Two focuses of my blog are Organizational/Management and Workplace Discussions. A part of managing a staff is disciplining it when the need arises. The following contributed post is entitled, How Can I Know The Right Time To Discipline Staff.
Having to discipline someone as an authority figure is never enjoyable, but it is important from time to time. For instance, if you pay someone to attend their job at a certain time each day, but they’re consistently late, well they’re breaching the contract, and a worthwhile reminder, escalating in punitive consequences, will help to deter that behavior or ultimately find someone who will follow that guidance.
After all, if someone has promised you a certain behavior under legally-valid contract, then it’s your right to terminate that relationship or capably, professionally use measures to encourage them to do so.
The last thing you want, however, is to discipline staff every single time they put a small foot wrong. This can deteriorate relations rather quickly, and will also cause your well-meaning employees to be wary of you. Moreover, it’s not just why you discipline, but how you do it that counts. Shouting and screaming at someone is never acceptable, for instance, unless it’s due to a truly reckless act that puts someone at risk, and even then deterring the problem quickly is more important.
In this post, we’ll discuss the correct times to discipline staff, and how to go about that:
Create Easy-To-Follow Policies & Expectations
Establishing clear objectives and regulations from the start is one of the most important steps in disciplining employees successfully. This entails outlining the precise conduct that is required of employees as well as the repercussions for falling short of those standards. You’ll be able to provide employees a clear knowledge of what is expected of them and aid in preventing disciplinary concerns by making this clear from the offset. For example, with a service like Industrial Fire, you can curate essential protocols that always determine exactly how fire prevention and safety measures should be followed. You can then hold anyone accountable that falls out of that practice.
Remain Consistent At All Levels
Being fair and consistent when disciplining personnel is another crucial factor to follow. This means treating each employee fairly and without bias or favoritism. If it’s an executive acting in a poor way, they must be treated in the exact same manner your most part-time, least-authoritative employee will be. Applying sanctions consistently, with objective metrics, will ensure that everyone under your control is held to the same standards. This means that even when you have to let someone go, it would take a bad-faith effort for them to think they had been unfairly wronged.
Record The Discipline Procedure
It’s crucial to record the whole disciplinary procedure, including any verbal or written warnings or other disciplinary measures that were applied. This includes texts and emails. Try to get everything in writing. In the event that an employee contests disciplinary action or if the problem worsens, this paperwork may be used as a backup for you. Keep this confidential and safe of course, because this kind of correspondence should only be broken out if absolutely necessary.
With this advice, you’re sure to discipline staff not only fairly, but correctly, ensuring bad practice never continues for long.
Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Organizational/Management Discussions. In order to run a successful business or organization, it really helps to have a highly motivated staff. The following contributed post is entitled, Tips To Increase Staff Motivation.
The real cogs behind a business are its staff. If employees aren’t happy, they won’t perform their best and the whole business strategy can soon fall apart. This is why it’s important to take care of their motivation as you go. Many businesses look at introducing perks such as pinball machines and sleep pods or other gimmicks, but this isn’t what employees really want. Instead, many favor flexibility, healthcare, and progression. Here we have put together some top tips to increase staff motivation.
Offer healthcare and sick pay
For an employee, one of the most valued things you can offer them is access to healthcare and also sick pay when they are off. This shows that you value them, care for them, and are there to look out for them. With many private practices out there including those that are more specialized, with doctors such as Mukaram Gazi MD, it’s important to find out which is best for your workers. See about the different insurance packages you can invest in and how you can really help those that work for you.
Offer flexible working
The pandemic forced the way businesses are run to change. Before this, many businesses felt they couldn’t offer employees the chance to work from home – yet this turned out to be far from the truth. With more employees than ever showing just how effective they can be working from their own space, it was a struggle for a lot of people to get back to the office. This is why it’s a good idea to offer flexible working. Many people prefer the work-life balance of being able to work wherever and whenever they please, getting more done, and completing more of their goals. Others also are less tired from not having to do lengthy commutes and will work harder. Many will also appreciate you trusting them enough to work from home and will feel more loyalty and want to work harder to prove you’ve made the right decision.
