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Developing Cybersecurity-Aware Employees To Protect Your Business

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Cybersecurity|Developing Cybersecurity-Aware Employees To Protect Your BusinessWith more and more businesses adopting remote working models, there’s an increased focus on having effective cybersecurity measures in place. With employees working from their homes or other locations, the threats to businesses are increasing.

An overwhelming 90% of cyberattacks happen as a result of human error, making it even more important that your employees feel knowledgeable and confident about cybersecurity. Through training and clear guidance, you can reduce the threat of cyberattacks to your business, and strengthen your overall resilience.

Here are some suggestions for raising cybersecurity awareness amongst your employees.

Identify the threats to your business

To ensure your business is protected from cybersecurity threats, you need to understand what they are and how they could impact your business. Even small businesses are vulnerable to security threats, making it vital to put safeguards in place.

Some of the major cybersecurity threats businesses face today include malware and phishing scams and ransomware. These types of attacks can occur easily as a result of human error, and it’s important that you recognize the potential risks for your business so that appropriate measures can be taken.

Provide the right training to your employees

Cyberattacks are growing in sophistication, and if your employees don’t know what to look out for, they become a liability for your business – especially when they’re working off-site. Providing the right cybersecurity training can help employees feel more confident in identifying potential risks, and helps them understand the actions that need to be taken if they come into contact with something suspicious.

If your business has made the move to remote working, you will need to provide updated training, while also ensuring the infrastructure is in place to protect your systems.

Publish regular reminders and updates

Providing training to your employees can help equip them with better cybersecurity knowledge, but training alone won’t protect your business. You’ll need to provide regular updates and reminders to ensure your employees are aware of the latest risks, and any policies that have been updated in line with emerging threats. Making cybersecurity an ongoing topic of discussion can normalize it for your employees, helping them make more informed choices at work, and in their lives outside of work too.

Review the situation regularly

As new threats emerge regularly, your business will need an ongoing strategy for cybersecurity, including dealing with breaches and interruptions to your service. Working with an IT company with experience in managing these types of disruptions can help you benefit from round-the-clock support, knowing you’ll be up and running again in no time. Many businesses look to outsourcing their IT to maintain their service while benefiting from the expertise that can keep their business safe.

Cyberattacks have the potential to seriously damage a business, both financially and on a reputational level. With the right measures put in place to protect your business, you can feel confident knowing your business is in the best place to defend against attacks both now, and in the future.

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.

Hit Profitability With A Business Faster Than The Rest

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Profitability|Hit Profitability With A Business Faster Than The RestYou might have heard that it takes a while for a business to become profitable and that can certainly be the case. Indeed, some companies will continue to make a loss all the way through the first year on the market. If you’re worried about this issue, then there are a few steps that you can take. If you make the right moves with your company, then you can guarantee that your business hits profitability far more rapidly compared to other companies on the market.

Use The Right SEO Solutions

First, you need to make sure that you are making the right choices with your SEO. SEO is the bread and butter of any business marketing campaign. Without the right approach to SEO, you are always going to struggle to build a strong customer base for your business. It’s important to understand that SEO is constantly in flux. The options that worked a few months ago might not be as beneficial later in the year. If you are worried about SEO choices, then make sure that you do invest in a professional company.

You need to use SEO regardless of what type of customer base you are seeking out. For instance, you might be setting up a local service business. If that’s the case then you need local SEO. Without this, you will always be beat out by key competitors on the market.

Boost Conversions

Next, you need to make sure that you are taking steps to boost conversion rates for your business from day one. There are numerous ways that you can increase your conversions. For instance, you might want to think about focusing heavily on your website design. The right website design will guarantee that you don’t run into the issue of abandoning shopping baskets. This can be a massive issue for ecommerce companies that are trying to turn a profit.

One of the ways that you can handle this is by using A-B testing. A-B testing involves running the two versions of the same website at once with small changes to one of the versions. You can then look at the metrics to see if these changes had an impact on how many people were interested in committing to a purchase from your company.

Another way to boost conversions would be by altering the structure of your website. Your website should essentially follow the three click rule. Essentially, a buyer should never be more than a couple of clicks away from what they are looking for on your site. It can be quite difficult to change the structure in a meaningful way without tearing a website apart. To cut through the maze and save costs while making your business more engaging, you can add a chat bot. Customers often expect to see something like this on a modern website anyway.

