Category: Contributed Posts

It’s Time to Focus On Your Small Business’ Shipping Options

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If your business generates products that need to be shipped, you must understand the logistics of your operations and make sure they run seamlessly. The following contributed post is entitled, It’s Time to Focus On Your Small Business’ Shipping Options.

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As a small business owners, chances are that your thought process focuses mostly on developing products, manufacturing them, advertising them, and encouraging consumers to buy them. But processing a sale isn’t the end of your work. You need to make sure that your products can make their way to them too! Shipping is an extremely important business process, especially if you are based online. So, let’s take a moment to focus on shipping and how your business should deal with it!

National Shipping

The first type of shipping that you should focus on is national shipping. It’s highly likely that the majority of your customers are going to be from the country that your business is based in – especially when you are first starting out. But it’s still good to offer them a few different options when it comes to shipping. Different customers have different preferences and needs, and you want to cater to as many people as possible!

Economy

Every business should offer economy delivery. This is the most basic of the basics. Depending on the courier you use, items should generally be with their recipients within three to five business days. It tends to be a good option for customers who aren’t all too fussed about getting their items straight away and who have patience. The benefit of economy postage is that it tends to be the lowest cost option. It can save customers money and this is likely to boost sales, as it brings the overall price of purchasing and receiving the product down.

Next Day

Next day delivery is a great option. Customers will have to pay more for it, but it does mean that they can have their goods the very next day, as long as they order before the deadline. Make sure that the deadline is set at a reasonable time that will allow you to source and package the product that they have requested and get it on its way to them. Increasing numbers of customers are leaving their shopping until last minute. This means that the option of next day delivery can make or break a sale – if they’re not going to get their item in time for when they need it, they’re not going to purchase it.

Same Day

Same day delivery tends to remain in the territory of major corporations who have huge numbers of staff to fulfill orders extremely quickly. But it may be an option for locals who are interested in having products delivered nearby – you could take their purchase to them yourself!

International Shipping

While you don’t have to offer international shipping, it really is a good idea. At the end of the day, you never know where your next biggest market will be. If you are selling online, chances are that anyone with an internet connection can access your online store and browse your goods. Make sure that all of these people can make purchases if they want to! Sure, international postage can be expensive. But at the end of the day, you can just charge the customer the true cost of posting and if they really want the product, they’ll pay the full amount.

Shipping Hazardous Goods

When you send items via the national postal service or by courier, you will generally have to declare whether you are sending any hazardous goods. But it’s important that you familiarise yourself with what constitutes hazardous goods – there may be items included on the list that surprise you. Batteries are a good example of this. The majority of us wouldn’t consider batteries to be dangerous, but if they leaked or came into contact with heat, they could actually prove to be. Remember to ensure that any hazardous goods are packaged appropriately and declared. This will help postal staff to deal with the package safely and correctly. Battery packaging can be found at C.L. Smith. Other potentially hazardous items include:

• Aerosols
• Alcohol
• Ammunition
• Asbestos
• Balloons
• Biological Substances
• Clinical or medical waste
• Controlled drugs and narcotics
• Corrosives
• Dry Ice
• More – you can find a list here.

Tracking

It would be great if we could send anything that we sell as a standard parcel and know that it will definitely make its way to the customer and that the customer will be acknowledge its arrival. But, unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. There are cases where items go missing in the post and don’t actually make their way to their recipient. There are also cases where dishonest people will claim that a parcel never arrived in a bid to keep its contents but receive a refund too – essentially getting the goods for free at our expense. So, if you are sending an item that is of particular value, chances are that you don’t want to risk this. You can combat these potential issues by sending your packages with tracking. This means that you will be able to see updates on the parcel’s progressing, seeing where it made it to and determining when and where it went missing if this were to happen. It also means that in order to take the package, someone will have to sign for it. People cannot then falsely claim that it hasn’t arrived. Sure, tracked postage costs more. But if the item you’re sending is of value, then the extra postage costs are more than worth it.