Help them know what they can do to progress in their career
Employees want to know they are valued and appreciated and that they will be able to progress within their careers. Ensure you have regular meetings or chats with them to find out what their career goals are and how they can progress and achieve them. By letting them know how to achieve this, they will work harder and they will also feel valued which can lead to them wanting to stay at the company for longer.
These are just a few top tips to help you increase staff motivation. There are many things you can do, so make sure you sit down and think about what is the most viable for your company and what you feel your employees will appreciate the most. Remember that certain things might sound good on paper, but in reality, aren’t what your employees will really value and appreciate. Perhaps you could have a meeting or send out surveys to find out what would really resonate with your workers?
A key focus of my blog is Health/Wellness and Organizational/Management Discussions. If you’re a business owner or in management, a key objective of yours should be to keep your employees and your workplace safe. The following contributed post is entitled, Tips To Keep Your Staff Safe In The Workplace.
* * *
Your staff’s safety in the workplace should certainly be the main priority of yours. When it comes to your workplace, you have a responsibility to your employees in making sure that where they’re working is safe and isn’t going to bring or cause them harm in any way. With that said, here are some tips to keep your staff safe in the workplace.
Safety measures are a great way of ensuring that your staff is being looked after and that there are precautions in place to help avoid injury altogether. This might be in the form of signs and warnings that are placed around the worksite or office, for example. You may want to introduce everyone that comes into the company with an office safety training pack or to have either your HR or operations manager train the staff member in the basics of keeping safe in the office. There are lots of different measures you can take to ensure that your staff is being looked after and it’s up to you as the employer to make sure that these expectations are being met at all times. If not, then you could be liable for legal cases where a staff member has been injured to a lack of safety precautions in place. That’s not a situation you should want to find yourself in.
Have The Right Protective Gear
The right protective gear is important when it comes to keeping safe, and with medical supplies being in demand at the moment due to COVID, this should be a reminder that our health is important. Look at what you might be lacking when it comes to protective gear not only for general work tasks but also those areas of the business where staff might be working with particular machinery that can also pose a danger.
Educate Your Employees
As much as you have a responsibility to your staff, they also have a responsibility for their own wellbeing and that of their colleagues. With that being said, it’s good if you can offer them any additional training that you think they might need when it comes to them staying safe within the workplace. There’s plenty of basic training courses that could be useful for them as well as common courses like First Aid Training, etc. It’s important you have some sort of budget when it comes to staff training.
Encourage Regular Breaks
Regular breaks are a must, and so it’s worth making sure each and every staff member is getting the breaks they need throughout the day. Be strict on ensuring they’re getting up from their desk and not spending their lunch breaks eating in front of their computer. Be the encouragement they need to take a proper break and to ensure regular breaks are also taken throughout the course of the working day.
Safety in the workplace is paramount, so be sure to check that every staff member is ok and that you’re doing all you can for their safety.
Three focuses of my blog are Business/Entrepreneurship, Organizational and Management Discussions and Workplace Discussions. Regardless of the organization that you’re running, employee happiness is critical. Management should thus always consider this as it impacts overall productivity and recruitment of new talent. The following contributed post is entitled, Make Your Employees Happy With These Tips.
* * *
There are so many things that you have to do as a business owner to keep you business afloat, but one of the most important of them all is keeping your staff happy. If you’re not looking after your people, then they aren’t able to look after your business. It works as a team when you hire staff; you support one another and you keep them in your thoughts when you are making plans to alter the business or improve things.
Making your employees happy has to be a priority for you. Get it right, and you get a great team of people who are happy to work for you for years. Do it wrong, and you will be revisiting your HR software to figure out who you can hire next! Happiness is important in the people who spend their time in your business doing everything possible to make ends meet. So, with that in mind, here are some of the best ways you can make your employees happy!