Buy An Existing Business

If you have enough capital, then you can also consider buying a business that has already been established on the market and therefore has a built in audience. As mentioned here https://neumannassociates.com/orlando-fl/, one way to do this is by getting in touch with a business broker. They will help you find a business that is going to suit your financial position and does have a strong chance at being successful for you. If you are buying a business then you need to understand the signs that a company is worth your time. One example of this would be the books. They need to be accurate and up to date or sorting them will be a massive headache for you.

Alternatively, you can think about investing in a franchise. There are various different franchises available to invest in. For instance, you could think about something like owning a mosquito control business. It does make sense to join a franchise like this because there is always going to be demand for a company like this. However, you will need to be prepared for seasonal drops in demand and factor this into your budget. It’s just one example of a franchise business. The big benefit of a franchise is that the brand name is already recognized by an audience. You won’t have to build up brand recognition over the first few years on the market. This is going to help you save a fortune on your marketing campaign.

Hit The Right Price Point

It’s absolutely vital that you do choose the right price point for the products or services that you are selling to customers. A mistake that you need to avoid here is selling for a price that is too high. If you make this error, then you are always going to struggle to get the interest of customers. At the same time, if you sell for a price that is too low, then you can struggle to hit profits and send the wrong message about quality.

This is about ensuring that you are completing the right level of research on the market. For instance, you should look at how much your competition is selling their product and make sure that you are at least matching the price. Undercutting them is another option, but this can be a mistake. It can set off a price war where there are unlikely to be any real winners in the long term.

Hit Influencers Up

Finally, you should think about reaching out to influencers. The right influencers can push your business above the rest simply with the power of their clout on social media. You just need to make sure that a connection with them is going to be beneficial for both parties.

We hope this helps you understand everything that you need to know about ensuring that your business does become profitable as quickly as possible. If you take the right steps here, then you won’t have to worry about your business causing your debt bill. Don’t forget, if you set up your company the right way then you can section your debt and ensure that it doesn’t start to eat away at your personal finances over time.

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.

5 Ways To Work Efficiently With Your Team

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Team Work|5 Ways To Work Efficiently With Your TeamTo run a business smoothly, you need to first take care of the well-being of your employees. It is important to create a positive environment for them so that they feel accepted, encouraged, and happy to be a part of your organization.

Leading a team that has people from diverse backgrounds can often be difficult. People with different temperaments come with diverse opinions which can often lead to miscommunication and clashes within the team. These roadblocks can create a negative impact on the productivity of the team and business.

Team efficiency depends largely on the bonding among the teammates as that makes the work process smooth and easy to handle. Creating efficiency in the team by removing any workplace friction can help you in building and encouraging a healthy team that can provide amazing work performance.

Top 5 Ways to Enhance Work Efficiency Within Your Team

A recent survey by Anatomy of Work mentions that corporate employees spend most of their work time on daily tasks and only 27% of their time in work that requires specific skill sets.

Then how would you drive efficiency within the team so that productivity doesn’t falter? Let’s find out with these top tips on team efficiency enhancement.

1. Design a precise project plan

You must have a clear and precise project plan before starting the task. Each team member must be confident about their role in the project. Finally, coordinate between the various tasks so that the project is completed well within the scheduled time.

What are the essentials of a project plan?

There are several essentials of a good project plan and they are:

  • Common project goals
  • Appropriate success metrics
  • Allocation of stakeholders and their roles
  • Budget of the project
  • Project milestones and the intermittent deliverables
  • Project schedules and timelines
  • Project communication plan

It is important to bring all the projects within one roof for your team. Invest in a real-time planning tool that is accessible by one and all. This will help you in coordinating all the project activities at one go with the help of a tool.

2. Connect with your team members regularly

Make an effort to connect with your team members regularly, as a team as well as individually. This will ensure that you care for your team members. Once you can establish a caring position within the team, the employees will automatically get motivated.

It is always better to communicate to your employees the expectation you have from them and also their roles and priorities in the project. Do explain to them the kind of quality that you are expecting from them. Make sure to also explain to them the result that you are trying to achieve as a team.

