6 Ways to Better Manage Your Team of Handymen

Household issues are a fact of life – they can’t be avoided and once they appear people try to get them sorted out as soon as possible. And keeping in mind that about 85% of American homes are older than 20 years, professional handymen companies will have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate their skills and keep themselves busy.

However, higher work volume almost always goes hand in hand with compromised management which is bad news since being as individualized and reliant on personal talents as it is, this industry already suffers from severe management issues. These problems only extrapolate when we have a team of different personalities working together.

Let us take a look then at a couple of ways these organizational problems can be addressed so your handymen business can finally take the market position it deserves.

Develop a personal relationship with the workers

As we said in the introduction, handymen are people who have a very individualized approach to work and don’t really like their decisions and opinions challenged, especially by the people who don’t have any real worksite experience. So, one of the best ways to gain their confidence and establish some sort of leverage over them is to try to engage your workers on a more personal level. Once they start seeing you as a person they can trust, they will also become much more open to listening to your opinion. This way, you will also be able to understand where the workers’ decisions are coming from much better.

Approach conflicts in a calm manner

Once again, this is a situation where your lack of handymen work experience will prove to be quite an obstacle since you won’t always have a clear idea of how professional disagreements should be resolved. That is why you should take a step back and try to put yourself into a role of a mediator rather than a judge. So, calm the situation down, ask for everyone’s opinions, let the workers back up their claims with arguments, and, if necessary, ask other workers for their professional opinion. This democratic problem-solving approach will also help you build up mutual confidence with subordinates.

Be resourceful and helpful

Managers’ role is not only to pass down instructions and make sure the deadlines have been met. They also need to assert themselves as leaders, demonstrate resourcefulness, and provide help to workers however they can. If you are unable to do that in a more hands-on manner, try to nail down workflow and logistics. Make sure the workers have the access to all the tools and materials they need. Set up the schedules so everyone has enough time to rest. If the workers require help from emergency plumbers provide them with third-party assistance as soon as possible. Just make sure everything runs smooth and hassle-free.

Set up clear guidelines, rewards, and penalties

Sure, handymen like to do things their own way. But, this individualized approach to work should always evolve within some professional boundaries that will ensure optimal speed, efficiency, and quality. Therefore, provide your workers with a set of clear, unequivocal, and easy-to-understand rules they need to abide by while performing the projects. You will make sure these rules are followed by establishing an equally as clear reward and penalty system that will motivate the workers to truly give their best. If the incentives are stimulating enough they can summon up a great level of personal initiative.

Make decisions with a consensus

To put it simply, decisions concerning everyone should be made by everyone. Do your best then to make all things you do completely transparent and always ask your subordinates for honest feedback. The decisions that will have far-reaching consequences (shifts, bonuses, compiling the rulebook, etc.) should be made with the widest possible consensus and put to a public vote. This way, the handymen will have an opportunity to explain their grievances before the final decision is made. This approach will give workers a greater sense of ownership over the company and motivate them to see their decisions through.

Encourage frequent and transparent communication

Most personal, organizational, or professional problems can be cut at their root if only they are reported as early as possible. That is why you should nurture an atmosphere where the workers will feel free to draw attention to various issues or express their opinions without fear of reprimand. Setting up dedicated communication channels will ensure that if workers need any sort of help, they are redirected to the person who can lend a hand as quickly as possible. This way, you will encourage a sense of trust and accountability that will prevent a lot of bigger issues that are usually found further down the road.

We hope these few examples gave you a general idea about how to successfully manage a team of professional handymen without trying to micromanage their worksite activities. Experienced workers like to do things their own way, and as long as this approach produces satisfying results that’s perfectly fine. The art of good management is to ensure these results do come without damaging that sense of freedom or involving yourself too heavily in menial activities. It’s not an easy task but you now know where to start.

How to start and manage a business in the beauty industry

The beauty industry was always considered to be a very prospective and highly profitable field of work. Not requiring considerable upfront investments, and featuring a constant influx of new customers ready to pay good cash for quality services this sector presents a perfect launchpad for all entrepreneurs with a passion for beauty, cosmetics, and wellness.

However, despite these favorable circumstances, the beauty industry is not devoid of all problems plaguing the rest of the business world as well – beauty products are as impacted by the state of global practice as all other commodities and the majority of beauty stores and solons close their doors after a couple of years of commerce.

Let us take a look then at a couple of tips that should help you to start and manage a company in the beauty industry and make these problems if only a bit easier.

Keep up with trends and consumer interests

To do that, you will, of course, need to conduct very thorough market research and get to know the people you are going to work with. But, consider this only as a starting point of your constant journey of self-improvement. Be sure then to subscribe to all relevant YouTube channels, follow beauty and make-up profiles and social media and keep up with high-profile fashion magazines. This way, you will always be able to find a middle ground between the world of high fashion and your local market. Also, knowing more will help you discover and tap into lucrative niches that still haven’t popped up on competitors’ radars.

