Encourage Healthy Employees With These Wellness Strategies

The first principal of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Health/Wellness. No matter which kind of organization you’re running, a key component will be the wellness of your employees and staff. Helping them stay in top shape will all but assure that you will get maximum productivity out of them. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Encourage Healthy Employees With These Wellness Strategies.

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Did you know that healthy employees are one of the best assets that any business can have? It makes a lot of sense when you think about it – healthier employees won’t get as sick quite as often and so won’t have to take as many days off to recover from illnesses. That means that you won’t waste any money paying for employees to take days off. But that isn’t the only reason why you need to encourage good health amongst your employees. You will find that fit and healthy workers are a lot more productive, as they have plenty of energy and drive.

There are lots of employers who already know just how beneficial healthy staff are, and so have stepped up measures to encourage healthy choices both in the office and at home. Here are a few popular wellness strategies that work well with employees. Perhaps you will want to try some out with your own staff.

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Get Them To Ditch Their Cars

I’m sure that a lot of your employees will drive to the office. This may be the most time-efficient option for people, but it won’t be doing their health any good. It’s worth trying to motivate the employees who live close enough to the office to walk or cycle to work. There are a few ways you can incentivize these choices. For instance, you might want to install some bike racks outside your office so that cyclists have somewhere to keep their bikes safe and secure while they are working. To try to get their workers walking to work, some companies offer their employees wearable devices, like Fitbits to track their daily steps. Running weekly or monthly step competitions within your office will certainly encourage your workers to walk more!

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Help Them Fight Personal Injury Battles

No matter how fit we may be, it can still be possible to end up in accidents and injured. If an employee does end up injured, they may be forced to take a considerable length of time off work. There are ways you can help them speed up their recovery, thankfully. One thing some companies do is build a relationship with a personal injury attorney who they can then get to represent their employee in court. You can contact Sachs Waldman for more information about these kinds of attorneys. Getting a good lawyer on board will greatly improve their chances of winning compensation which they can then use to invest in their rehabilitation and healthcare. Before you know it, the employee will have returned to a full bill of health and will be back in the office.

Encourage Healthy Snack Choices In The Office

Healthy eating goes a long way to helping us maintain good physical and mental health, so you should try to encourage your employees to opt for healthy snacks whenever they feel a pang of hunger. The best way to make sure that everyone reaches for a piece of fruit instead of a chocolate bar is to offer some free healthy snacks and drinks in the office kitchen. A large bowl of fresh fruit will go down really well, especially with those workers who want to satisfy their sweet tooth. It’s also a good idea to offer some cereal bars and other healthy snacks that aren’t too calorific, sugary, or fatty. As well as offering the usual teas and coffee, make sure there is some bottled water and fruit juice for your employees as well.

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Promote Social Connections Between Coworkers

Lots of research has suggested that employees who make friends with their colleagues and coworkers often enjoy being at work than those who don’t. It makes working together a lot easier, and employees who are friends will often support and help their friends a lot as well. So, it will be really beneficial for you if you promote the creation of social connections between your workforce. There are many ways you can do this, but one of the easiest is organizing office drinks on a Friday evening every so often. Most companies host these drinks every two weeks or on a monthly basis.

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Offer Support To Staff With Mental Health Troubles

These days, we all know how difficult it can be to maintain good mental health. Some studies have shown that employees who are emotionally supported in the workplace often find it a lot easier to maintain better mental health than those that aren’t. So, it’s really worth rolling out some top support strategies to all of your employees, especially those who really struggle with serious issues like depression. For instance, some companies like to welcome a councillor into their office once a month, and offer their employees the chance to book a session with them. You should also prevent the development of any workplace bullying and make sure that no one is ever overstretched with their workload.

Offer Gym Memberships As A Perk Of The Job

You will already be offering your employees plenty of perks of the job, but do you already offer them a free monthly gym membership? More and more businesses are now offering this to employees, as most gym memberships are too expensive for individuals to buy on their own. Once you do offer a membership, you will find that your workers are a lot more likely to go to the gym on a regular basis. As a result, they will quickly get fitter and their overall health should also improve.

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Install Office Showers

If you have the space in your office, you should think about installing some showers. This should encourage more employees to run or cycle to work. Lots of people are put off from getting to work in these ways because they will have to spend the day sweaty at their desk. But once showers have been installed, they will be able to take a quick wash so they are fresh for the day ahead.