Give your employees all the freedom that they need to work in their best manner. Give them a positive environment, keep them happy and they will deliver without you having to worry about a thing.

It is a good idea to send short messages to all the team members once in while mentioning what you like about them and spread some positivity. Talk to your team members individually and find out about their career goals, immediate project interests, and anything else that they would like to share with you.

Remember, 1:1 communication can be one of the best ways to say “you matter” to an employee. They feel that they have a support system at work that will listen to them. It is imperative to say that this will boost the confidence of the employee to a sky-high level.

3. Always acknowledge and appreciate their efforts

Most employees complain that they do not feel appreciated enough. It is a well-known saying that an appreciated employee will walk the extra mile for you. Always show appreciation to your team members no matter how small a task he has accomplished.

Appreciation gives them a sense of purpose and they feel connected to the team and business. At least start with a “thank you for a job well done” line.

When you acknowledge a good job done, make sure that you mean every word that you say. Empty phrases will not please your team members for long. But when you praise the employees with an open heart, they would want to rise to the occasion even more and ensure that they do the job in an even better manner.

a) Pay attention to their ideas

Everyone has some idea about a work project and how to go about it? All the team members come with prior experience and different perspectives about how to handle a project. They might have a completely different approach to working on tasks. Encourage them to share their ideas and best practices and try and implement to see if that works for your team.

While it is rather tempting to stick to a fixed protocol that is tried and tested for success, you never know what could change unless you try new ways of working. The world is changing so fast, there is no point in holding on to a status quo. Instead, listen to your team members about what they could bring to the table. That way they feel valued and motivated to contribute to the success of the team and the organization.

One of the best ways to make use of good ideas from teammates is to design a project plan where everyone can contribute their ideas. You can also conduct retrospectives at the end of each project to understand what went well, what did not work well, and the potential action items.

4. Leverage their strengths

Not all employees are alike in personality or work. Each person comes with a set of strengths and weaknesses. Different people enjoy doing different types of work. For instance, one of your team members might enjoy doing research work related to a project while the other one might enjoy compiling varied data in an excel sheet.

Also, on any given day, an employee might have several small tasks to complete in different projects. Each of these tasks is important in its way and also urgent. They might get confused about where to start and how to prioritize the work?

  • Prioritize work: As a supervisor, it is your responsibility to divide the task according to their priorities. When you have a good plan with set objectives and goals for the project, setting up priority will not be much of a problem. When the employees have a clear vision about the project goals and their timelines, it empowers them to make decisions about the task. When you are setting goals for your team, do not forget to keep the objective attainable. Assigning a large task to be accomplished within a short time can make it overwhelming for the employees. Instead, you can break the large task into smaller chunks and delegate them among the team members according to business priorities and their skill sets.This will enhance the progress of the project and also keep the team members motivated.
  • Streamline projects and tasks: Try and allocate work that a team member excels at. If there isn’t such work within the team, find out ways in which the teammates can spend time on work that they enjoy doing. Take help of a documenting software that makes it easier to document tasks and other project details. Such activity will not only help you in streamlining your project but also enhance team efficiency.

Bring challenges in the work that you do within the team but also don’t forget to reward them when they accomplish a milestone.

5. Incorporate fun at work

Add a fun element to everyday work. It could be through different team building activities. This will add a fun element to work thereby increasing the overall efficiency within the team. Work is only enjoyable when people feel connected with the team. Only when there is open communication, mutual respect, and acceptance within the team, an employee feels comfortable to deliver at their best.

Also when the team members have too much to deliver within a short time, they often suffer from distractions and low motivation. Step in here and cut short on meeting times as they take up a lot of time and go for quick huddles to share feedback and receive updates. When workload management is systematic and well-designed, it can boost happiness at the workplace.

Conclusion

Remember, if you cannot measure how much you have done, you will never be able to improve it. Set up metrics for your team and analyze how it impacts your sales, revenue, or productivity.

Productivity can never be an accident. It is not about simple work proficiency or about perfectly managing your day. There can be several tools and tips to help you in enhancing the team efficiency, but at the end of the day, it is up to you to ensure that employees are excited about coming to work and delivering their best.

As Henry Ford said, “If everyone is moving forward together, success takes care of itself.”
Let us know in the Comments section below if you do anything different to drive efficiency within your team.