Returns and Exchanges

There’s always a chance that customers will want to return or exchange their products. So, to make this process as simple as possible for all involved, you might want to include a returns label in their package. If they don’t like what they’ve got, they can simply package it back up and stick the returns label on. This means that they won’t get the wrong address and the item will make its way back to you.

Shipping might not be the most exciting business topic, but it is essential. So, make sure that you’re doing it properly and offering your customers sufficient choice. This could help you to make a whole lot more profit in the long run!

How To Scale Your Craft Biz

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you start your own business from scratch, it’s important to know when and how to scale up your business. This is particularly important when you have a unique product and there is an increased demand. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, How To Scale Your Craft Biz.

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It sounds like the biggest oxymoron in the business world, because the idea that you can scale a handmade sounds ridiculous. After all, a handmade business is just you, doing your thing and making cash from it, so how can you scale a business that you create with your hands? Some people paint, some write and others make jewelry. The good news is that even if you are a small business with a labor-intensive production, you can still achieve scale – you just have to be willing to work for it.

Most people start out their crafty biz on sites like Etsy and Amazon, and as they’re involved in the production of the items, it’s a good place to start small. The issue comes along when the product takes off, and if you are in the position where you know your product is going to be a hit, you need a plan in place to take on the additional volume without trying to stay awake 24/7 to manage the workload. You need to learn that you have had an idea for a side hustle, and while you’re doing everything right now from the comfort of the spare room, you may well be inclined to start watching the reviews of Boss laser for equipment to invest in later – particularly if what you create requires cutting on a large scale! You should put as much effort in as you can – of course – but always have a back up plan for when your business booms. Below, you’ll read all the ways that you can scale your handmade business and stay balanced while you make it a success:

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Don’t Try To Be Perfect. You are going to get a lot of interest and orders, and you can’t always have total perfection with a handmade product. The thing is, perfection doesn’t exist with handmade products, and that’s why people love them so much: they’re unique. So, you need to ensure that you have put the customer experience first so that your business thrives for the right reasons.
Streamline Your Process. You cannot take on more volume if you haven’t itemized your production process and identify the glitches. You need to know what’s taking up your time, what the biggest causes of waste are and how you can get your process from setup and creation to fulfillment and shipping. Timing your process to perfection is important before you try to grow and potentially stretch yourself out in the wrong way.
Find A Partner. In manufacturing, not life! Diversify your product offering before you scale up from the spare bedroom, then partner up with a manufacturing business to speed up your processing times. Not only can you up the amount of product that you have in one go, you can help the customers to have the best possible experience.

You can scale your crafty business with some forward planning and careful arrangements. Take your time; there’s no rush to make yourself bigger than you can and all it will do will bite you if you grow too quickly.

Costs You’ll Need To Consider When Buying A Home in 2019

A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. A key component for wealth-building for most people is the purchase of a home. The more research done ahead of the better. Markets are different as are years. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Costs You’ll Need To Consider When Buying A Home in 2019.

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Will 2019 bring a big purchase for you? For some readers this will be the year in which all of your scrimping and saving pay off and you finally get a foot on the property ladder. It may be the year in which you upsize your home to accommodate a new addition to the family. Or it may even be the year in which you get your first ever investment property and begin to earn money as a landlord. Whatever your reason to buy, 2019 looks to be a promising year for property. Interest rates have been hiked multiple times throughout 2018 (more on those later) but they now show signs of stabilizing. Lawrence Yun; chief economist of the National Association of Realtors told the Washington Post;

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““The forecast for home sales will be very boring — meaning stable” although Yun was quick to note, “Home-price appreciation will slow down… The days of easy price gains are coming to an end, but prices will continue to rise.”

While 2019 seems as safe a time as any to invest in property, buyers will need to familiarize themselves with some of the costs incurred when buying real estate, especially if they are doing so for the very first time.

