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Taking Another Look at Your Talent: Why Redeployment Might be Better Than Redundancy

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StrategyDriven Resource Management Article | Taking Another Look at Your Talent: Why Redeployment Might be Better Than RedundancyMany businesses have struggled since March 2020 and are only just returning to their pre-pandemic operations. During the coronavirus crisis, it was common practice for companies to furlough their staff, but this is now coming to an end as restrictions ease. However, this has left many organisations scrambling to cut costs and potentially scale down their operations.

Many are now considering redundancies as business requirements change in the post-Covid world. However, assessing the talent within your organisation and redeploying employees to other departments could prove more beneficial than redundancies. Here’s why.

It Can be Cheaper

Hiring, onboarding and training talent is a costly procedure. Add redundancy payments that you might have to fork out should you lay off an employee to this, and you have a hefty sum of money.

Filling an internal vacancy elsewhere in the business with an employee who already understands your company’s ethos and methods can be a far better option. It allows you to protect your investment in an employee during the hiring process and avoid further payments if you were laying them off. Overall, this can translate to significant savings, even when the training for the new role is factored in.

It Can Boost Morale

Downsizing your operations through redundancy is sometimes necessary. However, it can dramatically impact the morale of the staff members who retain their jobs. This common occurrence is often referred to as “survivor syndrome”. It is characterised by lower morale, engagement, motivation, dedication and productivity.

It is easy to see how this could impact your business as a whole, so it is likely something you will wish to avoid in your company. Redeployment can be an effective strategy to boost morale and motivation in your organisation.

While it is often driven by financial requirements, the practice offers an opportunity for growth for redeployed staff members. Additionally, it reduces the incidence of “survivor syndrome” that would otherwise be rampant with redundancies. Therefore, it can be an effective way to boost productivity and morale.

It Can Make Your Company More Adaptable

During the pandemic, businesses were forced to adapt to a changing climate. Many working practices had to be suspended, and other employees were forced to work remotely from home. For many businesses, this adaptation was a learning opportunity. Many companies sought to use the pandemic as an opportunity to cross-train their employees, bringing new skills into their workforce.

Rapid redeployment will allow your staff to grow and develop their skills and provide them with a better understanding of how other departments function. Ultimately, this can prepare them for additional opportunities that arise in your company and boost your workforce’s adaptability as a whole. This will allow your organisation to roll with the punches better whenever it faces adversity.

Conclusion

In many cases, it can often be a better option to retrain staff members for roles in other areas of your company. At present, many businesses are adapting their operations to a post-Covid world. For many, this means redundancy is a real possibility. However, for the reasons outlined above, it can often pay to redeploy staff instead.

Why Traditional Invoicing Is a Bottleneck: Do These 4 Things to Remedy It

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article | Why Traditional Invoicing Is a Bottleneck: Do These 4 Things to Remedy ItThe accounts receivable departments must process incoming payments every day and keep financial records up to date. Unfortunately, some companies do not complete these tasks on a daily basis and create bottlenecks. The processes could lead to longer waits for profits, and some companies cannot wait that long.

By following better practices, the business owners can avoid bottlenecks and keep their cash flow coming each day. Several common mistakes made by AP departments can also create further unnecessary complexities.

1. Try An Invoicing Service

Many companies face difficulties with managing all invoices for their customers, and they often turn over some accounts to service providers that help the company collect the overdue balances. Unfortunately, many collection agencies use tactics that do not get the job done and alienate the customers. Even the best customer the company has could face circumstances that cause them to miss a payment, but this doesn’t mean they deserve to constantly get harassing phone calls.

Instead of using these more traditional tactics, many companies are using less invasive practices to give customers a more convenient opportunity to pay their outstanding balance without calling the company to complete the payment. These methods could allow the customer to follow a link in an email from the company that guides them through a more convenient payment process.

The collection efforts won’t interfere with the customer’s personal life or make them feel overwhelmed. The service provider sets up a link that redirects them to an online payment solution and the process is quite simple. Business owners can learn more about using instant invoices by contacting a service provider now.

2. Speed Up Invoice Processing 

Another issue that many companies face is a failure to process and send out the invoices. Companies may have a larger collection of clients and invoicing is a major task for the AP department. This could become a serious issue for the company and prevent cash flow from coming in on time. Some companies pick a specific day of the month to print a huge collection of invoices instead of processing an invoice immediately. Customers that don’t know how much they owe the company cannot send in a payment and update their account. They need an invoice right now.

