establishing an employee recognition program can do wonders for morale levels.
Giving hard-working employees awards, cash prizes or a free lunch is imperative when trying to keep them happy. The money and time invested in these employee rewards will pay off considering the increased morale they will produce.

Working Hard to Boost Morale

As you can see, there are a number of ways to boost morale. Keeping healthcare workers loyal and productive is possible with the right approach.

Are you looking for more employee management tips? If so, check out more of the blogs on our website.

Collaboration Tools Could Save Your Business Money And Improve Morale

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Rarely does a technology come along that provides nothing but benefits. But that’s precisely what collaboration tools seem to offer. These smart apps allow colleagues to work more efficiently and become happier at the same time.

Collaboration tools have become front-page news during the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses need quality solutions they can use to keep remote colleagues connected.

What Are Collaboration Tools?

Collaboration tools are essentially anything that makes it easier for people to work as a team. They facilitate the exchange of information and offer features that allow multiple people to work on projects simultaneously, even if they occupy remote locations.

Some collaboration tools offer messaging and real-time chat facilities. Others provide colleagues with the ability to edit documents or designs in concert with other people, dramatically boosting output.

Practically every collaboration tool depends on the cloud. Most are software-as-a-service. The business pays a monthly premium for a certain number of accounts, and then colleagues enjoy the proceeds.

Collaboration tools are easy to roll out. You don’t actually need a considerable amount of in-house expertise to get them up and running. If you have an MSP, they can take care of the process for you. And if you don’t, you simply download the relevant client, and the vendor will do most of the rest of the work for you.

What Are The Benefits Of Collaboration Tools?

We’ve alluded to the benefits of collaboration tools already in the above discussion. But it’s worth reiterating them here, to make it clear.

  • Better communication. With so many workers absent from the office, communication has become a sticking point for many firms. Keeping information flowing is a big challenge and one that they’re finding increasingly difficult. Collaboration software can fully reverse this situation and improve overall data fluidity in your organization compared to your regular setup. One colleague can start a project in the morning, and then another can finish it later in the day.
  • Keep track of current versions. What’s more, you can avoid ridiculous renaming of documents, like “final version 3.” The software just updates your work in the cloud, providing everyone with the latest version, plus a history of all revisions.
  • Keep people connected. Everyone wants to feel like they’re a part of the office, even if they’re not there. They don’t want to feel like they’re part of the “out-group” and that people at HQ are somehow more important. Collaboration tools can stop this process in its track, allowing everyone to make valuable contributions to the work of the firm.

You should note that the collaboration tools also differ, depending on the underlying hardware. The difference between consumer and business Microsoft Surface devices is that the latter makes it much easier for colleagues to communicate with each other. Sharing options are better, as is the support for the collaboration tools themselves.

Collaboration tools in the cloud also allow you to cut down on the admin cost of administering your documents and systems. You no longer have to keep folders full of drafts of work, just in case you have to revert to a previous version. Instead, the cloud provides all that functionality natively. It’s almost magical.

Increase Your Profits

So what’s the effect of all of this on profitability? Quite large, as it turns out.

According to research, only around 14 percent of all emails actually have anything to do with getting work done. However, workers spend roughly half their day responding to emails, meaning that they have a massive effect on overall productivity.

Collaboration tools help to put an end to this endless back-and-forth. Colleagues know that if they want to check something, they can do it in real-time through the app, instead of sending an electronic letter to their colleagues.

Universal search facilities also help to improve the situation. If a worker is trying to find something, all they do is type a query into search. There’s no need to ask colleagues for further information.

More Security

Online collaboration tools are also incredibly secure. Servers in a secure farm somewhere hold and back up all the information. It’s never going to be perfect, but it’s much better than keeping all your data locally.

Cloud collaboration tool providers regularly scan for security threats and keep your products updated to the latest version. In general, the risks of a breach are low.

To conclude, individuals can make a big difference in your business, but teams are even more potent. If you can bring people together, your company will thrive.

Can We Make Remote Work Work Long-Term?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Remote Work|Can We Make Remote Work Work Long-Term?Lots of people who are newly working at home would like to keep it that way. In fact, a worldwide survey of 500 employees conducted by OTRS Group revealed that the vast majority of those surveyed (80 percent) enjoy working from home, even though 68 percent said working from home was new to them.

Companies are interested too. Leaders are seeing an uptick in productivity. And, in some parts of the world, new laws are even being proposed that could establish home office options as an employee right.