Once you use these wellness strategies, you should notice a difference in your staff!

Your Most Valuable Resource: People & How To Take Care Of Them

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money. Whether you’re running a business or another class of organization, taking care of your employees is critical. Creating an environment where they feel as though their best interests are being considered will assure their loyalty to management. The following contribute post is therefore entitled, Your Most Valuable Resource: People & How To Take Care Of Them.

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The idea that you can have a successful company with happy customers and not treat your employees well is ridiculous. In fact, the whole systems works on a trickle-down effect, with happy employees supplying the best productivity and service, and so pleasing customers. Something that then leads to better profits. Happily, even if you haven’t thought of your business in these terms before you can significantly improve how you treat your employees with the advice elbow. Read on to find out more.

Leadership

Great leadership can make all the difference in how your employees feel about their work. Such leadership may not always be what you think it is either. In fact, it’s not about striding around the place barking orders or even having the ability to do all the tasks from top to bottom yourself. Instead, it’s about having a strong vision for your company both inside and out.

What this means so that you need to have an accurate idea of how you want your company to run internally and balance this with the successes and profit you make. You need to draw a line in the sand and decide that you will treat your employee with respect no matter what their role, and insist that they treat each other this way as well.

In fact, bullying, intimidation, and unpleasantness is often something that can degrade an employee’s work experience and job satisfaction. To that end, you need to have up to date policies that deal fairly with any instances of this as well. If you want our employees to feel happy and safe at work that is.

Safety

Of course, your employee’s safety is also crucial in terms of the task you are asking them to do. In fact, businesses have a responsibility to those that work for them. What that means is it’s crucial to be aware of any laws and guidelines concerning the type of tasks you need them to do.

In fact, even in an office environment, there is plenty to be aware of such as desk height and ergonomics as well as manual handling training. Where employees are shows how to move boxes correctly, so they don’t end up injuring themselves.

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However, in more specific environments there are even more safety issues to be aware of. For example, when working with machinery the risk of employee harm is much higher, but it can be reduced by using items like cable housing and protective carriers. Something that you can visit Dynatect Manufacturing for more information on. A place where you can also find help with others ways that you can improve your machine process to increase its safe use and productivity.

The same is true when your workers are using construction equipment and heavy machinery too because these things have a partially high risk of causing harm or damage if they are not operated properly.

To that end, proper induction training courses for each piece of specialized equipment are needed, as well as regular refreshers at appropriate intervals as well. Clear signage to remind those that are working around such machines of the danger they pose, as well as the safety gear they need to wear are also vital aspects of looking after your employee’s safety in such environments.

Physical Wellbeing

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Another way that you can show your employees that you care about their well being is by encouraging them to be as healthy and fit at work as possible. In fact, this is something of a new idea that is taking off, with many business offering exercise classes within work time. Some companies are even choosing to offer meditation or power nap breaks that allow people to rest and recuperate, as well, something that is also good for reducing stress levels.

Another way that many businesses can show concern for the physical well being of their employees is to install office furniture that encourages movement while working. This may include a standing desk, treadmills, and even balance ball chairs which are known to be excellent for posture and core strength.

Of course, all of these items do cost money, but what most smart employers realize is that if their workforce is physically more healthy, they are likely to be more productive as well. In fact, integrating such programs in a work environment can significantly reduce sick days and so boost company productivity, and save on cover over the long term as well.

Salary and Wages

People don’t tend to work for free, not unless they are lottery winners or secret millionaires that is, and that is why to show your care about your employees you need to offer them a decent salary and benefits package.

What that means is that the salary you pay needs to be comparable, if not better to your closest competitors in the market. Although, if you can’t match them in terms of cold hard cash, you may wish to consider introducing an excellent employee benefits scheme that includes discounted or free gym membership and other perks. Something that you will be able to purchase as a compare documented price and so will work economically for your business as well as for boosting morale.

Social

Lastly, if you want your employees to enjoy work and feel valued and so stay with you for as long as possible, creating a community atmosphere in the workplace is essential.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you ignore sensible guidelines about appropriate behavior at work, but instead it’s about introducing opportunities for workmates to spend quality time together outside of the office.

Some firms do this with regular social evenings, while others prefer team building activities like adventure weekends away. The idea being that not only does this strengthen bonds between individual employees and help them to communicate and get on better at work, but also allows people to feel more integrated and valued as well.