In turn, the AP department becomes overwhelmed with the number of invoices they must send out at the end of a week or month. These slower processes just delay the payment process and make the company wait longer to get their payments from customers. If the company implements practices that invoice the customer immediately and sends out the invoice, the company receives more payments throughout the month and eliminates common cash flow problems.

3. Analyze Customer Payment Habits

Companies must also analyze their customers’ payment habits, and they must determine when it is time to let certain customers go. A customer with a persistent history of tardy payments isn’t just hurting their own credit or making themselves unworthy of using credit. They are also slowing down the business and preventing the business from collecting the money they are owed by the customer.

By using data mining practices, the company can generate reports that show them which customers are late with their payments and which customers have a history of getting late charges. While companies do not want to discourage customers from buying their products or hiring them for their services, there comes a time when some customers becomd a major problem for businesses and delays the time it takes to get their profits.

Customers that never pay their payments on time create more of a problem for the business than letting the customers go. For example, if the company allows customers to buy products and pay later, the customer must pay later and settle their debt to the company. However, if the same customer is late persistently, they are not a valuable customer and are simply making it more difficult for the company to operate. It’s time to let them go by blocking their account.

4. Ensure Access for Workers Who Need the Information

Another major dilemma with companies that use outsourced customer service or collection services is that they don’t have the information available. All workers who will manage customer accounts need access to the customer files. If they cannot open a customer’s account and review the data, the workers cannot accept and process customer payments.

The business owner will need to review all connections to their database to ensure that the workers have the correct credentials for the task. Customers do not want to call in to make a payment and face one or more transfers to other departments. This takes up the customer’s time, and it will discourage them from doing business with the company. Companies that have automated systems must streamline these processes to ensure that customers’ payments are accepted and processed immediately.

By invoicing immediately after the service or order, the company can also make it possible for the customer service representatives to find the outstanding balance. If the invoices haven’t been processed, they will not show up in the system. This could lead to customers facing delays that are not convenient for them and make them want to get the same services or products somewhere else.

Accounts receivable departments must take on the task of collecting all outstanding payments for the company, and they must follow more streamlined processes. For many companies, slowdowns in invoicing make it difficult for them to collect the customers’ payments in a timely manner. Some companies do not have the time or resources to process invoices only once a month, and the process could prevent access to high volume of capital that they need during the month.

When reviewing strategies for processing invoices, the companies could find a more efficient option that makes it easier to collect now. By using immediate invoices with a direct link to the payment system, they can collect the money faster and update the customer’s files instantly.

Questions to Answer Before Investing in a Start-Up

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | Questions to Answer Before Investing in a Start-Up

Investing in start-ups can be a fascinating endeavor. The idea of being an early investor in a new company and watching it grow into something extraordinary is inspiring.

However, before making any investment decision, it is essential to ask yourself some tough questions to make sure you are ready for the commitment. In this article, you will learn about questions that every potential start-up investor should answer before investing. Read on!

How Does This Affect Your Diversification Strategy?

Diversification is the process of spreading out assets among different investments, such that one lousy investment does not ruin your entire portfolio. Diversification also seeks to balance a portfolio by including other asset classes like stocks and bonds.

It is also a great strategy for continuous improvement in your firm. You can also learn other ways to continually improve your company by signing up in a lean learning center. Investing in a start-up company, for instance, is generally considered to be an illiquid asset because it takes time to realize any return on investment.

As a result, there may not be anything tangible to sell if you need or want out of your position (unless you have been given some venture capital with a liquidation clause).

What Level of Involvement is Required? 

Investing in start-ups can be a difficult decision. One of the primary considerations is what level of involvement you will need to have with the company? For example, are you expected to help decide how to allocate funds or provide feedback on new ideas for products and services?

If your goal is to invest and not be involved in the day-to-day decisions of the company, then you should consider a small investment. A more significant investment may require more involvement from your end and, if not careful, could lead to burnout or lack of interest over time.

What is the Time Frame?

Consider the length of time you plan on staying invested in an investment. Long-term investors may want to invest more heavily and pay less attention to risk, while short-term investors might be looking for quick gains but are unwilling to take as much risk.