Plenty of money goes a long way and if you are offering an attractive salary, you’re going to claw in attractive talent to work for you. We’re not talking offering minimum wage: minimum wage may be legal, but it’s certainly not liveable! You need to think about what they need to survive and do more than that. These people spend upwards of eight hours a day in your business – make it worth it for them to be away from their families.
Building a company culture that thrives on fun and happiness is so important. You want to make sure that you are able to make people feel relaxed and at ease when they spend time with your time. You need to do more than beanbags in the break room, too. Reflect the goals of your staff in what you can offer them, and help them with their positive work environment. Encourage people to work together and as a team – even with other departments! A collaborative working environment makes people feel trusting, builds good relationships and fosters a more positive working environment.
Where you can, offer as many opportunities to develop your staff. Yes, you will likely lose them to other companies one day but that doesn’t mean that you can’t work with them on their goals while they are working with you. Training, education, formal degrees and more could change the way your staff work.
Do what you can for the wellbeing of your staff. Things like fun days out, meals, company games night and more can foster a sense of fun in the workplace, and this can go a long way to enhancing the wellbeing of your staff. Another way to enhance their wellbeing is to ensure that your people have a good work-life balance. They need to feel empowered and trusted, and you can make that happen with flexible working and giving them the freedom to work remotely.
The happier your staff, the better they work – it’s a no brainer!
A key focus of my blog is Organizational and Management Discussions. A major aspect to getting the best out of your staff is establishing and maintaining loyalty which actually is a door that swings both ways. A key way to ensure your staff’s loyalty and productivity is keeping them in the loop. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Keep Your Staff Informed & The Loop.
It’s important to keep your staff informed. This can seem obvious. It can seem as clear as suggesting ‘your staff need access to water while in the office’. That being said, it’s important to notice there are various degrees of being informed. For instance, you don’t have to inform a new office worker about every single one of your plans, what your balance sheet looks like, and hidden products in development for them to be good at their job.
So, informing your staff can take place in degrees of relevance, and most of all, the delivery system is what counts. That being said, it’s important to note how to move forward and get the best out of this. Giving them a 50-page file each morning, while detailed and very important, can rob them of the time they need to move forward with their daily tasks. So, informing your staff is more about a simple information dump, but rather knowing when to dispel it, and when to help them stay on top of their approach.
How can you keep your staff informed and in the loop, in the most optimal manner? Let’s discuss that below:
Morning Briefings
Morning briefings give you the chance to level with your team on a face-to-face basis. Or, if you prefer, a morning newsletter can help your staff keep up to date with the goings-on that day, helping you disseminate the important principles that must be catered to in the right context. Morning briefings can help you keep communications open with your staff, without having to pester them sporadically throughout the day.
Let Them Inform One Another
It can’t hurt to give staff the chance to inform one another about the daily efforts they must make. Word can travel quickly, but it’s important to keep your team able to communicate, and more easily able to do so. For instance, with VoIP solutions found here https://www.lingo.com/business/sip-t1-pri/, you can ensure all communication methods are provided, and optimized. That has to be a useful, and eternally relevant step to take. Of course, providing official sources of information is essential as sometimes hearsay can get out of hand, but for the most part, allowing staff to stay in the loop and keep one another efficient is essential.
Keep It Streamlined
Always keep your communication streamlined. This means keeping a regular format, and staying consistent with it. Instead of giving the word through a Slack channel one morning, you must deliver it through email if that’s what you’ve been doing so far. If you keep regular meetings, do not change their times unless you have extraneous circumstances that must affect your scheduling. Keeping your staff informed and in the loop needn’t be a difficult nor overly complex approach, you just need to help them learn what to expect.
With this advice, we hope you can more easily keep your staff informed and in-the-loop.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key to your organization excelling creating optimal conditions for your functions. Doing so will ensure your organization’s survival. The following contributed post is entitled, Creating A Functional Working Environment For Your Staff.