Something that can contribute to a feeling of belonging, and so help to boost your employees’ overall job satisfaction. It can even reduce your worker attrition rate, and so work out better for your budget as well.

After all, if people are your most essential resource, it’s crucial that you look after them in the best way that you can.

More That a Cog: Show Your Employees That You Care

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Whichever kind of organization you’re running, taking care of your employees is key. If you do that, they’ll continue to give maximum effort. The following contributed post is thus entitled, More That a Cog: Show Your Employees That You Care.

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These days, employees want more than a paycheck from their employers; they want to feel like they’re part of something more important, to believe that they’re not just slogging away at a job so that a salary ends up in their bank account each month. Of course, money is a factor – a big factor – but there are others, such as knowing that their boss sees them as more than a cog in their machine. Showing a more caring approach doesn’t just affect your employees, either – it’ll be good for you, too, and the culture of the company. Below, we take a look at a number of ways you can become a more caring boss.

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Beyond Business Chat

You’ve hired your employee to do a job for you, but that doesn’t mean that all of your interactions have to be solely about business. If they are, then you can’t have any complaints if they think you just see them as an expendable employee. Get to know your staff on a deeper level. No, that doesn’t mean you should spend every Friday night bar-hopping; it just means getting to know what makes them tick, what they want to achieve in life, what their dreams are, things like that. Their chief aim in life isn’t to work for you — but maybe you can help them along on their journey to wherever they want to go.

Give Trust

There are some bosses who really shouldn’t have hired any employees at all, since all they want their employees to do is whatever they’re told to do. They’re micromanaged to death, and when that happens, there’s no amount of personal chit-chat that can make up for what is painfully obvious — that the professional side of the employee’s life is of no importance. As such, one of the best ways to foster a deeper relationship is to give the employee the opportunity to do the job they were hired to do, without looking over their shoulder. It’ll be a big step along their professional journey, and you’ll have been responsible.

Sympathy

In the cold-hearted corporate world, you’re told to park your personal problems at the door when you arrive at work. This might work if the human switched to robot mode once they entered the workplace, but it’s not realistic if that’s not an option. If you’ve got a huge personal problem in your life, then there’s not much you can do about the influence it has on your life, nor should you need to. No-one likes a boss who puts the company’s profits above an employee’s personal problems. Show some sympathy, and do what you can to alleviate any problems that they may have, such as giving them extra time off from work.

Look After Their Health

Employees are working longer hours than ever before, and it’s beginning to take its toll. There’s been a sharp rise in work-related health conditions, especially those connected to mental illness and prolonged periods of sitting. This, of course, does nobody any good — not the employee nor the company. So put making sure your employees are fit and healthy at the heart of your employee wellness programs. If someone’s feeling the mental strain from work, give them a few paid days off. You can also initiate a telemedicine system at the office, so your employees can get their health virtually assessed by a professional. These types of workplace initiatives will, primarily, show that you care about your staff’s wellbeing, but also boost morale and reduce sick days, too.

Take Their Side

If you’re in business for long enough, eventually you’re going to have to deal with a rude or hostile client. Or, to put it another way, your staff may have to deal with such a client. Now, in business, it’s generally recommended to make believe that the customer is always right, but to do this, this may sometimes mean throwing your employee under the bus. Once you side with a client who was rude and in the wrong, you’ll have lost the trust, and most likely respect, of your employee. You do not have to take the side of a customer who is rude and insulting towards your staff — side with your employee, and tell the client that their business is no longer welcome.

Employee Perks

You are, of course, paying your employees a salary, which is hopefully relatively generous in the first place. But just think about how much money they’re making for you; it likely greatly exceeds their salary. While your staff will know that this is part of the deal of a job, a few employee perks that go beyond their pay are always appreciated. Even small things, like buying a few drinks at Friday happy hour, will be a good start. Treat them well, and they’ll treat you well — it’s the same in business as it is in life.

Tell The Truth

An employee will always be skeptical of a boss who says nothing but good things. And why wouldn’t they be? There are problems in every aspect of life, including business. If the boss isn’t mentioning anything contrary at all, then what’s the deal? Get into the habit of telling it to your employees straight. This could be about the health of the company, your expectations for their work, or any mistakes the employee has made. It’ll make the praise all the more believable. And talking of which….