Interest rates

After years of stagnation, interest rates have risen sharply with no less than 3 interest rate hikes from The Federal Reserve in 2018. While rising interest rates are nowhere near bad enough to result in negative equity or chase buyers away from the market in their drives, but it is significant enough to add a little extra onto your monthly mortgage repayments.

The difference will depend on the size of the property you wish to buy. It could be as little as $50 or it could be a couple of hundred dollars.

Surveys

There are a number of different types of surveying which the property may require and it’s up to you to find a good engineer to carry them out. The property may well be subject to;

• ALTA / Land Title surveys (usually required by mortgage lenders)
• Surveyor’s real property reports
• Property boundary surveys
• Easement surveys (a survey that determines where an outside agency, for example, a utility company has the right of access to a portion of your property to carry out necessary maintenance or repairs.

Realtor’s costs

Unfortunately, realtors don’t like to work for free. Between your agent and the seller’s agent you can expect to pay around 6% of the value of the property in realtor’s fees.

Property taxes

They’re the only thing in life that’s certain other than… Wel, you know!

Closing costs

Aside from the surveyor’s fee you will likely also have to pay a range of closing costs to cover the legalities of conveying the property from the seller’s ownership to yours. These may include;

• Appraisal / valuation fees
• Wire transfer fees
• Underwriting and origination fees
• Document prep fee
• Credit report charges
• Title insurance: This protects you in the event that the seller doesn’t actually have full deed and authority to the property.
• Recording fees.

Miscellaneous running costs

Finally, you’ll need to account for all the extra miscellaneous costs that come with running your new home. These can quickly add up even if you live a frugal life. For example, if you’re used to an apartment, you may find that a house costs more to heat, water and tax.

Still, so long as you’ve taken the time to familiarize yourself with the inherent costs of buying real estate in this day and age, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy the home of your dreams in 2019!

Online Networking Success

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and key area of focus is Technology. Networking is an important part of anything you try to do these days whether it’s starting a business, starting a blog or writing a book. Knowing how to network online can be the one piece that puts your project over the top, and not knowing how to do so could kill it. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Online Networking Success.

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Networking is essential for any professional or business owner. Over the years, networking has changed considerably, with the vast majority being conducted online nowadays. But, are you networking effectively? There is a big difference between networking and simply liking other people’s posts or seeing how many connections you can get on LinkedIn. With that in mind, read on for five top tips for successful online networking.

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  1. Start local – When you are first getting started with online networking, it is a good idea to stay local. You may think that this is counterintuitive. After all, isn’t the whole point of using the Internet to reach a global audience? While this is true, and there are many benefits to gain by reaching your immediate geography in some situations, there are advantages of starting in your own backyard. This means that you will build a social network and have a better shot of meeting face-to-face, which will help you to establish quality connections that you can build on.
  2. Find a shared point of reference – When you are looking for people to connect with, it is good to look for something you have in common, for example, someone with the same causes or interested in volunteering, like Drew Fasy, clubs and organisations, previous employers, or your hometown. By referencing this when reaching out to the person, it gives them a reason to connect with you, offering a good conversation starter.
  3. Have a clear reason for choosing the person in question – You need to have a clear reason for wanting to meet the person in question. The person will be more likely to give you some of their valuable time if you give them a reason why you need to meet them specifically.
  4. Put some thought in – Before you meet with someone, you need to put some thought into what it is that you are asking for. This ensures that there is a clear structure and that the person you are meeting has a distinct idea of what it is you want and how/if they are able to assist. Don’t be vague – lines like “I want to pick your brain” or “I would like to meet you” just don’t work. Would you want to give someone your time if they simply said that?
  5. Ask for the meeting – A valuable contact is not made by simply connecting with someone on LinkedIn. You need to talk to the person, preferably face-to-face, but if that is not possible, a video chat will suffice. This is the only way to learn from someone or get the help that you need.