* * *
Your staff are an important asset to the business, they keep everything ticking over and hopefully, they work on improving the financial success and reputation of the company. So it’s important to create a functional working environment and here is how to do just that.
The place in which your staff work in is highly important because they’re probably in it for the majority of their day. So it has to be an inviting space that staff enjoy working in, rather than one that they dread. One of the ways you can do this is by encouraging your staff to be more organized with their spaces. Set some rules about desk areas and what should be on the desk and what shouldn’t. Give your staff the ability to buy some storage units and other accessories for their working areas so that files and other documents and equipment can be stored away securely and out of sight. A clean and tidy environment will also help with improving the workplace productivity.
Bring In Light & Nature
Two of the most mood-boosting features that you can have in your workspace is natural light and nature. Natural light can transform the look and feel of a space, so get as much of it in as possible. Clear windows from anything that could block out the light and get blinds that allow light to shine through, rather than blocking it out completely. Think of the lighting in your office too, as a bright white light can be quite clinical.
Indoor plants are becoming increasingly popular both in households and businesses, and they create a cleaner atmosphere that you and your staff will be breathing in. Put them in all of the communal areas and encourage your staff to buy for themselves some desk plants to boost their own happiness for their work area.
Keep Communal Areas Pristine
Communal areas are going to get messy, so it’s important to hire in the right cleaners to keep the place in top condition. You should also think about the decor and furnishings that you put into your office. Get some comfortable sofas in the breakout space and some art up on the wall to add colour. Ensure your kitchens are stocked with all the crockery and cutlery need and make sure your bathrooms are regularly checked and maintained. For communal bathrooms, restroom mats are useful to have in order to reduce odours and keep everything hygienic.
Invest In Technology
Technology is certainly an important tool that many businesses need and so it’s beneficial that as a company you are investing in the right technology for your staff to be able to complete tasks as best as they can. And sometimes, lacking certain programmes or work stations can cause problems and there’s even a chance it can hinder the workplace progress overall.
Creating a functional working environment should always be prioritised. Keep those communal areas clean and promote an organized and tidy workspace that everyone can enjoy.
Three of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. A key to running any business/organization today is having the proper technology in place. Doing so will have improve your staffs productivity and your overall efficiency. The following contributed post discusses this and is entitled, Office Technology that Will Improve Your Staff Productivity.
* * *
If you would like to stay competitive in your marketplace without having to invest a lot of money in new processes and procedures, you can rely on technology to help you improve the productivity of your staff while making their life in the office easier. Companies are looking for new ways of providing more value to their customers at a lower cost, and some smaller IT improvements can do just that. Find out more below.
It is important that you answer customers’ queries as soon as possible. Today’s consumers’ attention span is much shorter than the previous generation’s and they are looking for immediate answers. You can find a system that will gather all the feedback and pop up on one of your employees’ computers, so they don’t have to stay logged into various systems and get distracted just to provide excellent customer service.
If collaboration is something that is necessary in your business, you will need to allow your staff to work on projects together and collaborate. You can create a virtual workplace where they can share and update projects. While a Google Suite system might do the job in the beginning, you might want to talk to an expert at inc-systems.com/services/managed-it-services/ to find out whether or not your business could benefit from a custom calendar and a CMS system.
Cloud Computing
It is crucial that you encourage the use of cloud computing. You will not only be able to automatically back up your files and take notes, share insights, update your team on the go, but also share information with your customers faster. You will have to install advanced security, though, so you can prevent the accidental disclosure of sensitive information.
Social Media Tools for Scheduling
If you are involved in digital marketing, you might have a member of staff updating your social media accounts and posts regularly. If they have other jobs as well, they will find managing everything very challenging. Instead of giving them half an hour a day, every day, you can allocate a few hours every month when they can schedule the jobs ahead. You can use an advanced scheduling and posting service and a social media calendar to make the most out of your reach and engagement.