Genuine Praise

Let’s never forget that employees are human, and, like all humans, like praise! So if one of your workers does something praise-worthy, then tell them. And don’t just say “good job” and punch them on the shoulder; tell them specifically what they’re being praised for, including what it was about their work that impressed you.

All In It Together

Finally, work hard to avoid any divisions between you and your employees. You do not exist on a higher plane to your “regular” workers, you’re just the leader of the team. Emphasize that you’re all in it together!

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.

Keeping Your Employees Happy

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two of its key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. No matter what kind of business or organization you’re running, it will be very important for your operations to keep your employees happy and continually dedicated to your mission. The following contributed post is likewise entitled, Keeping Your Employees Happy.

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When it comes to running a business, the most important thing besides making money should be keeping your employees happy. At the end of the day, they help your business tick over, improve and become more successful. So what ways can you keep your own staff happy?

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Make Work-Life Balance Important

We all want to have an equal amount of work-life in our lives. And not all businesses focus on this when it comes to their employees. By overworking employees and giving them little time for their own lives can end up having a huge effect on their mental wellbeing. They also might be more likely to leave the organization if they don’t feel like their lives outside of work are considered.

Find ways of bringing work-life balance into the business whether that’s through flexible working or offering overtime or lieu for hours worked outside of their contract.

Reward And Give Employees Incentives

Respect between the employer and employee can only lead to good things. So be sure to reward your staff when they’ve worked hard and offer employees incentives for projects and work that needs to be done. These don’t necessarily have to be cash related, but any sort of reward can have a great effect on your staff’s productivity and keeps them happy within the organization.

One example would be to offer bonuses in return for completing a project before the initial deadline or by completing a certain amount of tasks. You might also be in the position to offer a promotion, so always consider this as a reward or incentive to staff members.

Listen To Their Worries

Good communication between staff members and those in higher positions is hugely beneficial to employment mediation. Listen to staff concerns and do your best to recommend solutions or fix them if you can. It’s important to make staff feel valued, and if they don’t, then they’re more likely to leave. Being honest with them is also appreciated so if something is going on that affects them, let them know. Be transparent and open with your staff, and they’ll do the same if they have anything they’re concerned about.

Encourage Socialising With Staff

A strong team of staff is more beneficial than one who doesn’t spend any time with each other outside of working hours. That being said, it’s useful to organize staff parties and days out that can help staff members socialize with one another, especially if it’s a big organization.

Make sure your office space provides an opportunity for socializing too whether that’s in the form of a canteen or breakout space. If you can’t offer that, then maybe have a budget to organize a group lunch every so often.

A happy organization is a productive one so it’s always ideal to keep tabs on your staff and what can make them happier. If you don’t care about your employees enough, they’ll feel the same, and that can have a negative effect on the company.

Ensuring Your Employees Give An A Star Performance

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and to of its key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A major part of growing and maintaining your organization is hiring and then properly developing your staff. Doing so will be advantageous while not doing so will have an adverse effect on your overall operations. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Ensuring Your Employees Give An A Star Performance.

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When hiring your employees, you should understand by now the importance of not rushing the process. There are so many things that you need to look out for in order to make sure that you’re choosing the right candidates for the job. You need to ask the right questions, be a good judge of character, and follow up references given to you so that you can essentially have a second opinion on what you’re already thinking. But it doesn’t stop there. Once you have decided who is going to be part of the team, you need to turn them into your business warriors, as they are now the face of what your business, and any mistakes they make will not only reflect it, but it’ll reflect you too. Your faith lies in their hands, so while small errors happen from time to time, you want to avoid all disasters so that you stand a good chance at having the success you want and deserve.

Here are some ideas of how to ensure that your employees are giving an A star performance every single day.

Train them to perfection
If for any reason your employee’s aren’t up to scratch with the latest software or tools, then it is down to you to make sure they learn, and properly. Fortunately, you can offer them all the Onsite Microsoft Excel Training they need, without them even having to leave the office and miss out on anything else that’s happening. So whether you opt for group training, one on one, or taking a complete beginner and turning them into an expert – you don’t have to worry about wasting any valuable time as you will have what you need right at your very fingertips.