So there you have it – some top tips to help you with online networking. As mentioned, online networking should be viewed as a starting point, you then need to connect with the person face-to-face. Of course, this is not always geographically possible, but with video chat available nowadays, you can use this instead.

Client Emergency: Shifting Products Fast

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. It’s important for any business to be able to correct mistakes and crisis situations, especially in instances where products are being shipped and sometimes be delayed or lost. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, Client Emergency: Shifting Products Fast.

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One of the greatest excitements about being in business is no day is ever the same. Every single day, there is a new challenge that you face. Something that many companies need to be more prepared for is when a client is in an emergency situation. If you have a business partnership, you should always prepare for the unexpected needs of your client. You have both taken on each other as partners and thus you must also be ready to pick up burdens from time to time. One such burden can be when a client is in desperate need for a sudden and new delivery of your products. For example, you are a truck engine manufacturer and a truck manufacturer just lost a shipment at sea due to bad weather. They have a client that is still awaiting their delivery of their trucks however new ones need to be made quickly. The partner now needs a fast and urgent delivery of your engines. Have you prepared for this, and what do you do?

Assess the urgency

Even though some companies are always going to keep a backup of their products for emergencies, sometimes when orders are filled up and more keep coming in this batch is used. A drill manufacturer might need to suddenly supply a home building company as they have chosen to expand at short notice. The backup batch is therefore used on this occasion. However now that they lack that backup batch, should their call to your metal company be treated as urgent? Assessing the urgency is somewhat of a hidden art but really, it’s the skill of gauging what the client really needs. You might be too busy to supply a client with your products but if put all your stations into overdrive you could end up making more mistakes, employees could end up making silly mistakes and getting hurt and quality control can drastically drop. Sometimes some emergencies aren’t really emergencies, so communicate with your client and assess how urgent their need is so you can cope and not make mistakes that will cost you.

Use reliable logistics

One thing that cannot ever be discounted or devalued is reliability. A company that can offer you their expert logistics expertise and services reliably should be placed high in your esteem. A hauling company that can transport freight at great pace and consistency to your client will save you both time and reaffirm and strengthen your relationship. A company such as Jayde transport is something to consider as being a reliable workhorse to come to your aid in cases of urgent client requirements. They have warehouse services but they stand out most in interstate trucking where their massive freight haulers can carry huge loads at one time. When you need to supply a business partner quickly and in large quantities, this is the kind of service that should be taken seriously.

Shifting products fast when a client is in a tight spot is incredibly important. They need you to come through and help them. Fulfilling their needs speedily will only go to strengthen your relationship and show them they made the right choice by entering into a business partnership with you.

3 Major Ways Technology Has Transformed Healthcare

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship, and Technology. The healthcare industry has been transformed by technology over the last decade. Whether you’re in a healthcare profession, a consumer/patient or an investor, it’s important understand these impacts. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 3 Major Ways Technology Has Transformed Healthcare.

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Technology has always been considered rather a driving force behind the healthcare improvements that hit the headlines today. It’s easy to come to that conclusion when you see the rate of innovation with technology in medicine today. Any graduate of health will agree with the fact that technology is having a positive impact in our lives today, from the data collection breakthroughs to the research and treatments that allow leaders in medicine to find fresh ways to practice medicine in the years to come.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the three ways that technology has really packed a punch with healthcare and medicine in the last decade.

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Better & More Accessible Treatment
One of the biggest technological observations of our time is the way that we have more access to better treatment due to the innovations that are occuring. For example, geneticists have managed to deliver healthy cells to the right places using non-viral PiggyBac DNA Modification. The efficiency in which this works enables a large amount of genetic cargo to be delivered into T cells to create therapies that weren’t around in the early CAR-T therapies. Most therapies are viral based, which presents problems relating to safety concerns. Instead of the viral vectors to create therapies, the NVPB delivers CAR molecule genes to T cells.

