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Avoiding The Expenses Of Constantly Buying New Business Furniture

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Business Furniture|Avoiding The Expenses Of Constantly Buying New Business FurnitureYou want to ensure that you’re providing the maintenance and care that your workplace needs to ensure that your employees, as well as any clients, customers, or partners that visit, are able to do their thing safely and without concern. At some point, replacing old furniture might be a necessary step to take. However, if you find yourself having to buy a lot of furniture, whether it’s for the office or more industrial spaces, it can quickly become expensive. As such, here are a few steps you can take to reduce the expense of it all.

Give them the preventative maintenance they need

As with every other part of your office, your furniture is going to require preventative maintenance as well. If you spot some problems early, then you might be able to stop them from becoming bigger issues with a replacement part or, in many cases with chairs and the like, a drop of oil. Furniture that might be used in open-air spaces can require a little more work. For instance, wood furniture might need to be refinished and re-sealed to ensure that it doesn’t succumb to environmental pressures like moisture and sunlight. Fit your furniture into your maintenance schedule alongside the rest of the property to protect it for much longer.

Know when you can make the fixes they need

Prevention is the key, but even if you’re starting to see problems with your furniture, that doesn’t mean that it’s necessary to replace the entire piece of furniture just yet. Loose rungs on the share can be fixed by regluing them in place, while you can add braces to chairs that might be getting a little wobbly as their joints come loose. Even metal furniture can be protected, with the help of things like industrial grinders to smooth down and restore the surface of metal objects that are getting dull or showing the signs of age. Having the ability to show a little care to your furniture can help you keep it looking and feeling perfectly fine for years to come, instead of having to replace it at the first sign of trouble.

Don’t buy first-hand when you don’t need to

Sometimes, you simply are going to need a replacement and there’s nothing else to be said about the matter. When that happens, going to your local manufacturer or supplier might not always be the right decision. There are plenty of places to buy second-hand furniture for the office and many of these providers will even offer then refurbished, meaning that they have taken care to ensure that they are safe and working, and might have even fixed some of the surface-level signs of wear and tear that they have accumulated. Of course, if you buy second-hand furniture and it doesn’t match your quality standards, then you shouldn’t buy from that place again.

With the tips above, hopefully, you can help everything in the office last just a bit longer and, when it can’t, maybe you can find more sensible replacements that are better for your bottom line.

What Doors Can an Online Master’s Degree in Business Open for You?

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | What Doors Can an Online Master's Degree in Business Open for You?What does it take to succeed in today’s competitive business environment? You’ll need information, skills, and a network to put those things to use. A master’s degree in business can provide you with a solid foundation to launch your career.

Advancing your career is a priority and an education can give you the skills you need to advance. The National Center for Education Statics states that there were over 7 million online learners in 2019 and 3 million of these were graduate level. A master’s degree puts you at the top of your game.

Here’s how earning your master’s degree in business can advance your career in the world of business.

Finance

A master’s in business can prepare you to work in finance departments across the nation. You’ll be able to work in a variety of specialized finance positions that will have you balancing the books in some of the most high-profile and complicated businesses around. The finance specialization gives you the experience and tools needed to handle money in today’s increasingly complicated environment.

The training that your master’s degree will provide you and finance gives you the skills you need to succeed when it comes to entrepreneurship.

Human Resource Management

Hiring practices have gotten more complicated no matter what industry you’re in. How we find new employees and how we engage with them isn’t as easy as putting a help wanted sign in the window. This means there’s a new demand for experienced human resource management professionals. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that these jobs are growing and their median salary is already over six figures.

An online masters in business degree will help you prepare to work in the human resources department. This advanced degree will set you up for a leadership role. You’ll be able to help companies navigate the increasingly complicated process of hiring and working with their staff.

Management

Management positions with the top of the pyramid in every company. These are high-stakes and high-profile positions that have you making complicated decisions that decide the fate of an entire company. A master’s degree is the perfect choice for individuals who are looking to jump into management roles with the most experience and information possible.