Give them the support
Sometimes we can wake up on the wrong side of the bed and be in an awful mood for the rest of the day. Sometimes it can be a lot more severe than that, and yet you may not be able to tell the difference when it’s happening to someone else other than yourself. This is why you need to be a supportive boss that gives their staff all the help they need and require when times get hard. Keep your office door open when you’re not busy, and let everyone know that you’re there to help or even just listen when they need it. While professionalism should always be in your mind and working attitude, we’re still human.

Create weekly or monthly incentives
There is nothing wrong with creating a little more incentive when it comes to your employees finishing and completing tasks to the best of their ability. Of course, one could argue that they’re there to do the job brilliantly regardless of what’s on offer, and while this is true, having an incentive gives people that extra kick up the bum they may need to motivate themselves and be a force to be reckoned with. What you offer doesn’t have to be huge – it can be as simple as a nice bottle of wine up for grabs, or cinema tickets.

A Look at Careers: The Federal Government’s General Schedule Pay Scale and Salaries Revisited

“When I first moved here, a couple of men told me they had achieved their ‘14s’ when we first met and I didn’t know what that meant.”

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and some of its focuses are: Career Discussions, Education, and Financial Literacy/Money. I originally published this piece in 2015 on the Examiner as I started to understand some of the nuances of being a federal employee. While the employment in the government is relatively stable in comparison to the private  sector, there are some other unique differences which I thought were worth discussing. If you or someone you know is considering a federal career, this is a good and insightful read.

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My last article gave an overview of my experience as a federal employee in a general sense. This article will talk about one of the more intriguing parts of being a federal employee; the General Schedule (GS). The GS is particularly relevant when one is looking to get hired into the federal government and it takes on more significance when seeking promotion within one the federal government’s many agencies.

The General Schedule is a payroll scale which dictates the salary of each federal civilian employee. The scale spans from levels 1-15, with 15 being the highest paid and most senior. The only levels higher than the GS are the Senior Executive Service (SES) and then becoming an elected official.

Within the GS some promotions to the next grade are automatic without competition. Within grades, there are ‘steps’ where one automatically gets a raise periodically. There are 10 steps to each grade, and the first four step increases are automatic annually. Afterwards they are every two years. This seems like a really good deal right?

Reaching the GS-14 and 15 levels from the 13 level involves competition. That’s assuming that there’s money in the federal budget or ‘continuing resolutions’ for those promotions to become available in the first place. Another caveat is that one cannot jump to a higher grade without proving that they adequately performed the functions of the grade below it – going from a 13 to a 15 for example. A 13 must first become a 14 before reaching a 15.

While the GS is standard across the board for all federal employees, the cost of living for geographic location varies. For example, a GS-14 in my hometown of Buffalo, NY would make slightly less than a GS-14 in the Washington, DC metro area due to the vast difference in the cost of living.

What does all of this matter? As with everything, it isn’t a perfect system depending on your point of view, and there are pros and cons to working in the public vs. the private sector vs. academia. As described in my Earning a Ph.D. series, ascension within the federal government isn’t entirely dependent on one’s degree level. Having a Ph.D. for example doesn’t guarantee a promotion or even favor within an agency, and there are scenarios where Ph.D.’s can end up being supervised by master’s and in some cases bachelor’s level staff, something that would almost never occur in the private sector or in academia.

“We have Ph.D.’s.!!! We shouldn’t be making the same amount of salary as those filing records or who are doing administrative things,” a former colleague who has since gone to the private sector often lamented. That’s another caveat, tenure is an important component to federal employment. Specifically, there are instances where someone with a lower level of education who has been in the system longer, can make equal or more salary than someone with greater academic credentials who has been the system for less time. Ponder that.

“I wanted to move to Washington DC, so that I could get my 11,” a friend with a background in Human Resources who was a GS-9 said upon moving to the Washington, DC. Because the federal government is centralized in Washington, DC, the opportunities to get promoted are more plentiful there. Likewise, once promotions are achieved, that level is typically maintained wherever one goes afterwards throughout their career.

“When I first moved here, a couple of men told me they had achieved their ‘14s’ when we first met and I didn’t know what that meant,” a female acquaintance shared with me about her early dating experiences in the area. A funny but true and in some ways disturbing aspect to all of this is that in the DC Metro area, your GS-level can have huge social implications. In the minds of some, it represents: power, prestige and status in addition a considerable salary, the latter probably being the most important though they are generally lower than comparable private sector positions.