If this work style continues, what do leaders need to focus on to ensure long-term success? Tools and culture.

Remote IT Solutions

One tricky thing is that employees in their own home do not have onsite IT support. So if technical problems occur, a loss of productivity can quickly result without a remote help desk option.

The following will offer employees the best possible remote help desk solution:

  1. Analyze employee needs. How quickly do they need support? When can they help themselves?
  2. Define support processes and procedures. Design these in accordance with ITIL®.
  3. Evaluate help desk solutions. Find a cloud-based solution that includes notifications, multiple channels, SLAs, a self-service portal and an API for integrating with other systems.
  4. Consider security. Help desk security functions and processes should always play a major role in the selection of your system.
  5. Customize the selected solution. Now, take time to align your new system with user requirements and the previously defined processes.
  6. Provide training. When ready, have extensive communication and training for the help desk team and end users.

The ideal help desk should not only ensure that problems are solved quickly, but should also support employees in the home office so that they can efficiently use their time.

Remote Teamwork Solutions

With general technical problems handled, tools must also be implemented to support teams in communicating, planning and moving tasks between one another. The lack of this type of tool is a key concern expressed by those who have recently shifted to the home office environment.

In fact, in the referenced study, of those who had been struggling to work from home:

  • 15 percent were challenged by not knowing what their teammates were working on,
  • 14 percent had a hard time measuring team results, and
  • 13 percent had difficulty keeping track of their own tasks.

For nearly half the people, facilitating work is difficult when people aren’t routinely chatting about it in an office setting. Remote work software can be used to help add structure to communication and tasks in order to avoid these difficulties. Remote work solutions should bring together all information that teams need to get their jobs done, such as tasks, calendars, contact information, business process automation and reporting.

By using one tool to centrally manage all of these, both employees and leaders have an up-to-date, clear understanding of what the current work is, how to get it done, and when issues are creeping up.

Corporate Culture Supports Remote Employees

However, tools can’t solve all of the problems. While there are many advantages to working from home, those making the change may long for the benefits of working in a traditional office. Respondents shared that they missed seeing their colleagues and that they feel “stuck” in one place for too long.

In order for the positives of working remotely to last long-term, management teams need to think about how to counteract these losses by:

  • Encouraging conversation about change. Change is hard, so provide outlets for employees to discuss this and share what has been working well.
  • Hosting virtual offsites. Plan time for employees to come together and talk about key topics, much like you would do in a traditional offsite. Be sure to have an agenda, include breaks, keep sessions to 90 minutes and have options for socializing.
  • Creating a virtual coffee break. Give people a chance to chat about non-work topics or play games together. What could bring people together for a reason other than talking about tasks?
  • Deploying a chat tool. Offer a tool that lets people ask quick questions, share fun information or talk about personal topics. It helps promote that “around the water cooler” feeling. There are plenty of programs like Microsoft Teams that are perfect for this. It’s also a good idea to get PBX integration for Microsoft Team for more means of communication.
  • Hosting a non-work contest. For instance, give people a reason to break free of their homes by holding a fitness contest. Or, try a virtual company-wide 5k. Contests give people an outlet for being engaged socially with colleagues.
  • Defining and following processes. Processes help people know what is expected when, and reduces worry about doing the right thing. Plus, they keep work flowing smoothly when time zones make it hard for everyone to be online at the same time.

While the Corona crisis has been a challenge for businesses and employees alike, it has also opened the door to expanding remote work opportunities. The study shows significant benefits to working from home, from saving commute time to spending more time with loved ones. But to maintain the current situation, leaders should be investing in tools and creating shifts in their corporate culture to keep productivity and employee satisfaction high long-term.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Sabine RiedelSabine Riedel is a member of the Management Board of OTRS AG. With her expertise in the areas of corporate development and leadership communication, she is responsible for the development and expansion of international HR strategy and the conception and implementation of measures to implement the company-wide corporate culture.

3 not-so-obvious reasons to use employee scheduling software in your small business

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | Employee Turnover | ScheduleMakes a bigger dent than you might think

Turnover rates in the restaurant industry are among the highest in any industry. In 2017 the employee turnover rate in the US restaurant industry edged over 70%. The estimated turnover rate for front-line staff like servers and waiters came in even worse at 110%.

The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University estimated the average cost to a restaurant of a turned-over employee is $5864. This works out to employee turnover costing an average full-service restaurant $146,000 every year. In a low margin business like a restaurant this can’t afford to go unchecked.