Individual situations vary greatly, so carefully consider how long you are planning on investing before making a decision.

What Rate of Return is Expected? 

It is essential to understand your investment expectations. For example, do you want a guaranteed return, or do you need one that entails more risk?

There are different strategies for investing, and understanding the level of risk will help make an informed decision about what type of fund might be appropriate. Investment in start-ups can provide good returns, but it is crucial to understand the level of risk involved.

Investing in start-ups is a risky venture. You need to ask the right questions before investing in any company, and what better way than starting with the above examples. Make sure you don’t get caught off guard if something goes wrong because you might end up with nothing at all. Start-up companies do not always make it, and you have to know when to get out of a sinking ship.

A Quick Guide To Kanban

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Kanban|A Quick Guide To KanbanKanban is a popular workflow management framework, that will allow you to more effectively manage and improve the services that you offer. This method follows four simple principles.

Visualize Workflow

To improve your services with Kanban, you need to start by mapping out your current process. This will show you where you can start to make improvements.

Limit Work In Progress

Kanban aims to move work efficiently, with minimal waste and lag. This means you will have to limit the amount of work to keep things to a manageable level. This helps you to avoid bottlenecks and other delays.

Focus On Flow

Once you have the first two Kanban principles in place in your business, your workflow can flow a lot more freely. This makes everything easier. Once you’ve got the first two ticked off, you can concentrate on anything that interrupts the flow of work, so you can find some more places to improve your processes.

Continuous Improvement

Kanban involves ongoing work and improvement, the project is never truly finished. To get it right, you will need to constantly monitor and analyse your work and processes so you can continue to find ways to improve. Customer demand, resources, and the market are all always changing, so if you’re going to keep up, you need to keep on working on improving.

To learn about Kanban and see how it might be able to work for your business, whether you work in manufacturing, professional services, or just about anything else, check out the infographic below.


Infographic designed by: Kanban Principles

What To Expect From A Customized Executive Coaching Program?

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Executive Coaching |What To Expect From A Customized Executive Coaching Program?The number one goal of an executive coach is to prepare you for the challenges of today and tomorrow in leading roles. A good coach will train you to reach your goals and enhance your performance to face the obstacles in your path. Your coach will act as a sounding board, advisor, manager, strategist, and guide.

Moreover, a coach will also help you gain self-awareness and help you discover greater potential. To know more about customized coaching programs that you can opt for, visit moovone.eu/en/.

Activities to uncover capabilities and increase horizons

Executive coaching programs help you build confidence and enhance your performance to work better towards your goal. They achieve this by a combination of activities.

Some of the activities that will make you grow as a leader and are the high points of a customized learning program are:

  1. One-to-one meetings improve your apprehension and communication skills. They challenge your capacities to widen your limits.
  2. Learning assignments will help you gather knowledge that will assist you in getting through the challenges in your career area in the future.
  3. Assessments and feedback should test your skills and will tell you your strengths and weaknesses. These provide you the room for improvement.
  4. Developmental activities and progress reviews will enhance your confidence levels and thus make you a better leader.
    Executive coach meetings to create engagement

Although the training periods last somewhere between 3 to 12 months, typically, you only meet your coach once or twice a month. These meetings can be face-to-face or virtual, depending on what works best.

What are the roles of your manager?

The main role of your manager is to provide support and feedback throughout the training period. They share valuable data for assessment and evaluation of your growth during the months of training.

What are the steps of an executive coaching program?

An executive coaching program transforms not only your employees but your whole organization, one step at a time.

Understanding and identifying the main challenges in the existing system is their first step. They also target the teams that need support to help you grow as an organization.

  1. Designing and implementing the best curriculum to reach your goals.
  2. Communication followed by rolling out projects in sync with client success partners.
  3. Supporting and following up with your employees to track their growth in real-time.
  4. Analyzing the need of the hour and improvising to create more impactful programs through standard and custom KPIs.

Transforming to improve the performance of the team

Moovone helps you unleash the potential of the team to reach greater goals. They provide executive coaching to support the transformation of your company. A wide diversity of coaching frameworks are at work to help you meet the challenges.

Whether you need long or short courses, diverse coaching programs, or individual training, they can provide relevant support to amplify your growth in the future. Customized executive coaching combines learning and training to offer a unique approach towards developmental skills. This helps you grow as a manager and uncover human potential.