In closing, none of this information is confidential so I won’t get in trouble for sharing any of this. The salaries of federal employees are readily available to the general public online. Thus, when you know someone’s GS-level, you have an idea of what they earn, unlike in the private sector – an unsettling thought in terms of privacy to some degree. Nevertheless, it’s one of the cons that come along with being a public servant. The bonuses tend to also be more robust in the private sector.

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There are other aspects to being a federal employee such as the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) which is the retirement plan/system for civilian employees. I will probably discuss it in a subsequent post about retirement as it’s something I didn’t quite understand when I started my federal career.

I’m going to close by going back to stability, but in a different way. In some instances, federal employees may perform at low levels for their given duty for any number of reasons. This likewise can earn consecutive poor ratings at their annual performance appraisals. This is difficult for supervisors because it’s classically hard to fire federal employees as there’s a long and involved process for letting go of them once they’ve passed their probationary period – again something very similar to academia.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. If you enjoyed this one you might also enjoy:

Perspectives of federal workers caught in the middle of the 2013 government shutdown revisited
The myth of the stability of being a government employee revisited
Father’s Day 2018: Dad’s doctor and his lawyer, and a discussion on careers
Applying School To The “Real World”: Turning Subject Knowledge Into a Career
Staying Relevant In The Workplace: The Tips To Help
Common Mistakes When Choosing A Career
Making The Most Of Your Education

The Big Words LLC Newsletter

For the next phase of my writing journey, I’m starting a monthly newsletter for my writing and video content creation company, the Big Words LLC. In it, I plan to share inspirational words, pieces from this blog and my first blog, and select videos from my four YouTube channels. Finally, I will share updates for my book project The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. Your personal information and privacy will be protected. Click this link and register using the sign-up button at the bottom of the announcement. If there is some issue signing up using the link provided, you can also email me at bwllcnl@gmail.com . Best Regards.

Protecting Your Business From The People Within

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When running any business, it’s important to hire staff you can trust to the best of your abilities, and also protecting your operations from your employees if necessary. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Protecting Your Business From The People Within.

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Hiring people should always mean that you’re able to trust those inside your business. When you’re paying someone to work for you, you should be able to expect their loyalty, even if things go a little bit wrong. Of course, though, this isn’t always the case, and a lot of businesses have been impacting by their employees in the past. To keep your company safe, this post will be exploring some of the measures which can be taken to make sure that your team is always on your side. This sort of effort is worth it in organisations of any size, even if they are very small.

Monitoring: While keeping an eye on people may seem a little sneaky, it’s not such a big problem when you’re paying for their time. A lot of companies monitor areas like search histories, room used by employees, and even the activities people get involved with outside of work. Taking this approach is nice and easy in the modern world, with loads of tools available to make sure that you can achieve this goal without making your employees feel like they’re being watched all the time.

Security: Information within a business should always be kept on a strictly need-to-know basis. If someone doesn’t need access to a set of files, they shouldn’t have access to it, as this helps to improve security by a huge degree. Likewise, when it comes to items which need to be physically protected, locks and safes can be very useful. It’s amazing what people will steal when they have the chance, even when they’re being paid by the victim they’re making.

Strict Policy: A lot of companies struggle to keep their employees in line because they simply don’t try hard enough. It will be easy for your team to be lazy with their work if there aren’t policies in place for targets, discipline, and reporting bad behaviour, making it crucial that you work to put them in place. To make sure that you can enforce this, a lot of companies use shift managers to keep people working as they should be.

Legal Support: As the last area to consider, it’s time to think about what could go really wrong for your business. When you hire someone, you take on a set of responsibilities which you have to fulfill. Failing to do so could result in being taken to court, forcing you to get help from a company like Ogletree Deakins to fight your corner for you. By following the rules and doing things by the books, you should be able to avoid this sort of issue, even if someone is hell bent on trying to take you for everything you’re worth.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to start putting protection in place for the inner workings of your business. A lot of people struggle with this sort of work, finding it hard to know exactly what they need to do when they want to keep their company safe and secure.

Businesses Are Heading For A World Without Employees

Three of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship, and Technology. In current times, there is a lot of talk about workers being replaced by machines and automation. This discussion is often approached from the perspective of the employees, but is seldom discussed in terms of the advantages of the employers. What are the advantages to employers? The following contributed post is entitled, Businesses Are Heading For A World Without Employees.