Digital Learning Platform and Knowledge Base
It is also important that you empower your staff and help them become more efficient. This is why improving your office technology is necessary. If you have a knowledge base available for staff, they will find the answers without having to speak to a manager, and deal with customer queries faster and more professionally. You might also deliver your regular training or updates using your internal systems accessible any time, so they can complete the tasks when they are not compromising customer service or their own productivity.
Upgrading your office IT system can help you manage the different tasks in your company and improve your staff productivity at the same time.
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. An important part of running any business enterprise is recruiting and retaining talented staff. Doing so often requires competition for qualified individuals. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Low Unemployment Levels: How Can Your Business Compete For Staff?
For business owners, the unemployment rate of a country is perhaps the strangest of all the economic indicators. On the one hand, a low unemployment rate is undeniably good news; more people are in work, thus more people are paying taxes and – importantly for businesses – that means there are more people who will be spending money on goods and services.
On the other hand, a low unemployment rate can be rather troubling for businesses.
Why can low unemployment be a problem for businesses?
Essentially, the more people that are in work, the harder it is to recruit and retain staff.
If unemployment is high, staff recruitment is relatively simple; there is a large pool of – often highly qualified – potential employees to choose from. Furthermore, existing staff are also more likely to stay in their existing job, as they are aware there is more competition for other roles.
However, if unemployment is low, the pool of potential employees diminishes. Worse yet, businesses can find that their existing staff are more likely to leave, as competing businesses begin to offer tempting deals to attract highly qualified, experienced workers.
As a result of the above, low unemployment levels are something of a double-edged sword: it’s good news, as there are more consumers looking to purchase goods and services, but the bad news is that companies may lose, or struggle to recruit, staff – which, in the worst case scenario, could mean that businesses cannot take advantage of the beneficial boost in consumer spending.
What are the current trends for unemployment levels?
Unfortunately – or, in some ways, fortunately – analysis shows that unemployment is low across the globe; not quite at pre-financial crisis levels, but the trend is definitely in a downwards direction.
What does this mean for businesses?
Essentially, low global unemployment levels mean that businesses now find themselves having to actively compete to both hire and retain the right staff for their company. What’s more, this competition is a truly global competition; so even if business owners wanted to try to hire overseas workers due to low unemployment at home, they are still likely to struggle.
How can businesses compete for staff in the current environment?
If you are a business owner, this question is by far the most crucial – and so below, we’ve sought to answer it, by providing a list of five tips that can help you both hire and retain staff even when unemployment levels are low.
#1 – Provide written employment contracts
Written employment contracts have fallen out of fashion in recent years, with employers preferring “at will” contracts that are more flexible – the employee can quit whenever they choose, and the employer can dismiss the employee at any time, provided their reason for doing so is not illegal.
However, written employment contracts are definitely beneficial for employees, as they offer robust job security. Prospective employees will be attracted to any job posting that provides a long-term, formal written contract, while existing employees will be less likely to leave a job with a written contract, especially if other employers will only offer “at will” contracts. As a result, written contracts mean that everyone benefits: your staff enjoy security, and your business’s ability to hire and retain staff increases.
#2 – Shorten probationary periods for new employees
Probationary periods are tough for new employees, causing a kind of ‘suspended animation’ – they might have a long-term job, but they also might not. This uncertainty is generally disliked, especially for probationary periods that stretch for up to six months.
Realistically, a three-month probationary period provides plenty of time to assess an employee’s skills and ensure they are suitable for the job. Alternatively, if a role is particularly complex and you need longer to evaluate your new employee, opt for a shorter probationary period as mentioned, but then only initially offer an “at will” contract for a longer period. You can then offer a full written contract after a set period, informing any new candidates of this arrangement during interviews.
#3 – Offer retirement benefits
Fuelled by multiple stories in the media about how much of the modern workforce tends to be unprepared for retirement, many people have made retirement benefits a specific focus when considering their career options.
To keep pace with workers who factor their post-career life into their present-day working concerns, it’s best to look for a specialist company that is experienced in providing group retirement planning and similar services, then formulate a customized plan that is suitable for both your business and your employees. Furthermore, when your plan is in place, advertise this fact in your job recruitment adverts and on your website to catch the eye of prospective employees.