Management positions provide plenty of unique challenges. There are complicated decisions to be made about staffing, finance, and future direction for the company. An online master’s degree can help prepare you for balancing in this demanding role.

Business Analytics

What’s the number one factor running every single business today? There are plenty of important details, but the biggest one of them all is information. We’re an economy driven entirely by data and being able to gather and analyze this vast field of information is one of the most important and in-demand jobs today.

An online master’s in business degree will give you the potential to focus on business analytics. This allows you to get an in-depth understanding of how companies gather and analyze the information that they used to make business decisions. Experts in business analytics are some of the most well-paid individuals today because they gather and interpret the information that companies rely on.

Why Choose an Online Master’s in Business?

An online education changes how we look at learning. If you’re looking to advance in business, you’re already familiar with the challenge of balancing working and education. An online degree gives you new opportunities to advance your career, but with a schedule that’s flexible and works for you.

You can schedule online classes around your life. Whether you’re working on your own entrepreneurship or busy climbing the corporate ladder at an established company, you need all the time you can get to focus and build your education.

An online degree also lets you get some experience working in a digital environment. We’re seeing an increasing shift towards online working spaces as well as working from home. An online Masters in Business is just more experience and the latest technology used in businesses across the country.

What’s the Next Step

The next step in your career as a business leader and an entrepreneur is to investigate and get a master’s degree in business. This can open new doors and give you the resources you need to launch your career.

How To Create An Effective Employee Onboarding Process

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee Onboarding Process|How To Create An Effective Employee Onboarding ProcessYour organization’s onboarding process is the perfect opportunity to make a lasting first impression on a new employee. This process should be all about making the new team member feel welcomed and valued in preparation for their role. You will want everything to go as smoothly as possible so that you can recruit and retain the right talent. Moreover, an employee onboarding process is often the first critical factor in building an engaged and motivated workforce. A strong onboarding experience can invoke a sense of loyalty among new hires, thus improving retention rates. Today we will cover some important strategies you can implement to optimize your employee onboarding plan.

Ensure Effective Contract Management

To make onboarding simpler, it is recommended that you implement a contract lifecycle management process. This will help you streamline the creation of contracts and simplify the collection of e-signatures. Pulpstream provides comprehensive guidance on the different stages of contract lifecycle management and how you can make contract execution more efficient with automation. As a result, you will ensure that everything is done in the same way every time by offering transparent and consistent communication. A new employee will receive custom onboarding, which will make a good impression on them even before their first day.

Create A Positive Employee Experience

You will want the new employee to feel excited and ready to dive into their new role. To ensure everything starts on a positive note, the employee onboarding process should begin right after the recruitment phase. It is important that HR sends a welcome email letter to allow the employee to learn more about the company’s culture. For example, it may be good to prepare information about orientation day activities, the first-day schedule, company dress code, and onboarding documents and forms. This will ensure they are prepared for their new role, as it will give them peace of mind and clarity.

Notify Other Team Members

Make sure you send an announcement to all employees prior to their first day, either in-person or via email. The announcement should include information about the new employee’s role and their previous experience. Encourage other team members to welcome and assist the new colleague as they familiarize themselves with the company policies and processes. When other employees are notified in advance, they will be more prepared to offer support and make the new employee feel more confident. Alongside this, it is important to coordinate with other departments as well to provide organizational belonging.

Make Their First Day Special

It is crucial to create a sense of belonging from their first day to make sure they stay committed to the organization’s goals. Take the time to plan out all activities and help them settle down by easing their worries and concerns. Prepare a formal employee orientation program and deliver presentations about the company’s history, mission, vision, and values. Answer any questions that might arise on the day and ensure they feel as comfortable as possible. You can also assign an onboarding mentor who can offer valuable insight into formal and informal strategies.