Improved Care
It’s a growing area, but the biggest area that has grown in medicine and continues to do so is the care of the patients. The use of IT has made patient care far safer than it used to be and the fact that doctors and nurses in front of the patients are using tablets and smart devices to record their data, and then sharing it right away is indicative of the benefits of health IT. The accumulation of lab results and the recording of vital signs and other patient data into one system is only going to result in better patient care and more efficient services in a medical setting. Scientists need new ways to study the trends in healthcare and with better access to data, and medical breakthroughs can be studied at a quicker rate.

Disease Control
There have been huge developments in software programs that resulted in the WHO being able to classify illnesses along with their causes and symptoms and putting all of these into a huge database. This database gave each individual illness and their symptoms 14,000 individual codes and allows medical professionals and researchers to track, retrieve and use all their data in the fight to control diseases. The better research that is done, the better outcomes in general for the wider world. The software that is created for the medical community plays a huge role in tracking procedures, reducing waste and paperwork levels. These also allow doctors and healthcare professionals to improve the quality of care and the all round efficiency of what they do.

As there is a drive toward better health IT, doctors are getting enormous benefits from the drive toward a better system and it’s expected that there will be more developments in the future.

Here’s How You Could Increase Your Retail Sales without Breaking the Bank

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. In order to successfully run a business, controlling cash flow and money management key. It’s always important to consider how to increase sales and earn more money. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Here’s How You Could Increase Your Retail Sales without Breaking the Bank.

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A lot of people think that they need to spend money to make money, and sometimes this is the case. There are however things that you can do to try and boost your business efficiency without spending anything at all.

Setup Your Store

The very first thing that you need to be thinking about is how your store is set up. Think about it, where are the displays? How long is the queue to the checkout? Does the store seem packed? You really don’t want to force your customers to hunt through racks just so that they can find what they need. Your displays need to be clean and they also need to make it easier for your customers to find any items that they MUST have. There are a couple of ways for you to do this. The first thing that you need to do is use this “power wall” wisely. In the US, people drive on the right-hand side of the road. For this reason, you need to make your right wall into a feature. Customers will naturally turn right when they walk in, and this is a fantastic way for you to capitalise on that. If you are in Australia, New Zealand or even the UK then your power wall will be on the left.

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Zone Everything

You need to remove any excess merchandise from the store floor. If you sell shoes for example, you need to make sure that you only have one pair of each size on show at any one time. This will encourage customers to buy because they think that it is the last one, and it also stops your floor from becoming too cluttered. When you sell that size, put another one on display. You also need to keep an eye on your decompression zone. This is the first 10 feet inside your front door. Customers are very prone to distractions when they enter this part of the store, so keep it as clean and as de-cluttered as possible. This will encourage your customers to walk right into the heart of the store, which is exactly what you want.

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Queues

It’s very easy for a customer to become spooked if they see a huge queue. They don’t want to wait that long and they may even weigh up whether or not the product they are buying is worth the time it takes to queue. If you want to stop this then put your register at the back. You can also go mobile if you want. A POS payment system is a fantastic choice here because it gives your team the chance to serve anywhere on the store floor and this can keep your customers from leaving without making a purchase.

Staff for Traffic

A lot of stores will ask their staff to work when the most sales are made. You shouldn’t do this at all. In fact, you should always staff according to the amount of traffic you have. Your employees will be able to help everyone much more efficiently and this can lead to you experiencing way more sales. This will also stop your staff from becoming bored when working on the store floor as well, which leads onto the next point.

Your Staff have a Huge Role to Play

You have to make sure that your store is well-staffed. You also have to make sure that they are helping you to boost your conversion rate. They can do this by meeting and greeting customers as soon as they walk through the door. The best way for you to do this would be for you to have a staff member working the door at all times. If you just have them stood there then this can be intimidating for a customer, so have them “tidy up” or look busy around the front of the store. This will help your customers to feel more at ease and it can work wonders for your branding as well. If your team are having trouble engaging with customers, then stop them from asking yes and no questions. For example, instead of them asking “Can I help you to find something?” tell them to ask questions such as “What are you looking for today?” This requires the person who is shopping to engage, and even if the outcome is still negative, at least some engagement happened. Little things like this can also work wonders for your conversion rate as well because it gives your staff the chance to locate products that might be in the back of the warehouse.

