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Make Your Workplace More Hybrid Friendly For 2022

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | Make Your Workplace More Hybrid Friendly For 2022Let’s set the scene.

After spending months on end working at home throughout the various lockdowns, your employees might finally be coming back into the office with a different mindset. The pandemic has ushered in a change to workplace expectations and, predominantly, a successful transition towards remote working.

Looking ahead to 2022, employees are keen to carry on their work in a more flexible manner, dividing their working week between spending time at home and in the office.

At first, you – as their employer – think this is a great idea, getting staff back inside and gradually reintroducing them into office life. But then, over time, you start to notice difficulties and issues starting to arise with this remote hybrid working setup.

You question what you can do to resolve it and start to grow increasingly concerned at how much it will cost – both financially and morally – to set up the hybrid working arrangement your office requires.

You turn to the web for answers and it is that which brings you here. Well, we have some good news – we are here to help.

Hello hybrid working

If the above situation sounds familiar, don’t worry.

From making a few technological upgrades here and there to simply learning to trust your hybrid staff, there are a number of ways you can create a workplace that is as hybrid-friendly as possible.

Listed below are just a few ideas to get you started:

1. Consider investing in training

Hybrid working is still a new concept to a lot of employers so there is no shame in consulting an expert for their help.

Rather than you going for a gung-ho, trial-and-error type approach, hybrid management training coursesare designed to provide you with all the skills you need to not only firmly understand what hybrid working is but, more importantly, how to prioritise your affiliated workers.

Plus, with the world of work looking like it’s heading towards remote working for the long term, investing early could be a great port of call, allowing you to stay ahead of the competition, attract better employees and establish a much sounder workplace environment.

2. Prioritise communication

When the coronavirus pandemic first struck, many business owners and managers scrambled to find new ways of effectively communicating important information both internally and externally.

Whether it be via Slack, email, Zoom calls or some other form of messaging service, it’s important to continue to share information in this way so that nobody – especially your hybrid workers – feel like they’re being excluded.

If anything, you should try to over-communicate at every opportunity and make every effort to maintain online meetings as you normally would have. That way, you will help ensure all of your workers receive the information at the same time, creating a much more spirited working atmosphere.

3. Re-consider your benefits package

For hybrid workers, many of the perks of working in the office are often missed out on. So, from cakes in the canteen to in-house gym memberships, whatever your current benefits package may be, it could be worth revising it to make it more appealing to hybrid workers.

Say, for example, you have employees on your books who work miles away from the office and would struggle to commute in and out on a regular basis. By subsidising a gym membership cost in their local area instead, or providing them with the opportunity to come to you with their ideas, this could make a big difference to both their happiness in the role and their level of productivity.

4. Consider the mental health ramifications

Working remotely can be a challenging experience, especially for the more extroverted of your employees. Therefore, it’s important to normalise discussions around how hybrid working feels, providing your employees with a platform to open up and, ultimately, manage their mental health.

Whether it be through setting up a virtual meditation room, a social hangout space or simply hosting regular one-to-one meetings with your staff, the more you can do to demonstrate to your hybrid workers that they’re in your mind as much as your in-office workers, the harder they are likely to work as a result.

5. Collaborate and keep everyone online

The foundation of any successful hybrid working team is having consistent collaboration between employees. Without it, staff can quickly start to feel undervalued and seek fresh opportunities where they will be more appreciated.

Therefore, to prevent this from happening in your workplace, make sure to always keep your hybrid workers in your way of thinking, always listening to their ideas even when they can’t attend the in-office meetings.

What’s more, to encourage this concept of sharing ideas even further, make sure everyone is always online and visible at the same time as one another.

Just because your in-office workers will have their colleagues to interact in person with, hybrid workers may feel a little left out in the cold without having the opportunity to freely communicate with their fellow colleagues online.

Future workplace trends

The coronavirus pandemic has forever changed the world of work, not only leading to questions over whether the traditional five day working week is still viable but also steamrolling the transition towards remote and hybrid working.

While it still seems very much a new workplace trend, looking ahead to 2022 and beyond, hybrid working appears to be here to stay. Therefore, the more you can do to ensure your office is set up correctly and your staff’s needs are met, the more productive and hybrid-friendly your business will be in the future.

4 Ways Modern Technology Is Improving ID Verification

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | 4 Ways Modern Technology Is Improving ID Verification

The world has gone digital, and most interactions are done online. However, this has led to increased cybercrime and identity theft, which is why you need a fast and effective method to authenticate that you are dealing with the right person. Identity verification prevents money laundering and fraud, improves customers’ experience, and helps you avoid legal implications and paying hefty fines. Modern technology has improved ID verification from manual to automated processes, making authenticating identities more straightforward. Read on for four ways modern technology is enhancing ID verification.