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At least, employees in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, there are new options for business owners that need help but don’t want the headaches that come with having a full team of workers on staff in their building.

This isn’t surprising as when you get right down to it, workers can come with a lot of problems. That’s not to say this is their fault or that they are the ones to blame. In most cases, it’s fair to say that it’s employers who are causing the brunt of the issues, but that doesn’t matter. Now that the business world is, changing employers can escape the responsibility they were once tied to. So, let’s look at some of the issues employees cause and the factors that will bring big benefits for business owners.

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Employee Headaches

There are quite a few issues that you can have with employees. Harassment claims are certainly in the spotlight right now thanks to various Hollywood scandals, and slowly but surely they are seeping into the real world too. Offices are being flooded with claims, some legitimate others not, of workers who feel they have been treated terribly. It could cost business owners horrendous amounts of money.

Or, how about injuries at work? As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to keep your office or workplace safe. Failing to do this will result in a hefty fine that yes, you will need to pay. Workers comp lawsuits are often hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and may, in some cases reach the low millions!

There’s even the time and effort it takes to hire and fire employees to consider. You have to spend hours interviewing people, many of whom won’t be qualified enough or experienced enough for the job in question.

So, why are employees now on their way out of the business model?

Machine Learning

Yes, machine learning will almost certainly pave the way for more processes to be completed by machine and an automated workplace. This is already starting to happen, and if you’re let go next year, there’s a good chance it’s because a computer system or piece of software can now fulfil your role. Don’t worry though, everyone will be on the chopping board for this reason soon enough.

Going For The Gig

As well as this, businesses are now learning more and more towards hiring freelancers and outsourcing companies. The good news is that these outsourcing companies still need staff and it’s causing a boom in the gig industry. The bad news is that it’s allowing businesses to essentially ‘hire’ employees without offering any of the typical benefits or incentives. So basically, it’s a big win-win situation for business owners.

What Does It Mean?

For business owners, it could be the solution to perilous lawsuits. For society as a whole, we might see the introduction of a universal living wage, and it does seem like the only suitable solution as workers become less needed in far more industries.

Is Your Company Ready To Take On Employees?

Some of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Organizational and Management Discussions. A major key to running a company is knowing when additional help is needed in your workforce. If you need help, what’s the best way to approach finding it?  This contributed post is thus entitled, Is Your Company Ready To Take On Employees?

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Thinking of hiring employees to work for your company? Preparation is essential when taking on staff members. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you take steps to hire employees that will tell you whether you are ready or not.

Can you afford to take on employees?

First of all, you need to be certain that your company can earn enough to pay your employees wages. On top of this, you need to be able to afford recruitment costs, insurance, equipment and work incentives. It’s worth getting a financial advisor to help draw up a budget so that you can decide whether you’re ready – you can always take out a loan at first to pay for recruitment costs and initial equipment.

Have you got the time?

You need to be able to dedicate time to the recruitment process such as reading resumes, conducting interviews and providing training. Make sure that you’ve made this time for yourself, otherwise you could end up rushing the process and hiring the wrong employees. You also need to be there for your employees when they’re actually working for you – nobody likes a distant boss.

Have you got the tools and equipment?

Hiring employees could mean having to hire extra equipment. Some of this could be required for admin purposes such as payroll software. Other equipment could be for your individual employees needs such as uniforms, extra tools and safety equipment. You may want to stock up on some of this beforehand, whilst uniforms may be something you want to order when you know your individual employees sizes (although you may still want to come up with a design prior to this).

Do you understand the legal requirements?

There are a lot of legal requirements to consider when hiring staff. You’ll need to first take out employer liability insurance to protect you from injury claims – this is compulsory in many countries. You’ll also want to do a risk assessment of your workplace to ensure that aspects such as fire safety and basic health and safety are met. On top of this, you’ll need a clear understanding of all the benefits you should be providing such as a pension and holiday pay. PEO companies can help when it comes to putting benefits in place. Make sure to keep up to date with your local employment laws. If you are looking for a German PEO visit globalization pedia.

Do you have the personal skills to become an employer?

You may also want to consider taking a couple courses in leadership and management. These could help you to get a firm grip of the admin required whilst also helping to develop leadership skills such as delegation, communication and motivation. You can also try reading books on leadership or simply taking advice from blogs and vlogs. You don’t need experience or qualifications to be a good leader, however educating yourself could go a long way.