The cost of employee turnover goes beyond the recruiting, hiring and training of a replacement. This accounts for around 50% of the total cost. The balance is made up of a host of hidden costs that accompany employee turnover that don’t necessarily show up on the balance sheet.

Let’s delve into these hidden costs and what restaurant can do to mitigate them.

Loss of Institutional Knowledge

There’s a famous saying “it takes a village to raise a child,” and this same idea applies to business.

Every time you lose an employee whether it be a waitress, server or cook, you lose important knowledge regardless of whether that employee was working for your business for a year or ten years. When an employee leaves, they take the history and knowledge they accumulated at your company with them as well.

To make matters worse, you need to pay to re-train the replacement employee, and sometimes you can’t teach all the knowledge that was lost. Although it’s difficult to measure the cost of knowledge, you can be assured that time and energy will definitely be wasted with every employee turnover.

Demoralized Staff

It should go without saying that employee turnover strikes at the heart of the morale of your entire workforce.

When an employee leaves, other employees must pick up the slack to account for this void while you search for a replacement. This creates for some unhappy people. Employees can begin to feel resentful if they are taking on more responsibilities with no pay raise or benefits. They might even start considering leaving themselves.

Thus, losing one employee could easily turn into losing a few more throughout the year. It can lead to something like a domino effect where your productivity declines long after the initial employee leaves.

The health of a company is closely tied to the employee turnover rate — so stay keen on keeping your employee morale high if turnovers ever do occur.

Distracted Management

Your assistant manager and shift manager will have to dedicate a good portion of their time to replacing lost employees. These new responsibilities could easily come at the expense of other crucial functions in your company.

Effectively, you will be paying your employees top-dollar salaries for recruiting employees when they could instead be focusing on actual business strategies and expansion. Your business suffers as its primary responsibilities are stalled while your management searches for an employee replacement.

A business usually relies on its best people to recruit new employees. However, with them now busy finding and training new employees, your entire business suffers. The ones with the best business practices and the most know-how in management will distracted looking for an employee replacement. This is always a net drain on your business.

Loss of Credibility

In an environment of excessive employee turnover, management can easily get hit with a serious loss to their credibility.

For example, if any media begins to report on losses to your employee staff, then it could easily cause a snowball effect. Bad publicity over employee turnover and management could easily cause a downward spiral you would be smart to avoid.

A loss of credibility could affect public perceptions of your business, but this could also trickle into a real decline in sales.

For example, if a lost employee affects customer satisfaction, you can begin to see serious consequences: the company will begin to lose its most important customers. With high turnovers, customers could easily get frustrated and begin to turn away from your business.

***

It should be clear now that there are plenty of hidden costs associated with employee turnover, which begs the question: What can you do to stop it?

Create an Inviting and Fulfilling Work Environment

You can lessen demoralization of your staff when an employee leaves by demonstrating that they are a crucial part of your business. This begins with your work environment and how you conduct yourself as a business. Employees will be far less likely to follow suit and leave if they feel they are respected at work. By encouraging a community environment for your staff where they feel welcome, you can retain employees and keep them loyal. Of course, how you choose to go about creating a fulfilling work environment is dependent on the ins and outs of your company. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Ask yourself: Would I want to work in this environment as an employee myself? Put yourself in the shoes of your staff and work from there. Make them feel appreciated and let them know they are important to the workings of your business.

Stay Up-to-Date on Compensation and Benefits

A business that stalls on compensating its workers is a recipe for disaster, even if it happens just once. If employees cannot be certain they’ll be paid on time, they’re more likely going to head to the door if such negligence continues.

An efficient business strategy, however, is one that keeps track of how employees are developing and their rising worth, paying them accordingly for better work. This keeps employees satisfied and makes them feel as though they are adding real value to the company (and being rewarded for it!).

Engage Your Employees

You should never siphon off your employees to one section of your business and only interact with them when discussing compensation. Don’t ever limit your employee engagement to just surveys and pay: build a culture of engagement from the top of the company all the way to the bottom.

Everyone needs to be on the same page for a business to be its most successful. If you engage with your employees beyond just what’s absolutely necessary, you’ll be more in tune with the work they’re producing — and your employees will be definitely be appreciative of it.

With these helpful words of advice, you can start limiting the chances of employee turnover and create a vibrant, productive work environment for your business. All of this begins with recognizing your employees as crucial to your business. So, try cultivating a work culture of generosity and gratitude in your own business: you’ll be surprised how far it goes in retaining a productive workforce.