Machine learning for ID proofing

Machine learning has improved how companies process information by automating the analytical model that backs decision-making and data analysis. The machine learning tool can be used during ID scanning to enhance accuracy when determining the authenticity of specific identity cards.

One of the major problems machine learning has helped companies resolve is the ease of authenticating worn-out identity cards. It also improves the accuracy of scanning documents under poor or low lighting conditions. Initially, a company could dismiss a real ID due to poor or low lighting or wear and tear since these documents did not pass an authentication test.

Machine learning authenticates worn-out IDs or documents checked under poor lighting by performing a visual inspection to assess the unique features of the paper in distinct locations.

Complete integration

Identity verification is crucial for most business organizations such as banks to prevent fraud. However, changing the organization’s existing central technologies to adapt to modern ID verification can be expensive. It could also result in unexpected ramifications, should the change not achieve the desired goals.

The modern identity verifications have been designed to integrate with existing company processors fully. Any compatibility issues are dealt with in the identity verification tool development phase to ensure it works immediately upon implementation.

Biometric authentication technologies

With the increase in identity theft and fraud, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, biometric authentication has become one of the most secure ways companies can verify IDs. Biometric technology relies on distinct human features such as fingerprints, voice, or iris to verify IDs, reducing identity theft significantly.

The risk of dealing with the wrong person is further eliminated as one has to pass through the system to verify their identity physically. Access to fingerprint technologies has become more straightforward as smartphones now come with facial recognition features and fingerprint scanners.

Smart identity cards

Verifying identity information when you have a vast customer or employee base that requires constant monitoring can be challenging. Modern technology has provided smart or electronic identity cards that can easily be consolidated in a digital system.

The smart identity cards are embedded with a chip that stores individual data, making ID verification easier. The electronic identity cards transmit Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) signals through the embedded chip allowing remote ID authentication.

Governments have also adopted electronic ID systems to enable citizens to access online government or social security services.

Endnote

Identity verification provides a convenient way to ascertain that you are dealing with the right individual. To protect social, personal, and commercial data and avoid identity theft and fraud, invest in the above identity verifications methods propelled by the latest technology.

Thorough Guide On Finding A Contact Center For Your Business

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Contact Center |Thorough Guide On Finding A Contact Center For Your BusinessThere is a lot that you need to consider when looking for a cloud contact center for your business, and it’s important to align with a provider with care so you can deliver outstanding customer service and achieve your goals.

Modern contact centers of today provide everything from real-time analytics to artificial intelligence to help businesses support their customers and provide a personalized touch. But how do you find the best one?

Why is a contact center important?

A contact center provides a central point in a business from which all of your clients and customers are managed.

The primary aim of a cloud contact center is to provide your customers with effective and efficient sales assistance, customer service, and technical support.

Without this, your customers will feel frustrated and their customer journey will have hurdles, as they won’t be able to get the help and assistance they need when they need it.

Key features of enterprise contact center solutions

There are lots of features you should look for when choosing contact center services, including the following:

Call center analytics

You’re never going to be able to move your team forward and improve the customer service provided if you do not understand how you are performing at present. This is why call center analytics is so critical. You can measure and track your performance and make data-driven changes to your workflow.

Computer telephony integration (CTI)

The majority of today’s call center solutions include a CTI that connections the functions of your phone with your computer. This gives you the ability to turn your PC into a virtual call center.

Call recording

Recording conversations and listening to them has become common practice. These snapshots are beneficial in terms of boosting your team’s productivity, aiding training, and enhancing consumer satisfaction.

Skill-based routing

Automatic call routing saves resources and time for everyone. Some software gives you the ability to connect your IVR to call distribution and routing. With this set-up, the caller is given numerous options until they are connected with the most appropriate and helpful agent.

Interactive voice response (IVR)

Last but not least, an IVR is an electronic voice menu that helps callers determine which agent they wish to be connected with based on their requirements. Using IVR should be as intuitive and simple as possible for your customers.

How to choose a contact center solution for your business

Aside from ensuring that the contact center solution you choose has all of the critical features, some of the other factors you should consider are as follows:

Track record

There is only one place to begin, and this is with the company’s track record. You want to be sure that they have an excellent reputation in the industry for the contact center solutions they provide. Take the time to read reviews that have been left by others, and make sure the company has plenty of experience too.

Security

Investigate the security measures the company takes with regard to disaster recovery and redundancy. There are always going to be risks when it comes to data and the cloud, so you need a provider that has a multi-layered security approach in place to mitigate them. You also need to consider the different services used by the cloud contact center. For example, what hosting provider do they use? The secure and cheapest hosting solution will mean that these benefits are passed onto your business.

Cost

Rather than simply looking for the cheapest cloud contact center you can find, you need to make sure that the company you hire offers value for money. Will their service enable you to experience a decent ROI?

Scalability

Finally, the best platforms will scale with your business. If you have plans to grow your company, you will want a cloud provider that easily adjusts to this and gives you the features you need to move forward, rather than restricting you and holding you back.