Organize A Team Lunch

One of the best ways to break the ice and allow the employee to get to know other colleagues in their immediate team is to arrange a team lunch meeting. Ideally, this can happen within their first week to ensure they have time to get used to all the new faces. There is no need to even leave the office, as you can simply ask your team to bring their lunches to a conference room. Take some time to get to know them outside of the interview process to make them feel appreciated personally and professionally.

Set Up Their Workstation

As a new employee, there is nothing worse than not having access to the tools and programs you need to be successful in your role. This is why it is important to prepare for your new arrival ahead of time and make sure everything is ready to go. For example, it may be useful to set up the employee’s computer, phone, and email address and order any necessary office supplies. Alongside this, a new employee should have access to software and electronic files before they begin. Disregarding this step can result in difficulties during the employee’s training.

Provide Personalized Training

The first few weeks with the employee should be focused on training to help them get started in their new role. Even if the new colleague has already performed the same job function elsewhere, there still may be some differences between organizations. Therefore, it is advisable to prepare a personalized training plan to bring them up to speed. Remember to include information about key processes, company rules, expectations, and procedures to fully know what the role entails. Training should also always be tailored to the employee’s individual requirements and goals.

Schedule Regular Check-Ins

Arranging check-in meetings with new employees is crucial to measuring how well they have settled into their new role. Although the exact check-in dates can be flexible depending on your company’s preferences, it is common for check-ins to be scheduled 30, 60, and 90 days after the first day. Be sure to keep these meetings informal and relaxed while still promoting active dialogue. It is essential to understand the new employee’s progress and their needs. Remember to review their performance and offer constructive feedback to help them identify areas for improvement. Ensure that they have the right support and resources to thrive in their role.

Follow Up And Request Feedback

Last but not least, it is important to meet with the employee even if you think they are doing well. After committing to a training plan and check-in meetings, you will need to find out how effective your onboarding process has been. Therefore, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about the company’s strategy from an employee’s perspective. It may be beneficial to ask them what they found useful and what could be improved. Then you can make adjustments as you see fit and keep improving the onboarding experience for new employees in the future.

Enhance Your Bottom Line with These 5 Employee Engagement Strategies

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee Engagement Strategy|Enhance Your Bottom Line with These 5 Employee Engagement StrategiesEmployee engagement is vital to the success of your company. Engaged employees work harder, stay with your company longer, and produce better results. It might cost you a little more money to create an environment that encourages strong employee engagement, but it’s well worth it in terms of the benefits it can have for your company culture and, yes, your bottom line.

But what exactly does it take to boost employee engagement in a meaningful way? You need to make sure you foster strong work-life balance among your employees, give them the tools they need to succeed in your company and in their careers, and give the recognition employees need to feel seen and heard.

1) Make Time Off Mandatory – And Give More of It

You might think that having employees at their work stations more often would result in more and better work. But the opposite is the case. Employees who slog through weeks and months without any time off get burnt out, and lose their enthusiasm for the work. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your employees have time for rest and self-care.

When employees have time to recharge, they’re 31 percent more productive at work and make 37 percent more sales. Revenues and creative output triple when employees are well-rested. That’s reason enough to make time off mandatory and give employees plenty of it – above and beyond the 10 days that the average employee gets. Work hours have been increasing over the past three decades, with many professionals feeling increasingly pinched for time in which to take vacations, handle family emergencies, attend to their mental health, and so on. Mandatory time off gives employees a much-needed sense of time affluence, and can ease feelings of burnout.

2) Recognize Achievements, Anniversaries, and Milestones

Who doesn’t want to be congratulated when they do well, or when they have an important milestone happen in their lives – including a work anniversary? Employee anniversary recognition helps employees feel seen, especially when deployed in connection with proud recognition of everything else an employee does to make the company a success. Recognizing employee achievements, anniversaries, and milestones (like births, marriages, or graduations) and employment anniversaries motivates your top employees and injects a fresh sense of engagement into the workforce as a whole.