Ways to Increase the Efficiency of Your Fleet

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If run correctly, a business in the trucking industry can be very, very lucrative whether you’re operating your own truck, or if you own a fleet of trucks and don’t drive any of them. With so many moving parts, it’s critical to make your operation as efficient as possible. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Ways to Increase the Efficiency of Your Fleet.

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Managing a fleet can be an incredibly difficult task. After all, you have expenses that you need to control, and you also have a ton of vehicles that you need to maintain. As if that wasn’t enough, you also have staff that you need to keep on-task. This gives you very little room for error, but it is possible to make the whole thing easier on yourself.

Preventative Maintenance

The key to operating any fleet is to try and keep your vehicles on the road. Preventative maintenance can really help you to address any minor issues as soon as possible. It also helps you to keep on top of any fluid refills, hose inspections, tyre checks and more. This can save you money and it will also help to keep your team safe as much as possible. Accidents cost way more than you think, and if you do not keep on top of your fleet then this increases the chances of one happening. If you want to know more about that then check out HD Fleet.

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Tyre Management

Your tyres are vitally important, and they are the third largest operational cost for a fleet. You need to take care of your tyres if you want to maximise their lifespan, so set up a maintenance plan and also check the tread, inflation and for signs of wear. The reason why tyre maintenance is so important is because it can save you a ton of fuel, not to mention that if you have to drive in icy conditions, it also ensures the safety of your team.

Fuel Management

It can be hard to control fuel costs. If you want to try and save money here, then you need to invest in GPS. A GPS tracking device will help you to know if your team are staying on track for their deliveries and it also makes sure that they are taking the most efficient route. Fleet management software can really boost the operation of your fleet as well, as it will show you which vehicles are driving for the longest journeys, and how the profit of each delivery weighs up against your fuel cost.

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Go Paperless

There is absolutely no point in you creating more paperwork than what is absolutely necessary. Filling out paperwork can be time-consuming and it can also be daunting to your technicians. It can also leave a lot of room for error. If a technician records their hours incorrectly then this can be a disaster for your finances, and this is the last thing that you need when you are trying to focus on efficiency. One way for you to prevent all of this would be for you to invest in management software. As mentioned above, it comes with many benefits, and it’s great for recording the hours your team drive without requiring any input from them at all. On top of that, fleet management software is very affordable when you look at the amount of money it can save you every single day.

Capacity Building Activities For All Businesses

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two of its key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Capacity building helps increase the efficiency of businesses and organizations. This contributed post is thus entitled, Capacity Building Activities For All Businesses.

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Capacity building helps people and organizations to overcome the obstacles that inhibit them from realizing their business development goals. It is an extremely effective way of developing new managerial skills and supporting employees over the long term. In this post, we will take a look at some of the best capacity building activities that your business needs to try.

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Improving access to information and training resources: Leadership and management are not innate skills; they are skills that need to be learned and perfected over time. Providing individuals, who are either in management positions or aiming for roles within management, with access to resources will aid them to improve their leadership skills. Effective leaders empower the rest of the workplace and in doing so increase productivity. Provide access to libraries, textbooks, manuals, online material, training courses and such like. Relevant publications can improve leadership qualities and provide you with greater insight into your niche.

Encouraging open communication: One of the reasons that businesses fail to grow is because there is no communication between departments, employees, management or any combination of these sectors. Communication needs to be more than one person talking and expecting others to listen. It is by its very nature a two-way process.