Final words on contact center solutions

As you can see, there is a lot that needs to be considered when looking for the perfect enterprise contact center solutions for your business.

From considering the company’s track record to assessing the features they offer, there is a lot that needs to be taken into account to find the best contact center solution. We hope that the advice provided above helps you to understand the options that are available and how to narrow down your search effectively.

Digital Marketing for Dentists: 5 Ways to Get More Patients

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Digital marketing for dentists|Digital Marketing for Dentists: 5 Ways to Get More PatientsAre you trying to get more patients for your dental practice? Wondering how you can start marketing your dental practice successfully?

If you want to get more patients for your dental clinic, you need to make sure that you’re being proactive. Building an online presence and using digital marketing techniques can be helpful for building your practice.

In this guide to digital marketing for dentists, we’ll tell you about the 5 best ways you can get new patients.

1. Use Local SEO Techniques

One of the things that you can do to market your dental practice is to use local search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

Local SEO techniques can make it more likely that the pages on your website will show up in search engine results, especially for people in your local area. Some local SEO techniques include managing your Google My Business (GMB) page, getting local citations, and adding locally relevant keywords to your website content.

If you’re interested in learning more about local SEO for dentists, be sure to click here for more information.

2. Stay Active On Social Media

Social media can be a great tool for attracting new patients, so you should be sure that you’re using it. It’s a good idea to create profiles on some of your favorite social media platforms and then start posting regularly to build an audience.
By posting interesting content, offering discounts, and sharing information about your dental staff, you can build a dialogue with potential and current patients. This can also help you to collect more online reviews and to boost your presence in search engines as well.

3. Launch Some Online Ads

Another great method you can use to market your dental services online and get more patients is to run online ads. When running Facebook Ads or Google Ads, for example, you can easily target your ideal patients and can show ads to them in a cost-effective way.

By launching some pay-per-click (PPC) ads you can potentially get a lot of new patients and will build more awareness about your practice.

4. Create a Content Marketing Strategy

One of the best ways that you can use digital marketing to get more patients is to implement a content marketing strategy.
With content marketing, you’ll attract patients to your website by creating useful and informative blog content, videos, infographics, and more. Using content marketing can be very cost-effective and is a good long-term strategy for digital marketing, so make sure that you try it out.

5. Collect Patient Emails

Starting an email list is another powerful way that you can market your practice online.

With email marketing, you’ll start building an email list of both current and prospective patients and will send regular email updates to them. You may want to ask your patients to sign up for the email list when they visit your practice in person or capture their information when they visit your website.

Building an email list can give you a great way to stay in touch with patients and remind them about the importance of dental care.

Making Use of This Guide to Digital Marketing For Dentists

If you want to grow your practice, you should be sure to make use of this guide to digital marketing for dentists. Follow the above tips if you want to start attracting new patients more easily.
In search of more marketing advice? Learn more about dental marketing by browsing our blog now.

If You Want To Grow Your Business, You Have Got To Be Careful

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Grow Your Business|If You Want To Grow Your Business, You Have Got To Be CarefulIf you want to grow your business, you have got to be careful. There are a number of things that have to work together properly in order for an expansion to ever be successful, and if you are not willing to work for this to happen, then the expansion is going to fail. Do you even know how to start expanding your business? It’s a good thing that you have found this article either way, because down below we’re going to be looking at some of the important pieces of information that you need to know and consider if you want to expand your business. Keep reading down below if you would like to find out more.

It’s Expensive

The first thing that you need to know is that growing your business is extremely expensive in some cases. You are going to need to hire new people, you may need to hire a company like Modular Genius in order to get some new office spaces built, and you are going to have to spend more money on advertising. It’s an expensive feat to take on, but if your business is ready for it then it’s going to pay off.

You need to be sure that your business is ready though, otherwise this is just going to be a super expensive lesson that you will learn. Set aside some money for the expansion, but don’t go over budget if you can avoid it as this will start impacting other areas of your business if you do.

Is The Demand There?

Do you actually have the demand to warrant growing your business? If the answer is no then there is no need to do this and you should stop your plans right now. If the answer is yes, then you need to do your research first into who is buying from you the most, where are most of the sales coming from and so on. You need this information to be able to expand your business properly as this will tell you where the target areas are, and where you should be focusing. We promise that if you take the time to understand the demand and cater to it, the expansion is going to go a lot smoother than if you don’t.

What Do You Need?

Finally, you have got to think about what you need as a business in order to expand. Coming up with a plan is really the only way to do this in an organized fashion. Once you have this plan in place of the things you need and how to achieve them, you can start getting things going.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you are going to need to think about if you are going to be growing your business. We know that this is important for all business owners at some point down the line, but it is better to slow down and let things work naturally rather than trying to force something that is not needed. We wish you the very best of luck.