3) Give Employees the Tools and Support They Need to Succeed

You can’t expect your employees to succeed at their tasks without the right tools and resources. In fact, if you don’t give employees what they need to do their jobs, they’re going to become resentful quickly. Engagement will plummet, and turnover will soar.

Your employees need modern, up-to-date software and hardware to do their jobs, and they need access to resources that will make their jobs easier – everything from office supplies to company cars and phones. Do your best to remove obstacles that might get in the way of employees’ ability to move agilely when doing their jobs. No one wants to navigate a complicated bureaucracy with lots of red tape in order to get something done at work.

4) Offer Some Scheduling Flexibility

Besides giving plenty of mandatory time off, you need to offer employees some scheduling flexibility to help them maintain a healthy sense of work-life balance. In the post-COVID world, maybe it’s appropriate to move to a work-from-home model, or a hybrid model in which employees spend some days at the office and some days at home.

Whether employees are working from the office or from home, give employees the option to flex their schedules so they can attend to family responsibilities, run important errands that can only take place during the day, care for their health, and so on.

5) Give Each Employee Individual Attention

Each of your employees needs individual attention from management to feel seen and heard. That means taking the time to check in with employees regularly – once a week or so, check in to see how their work is going, whether they need anything, and whether they have any complaints. You should also put the work into getting to know your employees as people. Take them out to lunch once in a while. Grab happy hour drinks together on a Friday. Ask about their families and pets. Employees will feel more loyal and committed when they feel like they have personal connections at work.

Are you looking for ways to make your company thrive? You need to encourage more employee engagement. You’ll be surprised at how much better everyone can do when they’re committed to doing the best job possible.

How to Prosper in Business as a Second-Language Speaker

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Second Language Speaker|How to Prosper in Business as a Second-Language SpeakerFor many people, learning a second language is a difficult task. However, for those looking to prosper in business, learning a second language is essential. English is the most commonly spoken language in the business world, so you will be at a disadvantage if you are not fluent in it. This blog post will discuss some tips that will help you succeed in business as a second-language speaker!

Improve Your Language Skills

The first step to prospering in business as a second-language speaker is to improve your language skills through language training. If you are not confident in your abilities, it won’t be easy to succeed. There are many ways to improve your language skills, such as taking a class or practicing with a native speaker. In addition, invest in phonics reading books to help with your pronunciation and grammar. Finally, one of the best ways to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. This means surrounding yourself with the language as much as possible. You can do this by watching English movies and TV shows, listening to English music, and reading books in English.

Make A Point Of It To Speak English As Often As Possible

Another way to prosper in business as a second-language speaker is to speak English as often as possible. This will help you to become more confident and fluent in the language. When you are around other people who speak your native language, try to speak English as much as possible. If you are not comfortable speaking in front of others, you can practice by yourself. You can use many resources to practice speaking English, such as online forums, chat rooms, and language exchange websites.

Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes

One of the most significant barriers for second-language speakers is the fear of making mistakes. However, it is essential to remember that everyone makes mistakes when learning a new language. Do not be afraid to make mistakes, as this is the only way that you will learn and improve. If you make a mistake, try to correct yourself and move on.

Ask For Clarification On Your Perception of the Matter

If you are unsure about something, do not be afraid to ask for clarification. This is a common mistake that second-language speakers make, as they try to avoid asking questions for fear of looking stupid. However, it is essential to remember that there is no shame in asking for help. If you are unsure about something, ask a native speaker or another second-language speaker for clarification.

Increase Engagement With Colleagues

To prosper in business as a second-language speaker, increasing your engagement with colleagues is vital. This means participating in meetings and networking events and being an active team member. Also, do not be afraid to share your ideas, as this will help you stand out from the crowd.

By following these tips, you will be well on your way to prospering in business as a second-language speaker! However, do not be discouraged if you are not fluent in the language, as there are many resources that you can use to improve your skills. With dedication and hard work, you can succeed in any business venture!

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