Collaborative working with HR: Working closely with HR will strengthen your business processes. Working together to create an effective business development strategy is extremely beneficial, especially in relation to training. Successful companies are those that have the right people in the right roles, and that source and provide the right training to support individuals within their roles. The process starts with knowing your employees, their strengths and the areas in which they need support. HR development is one of the most crucial forms of capacity building, and thus reassessing employee roles, training, and support, is a great place to start.

Seek outside assistance: Business coaching such as that offered by James Ray and leadership consultancy firms can provide you with the assistance you require to build capacity effectively. From changing processes, to coaching personnel, to implementing new organizational structures, there are many ways to achieve this, and they will determine the most effective approach for your business.

Coordinating alliances: Finally, becoming a market leader, and staying ahead of others in your market sector, does not mean you have to do it alone. Reaching out to other businesses of a similar size or set-up can benefit both parties. An open discussion of working practices, training programs, and even marketing campaigns, can help you to see areas for improvement that were not obvious before.

This merely scratches the surface of the different types of activities that can increase capacity at your business, with more examples including staffing selection and development, strategic planning, team building, harvesting networking opportunities and much more. However, if you want to start building capacity today, the five points that have been mentioned provide a great place to begin.

Tips For Employers: Employee Bereavement

A key focus of my blog is Health and Wellness. While employers seek to get the maximum productivity out of their employees, it’s also important to take care of workers as much as possible. A key time when employees need flexibility from their employers is during bereavement. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, Tips For Employers: Employee Bereavement.

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When business owners think about the need to manage their employees and provide assistance wherever possible, they – quite naturally – tend to focus on matters related to the workplace. However, as time passes, most business owners will come to realize that employee management extends far beyond the basics of the work itself.

Perhaps most challengingly of all, most employers will at some point find themselves needing to manage an employee who has recently been bereaved. Given that death is such a sensitive subject, and everyone reacts to the topic differently, managing such a scenario can feel almost impossible.

However, there is one, simple way to manage employee bereavement as effectively as possible: let the employee dictate what happens next.

What does this mean?

As we touched on above, everyone grieves differently. Some people will actively want to immerse themselves in work, seeing it as a welcome distraction. Others will find work burdensome and difficult to cope with when grieving, and would thus prefer their workload to be reduced.

Essentially, there is no blanket “managing an employee who is grieving” policy that you can apply to your company. Instead, you have to manage each case on an ad-hoc basis.

How can this be achieved?

Most business owners will discover the sad news that an employee has been bereaved through direct communication, often in conjunction with a request for time off. It is often tempting to just reply to this communication with agreement, and a few kind words.

However, the first communication is your opportunity to ask for more information. You can gently ask how they are doing, and – most importantly – what they need from your company over the next few weeks. Do they only want to take a day off work for the funeral, and otherwise continue as normal? Or do they need more time off, perhaps due to having to go through probate, speak with the likes of Winer, McKenna, Burritt & Tillis regarding legal proceedings, or arrange a house clearance? The latter point is particularly important: bereavement is often a complicated process in terms of simple bureaucracy as well as the emotional impact, but your employee may feel they cannot request time off to deal with these matters, so you have to extend the offer instead.

Ensure that your employee knows they can take the time they need; it’s the right thing to do, and it’s better for your company; after all, a distracted employee who is juggling a lengthy probate case is unlikely to be at their most efficient. By ensuring your employee has adequate time off, the return-to-work process should be simpler for both of you.

How should return-to-work be managed?

Whether your employee has taken a day off or an entire month, you’ll still need to manage the return-to-work process. The best way to approach this is to take each day as it comes. Spend a little time with the employee each day just asking how they are and if there is anything they need, but trust their response: if they say they’re fine to continue as normal, believe them, even if you suspect otherwise. Grief is different for everyone, so all you can do is let each employee be your guide while ensuring they know that you will provide any assistance should it be required.

In conclusion

Managing a bereaved employee is undoubtedly difficult, but by ensuring you provide opportunities for employees to ask for more time off, and allowing the employee to judge their preferred workflow after returning to work, the process should be as smooth as it possibly can be.