#4 – Allow remote working
Over the past ten years, remote working has moved from a rather odd concept that few businesses implemented to a mainstream norm. There are two reasons in particular for this change: technology advancements have made remote working more viable, and secondly, employees simply like having the opportunity to work from home rather than having to commute to an office every day.
It is also worth noting that, in addition to attracting and retaining employees, remote working is actually beneficial for businesses, too – so there really is every reason to consider making a change.
#5 – Break away from the weekday/weekend structure
A conventional working pattern is five days “on” and then two days – usually Saturday and Sunday – off. Unfortunately, this working pattern may be well-established, but it’s far from beloved – which means you could seize the opportunity to do something different.
For example, you could consider switching to a four-day week, wherein employees work for 10 hours Monday to Thursday and then enjoy a three-day weekend. Alternatively, you could move to a rotating pattern; for example, employees work for seven days in a row, then have seven days off. A huge number of employees will embrace these innovative working patterns, and your business doesn’t need to suffer: employees will still, across the course of a year, work the same number of hours – just arranged a little differently than has been seen as “normal”.
Low unemployment levels can be detrimental for businesses due to their impact on the ability to hire and retain staff. However, with the measures above, you should be able to ensure your business enjoys only the positives of low unemployment; a rise in workload and custom, which in turn results in higher profitability overall.
Some of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and both Business and Entrepreneurship. A major key to running any business or organization is recruitment and retention of talent. A major part of talent retention is creating an optimal work environment. This contributed post is thus entitled; How You Can Start Allowing Your Staff More Flexibility Today.
* * *
Allowing your staff more flexibility can be a fantastic way to build a better company reputation, make it more enjoyable for your staff to come to work, get a higher quality of work, and much more. It’s far more modern to allow your staff to work flexibly these days, as we all lead busy lives and may have appointments to keep up with, or may want to work from home for whatever reason.
Flexible working doesn’t just mean working from home. It can mean making the most of the commute and working from there, coming in a little later and making the time up later on in the day, doing some work in a cafe, and much more. Working flexibly can mean different things for different people. It won’t suit all businesses, but it can definitely help a huge number of businesses to move forward and get better results. Below is a quick rundown of what flexibility can mean for different businesses:
• Flexible arrival and departure times
• Full-time work from home or location independence
• Choice and control in work shifts
• Part-time work from home
• Compressed shifts or workweek
• Opportunity for sabbaticals or career breaks (e.g., extended time off)
• Unlimited paid time off
• Caregiving leave
Staff who can work flexibly tend to take less sick days, feel happier and more productive at work, and become advocates for your business. They also feel more loyal to you and you should find you improve employee retention. Below are some ideas to help you implement more flexibility today:
Speak To Your Employees
Speak to your employees and see what they think about working flexibly. How do they think it could help and how would they like to do it? Getting their opinion will give you an insight into what they really want.
Start Using The Cloud
Using the cloud means your employees will be able to access data any time, anywhere. If you’re not currently using it, you’re already behind! What would you do if you lost important data, or there was a natural disaster? Cloud Migration Services can help with this, whether your employees want to start work on the commute or whether they’d like to do it from home.
Make Everybody Play By The Same Rules
Having flexibility in the workplace is great, but it can’t be one rule for one person and one rule for another. For example, you’ll find in many workplaces parents are allowed to leave early to pick up their kids, go to a school play, or take time off and have benefits for other family related things. Single people and those without kids should not be treated any differently! Have the same rules in place for everybody.
Allow More Flexibility Within The Workplace
Don’t have the mindset of ‘employees must be at their desks from the hours of 9-5’. Let them take breaks. Let them play games. Let them talk. Heck, even let them take naps. Make the workplace fun and flexible and you’ll seriously benefit.
Make A Gradual Transition
Do these things gradually so it’s not a shock to the system. What can you implement today to make the workplace more flexible?