Pen down a comprehensive business plan

A business plan is probably the most important piece of document one company can have. Here you can find your company’s executive summary, business description, market analysis, marketing and sales plan, competitive analysis, operational plan, short-term and long-term plan, financial projections, and countless other valuable things you can use for successfully running your business. Furthermore, having a written business plan is absolutely necessary for successfully pitching your company to the investors so there is no way you will be able to secure financing without it so take care of this as soon as possible.

Secure viable financing

Companies will never be able to take a full swing if they are not able to secure sufficient financing. Keep in mind, though, that you don’t need to cover only the upfront costs but also at least six months’ worth of costs and utilities if you want to conduct operations without any hiccups. Also, use this opportunity to take care of your personal finances. If you are dealing with some sort of personal debt or financial obstacle it is always a much better idea to ask the help from the companies like Jacaranda Finance and patch these situations up with low-interest personal loans than to derail the operations of your business.

Add more value to the products and services

Unlike some other business sectors, the cosmetics industry doesn’t give too much space for breakthroughs and industry-wide disruptions. But, the fact you can’t conquer the entire regional market in one stroke, doesn’t mean you can’t force it into submission one step at a time. Do your best then to give all of your products and services some unique twist or some sort of added value that will gradually set you ahead of the competition. If we go Down Under for example we can see that products for skincare in Australia usually pack some sort of differentiating factor in form of design, organic ingredients, and similar.

Put more effort into branding

People are emotional beings and a positive association with a brand will make people 8.4 more likely to trust a company 7.1 times more likely to purchase more 6.6 times more likely to forgive some of the mistakes. These numbers are truly incredible and they can’t be emulated by any other marketing approach so do your best to create a compelling brand capable of speaking to the masses. So, come up with a compelling logo or a slogan, paint your company with unique colors, start a blog where the brand’s unique voice will be able to shine through, or rally the clients behind some popular cause. Just reach out to the people.

Focus on hiring and workforce management

Last but not least, we would like to remind you that, aside from branding, customer experience makes one of the most important factors for winning over the clients’ affections. According to recent research, 82% of consumers would stop doing business because of a bad customer experience. No matter whether you are running a retail store or beauty studio a large portion of that customer experience will lie on the shoulders of your employees. Do your best then to offer your employees top-tier experience from the very application process down to the workplace benefits, training, and engagement strategies.

We hope these few mentions gave you a general idea about building blocks you can use to put your future beauty company on a solid foundation and use this launchpad to grow and hopefully expand. Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg and the complete list of challenges you will need to face is far, far longer. But, these couple of strategies should aim you in the right direction. And as long as that is the case, every step you make will be a step forward.

How to Manage Your Security Company More Efficiently

As the global demand for security services continues to increase each year, security companies of all types and sizes are now forced to adapt to changing consumer needs and evolving technology landscapes. Security businesses today have to be more responsive and efficient, ensuring their day-to-day operations are data-driven and focused on scalable growth. However, that can be a challenging task to complete without the right tools and resources at your disposal. To that end, here are some methods of efficient security company management that might help:

Set clear and specific goals

As with any other business, objectives are crucial to the success of your company. When you set clear, specific, and attainable goals, you will be able to improve team communication, boost productivity and efficiency, and likely increase your revenue as a result. But in order for your goals to be effective, you need to ensure they are aligned with the business, that all employees are aware of the objectives, and that everyone is working together towards achieving them. Creating key performance indicators (KPIs) could be of great help here, making it simpler to create actionable plans, track your progress, and motivate your teams.

Attempt to delegate

As a business owner, you are ultimately responsible for overseeing all departments and ensuring all operations are running smoothly. However, you can’t do everything yourself, which is why it’s essential to delegate whenever possible. Ensure your employees are reporting to their managers and heads of departments instead of consulting you about everything, and hold regular meetings with department heads to make sure everyone is informed of current happenings. This will enable your managers to supervise employees more efficiently, while giving you more time and space to focus on more pressing matters and more important areas of the business.

Invest in automation

If you’re not taking advantage of automation, your business will likely suffer in the near future. Your personnel can easily lose interest and your expenses can become too high to maintain competitiveness if efficiency isn’t optimal. This is especially true when it comes to repetitive mundane tasks. Automation can allow you to streamline everything from onboarding and payrolls to security risk calculations, allowing you to improve your day-to-day operations in the process. It might also aid in boosting employee engagement, which is crucial in an industry with common staffing shortages.

Use better equipment

The equipment you use for completing jobs could truly make or break success. If home security is your main area of expertise, for instance, using only the best home security cameras is imperative. Wide coverage, high-resolution cameras, facial recognition, motion sensors, and remote access are all aspects clients now consider to be a necessity rather than an option. Great security systems will provide them with just that, and enable you to increase client satisfaction and retention. Regardless of your niche, the right equipment is crucial for smooth operations.

Utilize valuable data

If you’re focusing on personal security, for example, you might have traditionally sold your services at an hourly rate, as your presence was all that clients truly needed. However, this requirement is changing in the modern, data-driven world. Clients now want to know specifics about each service they receive, especially when it comes to corporate executives. From the number and type of incidents that are reported to the exact time they are most likely to occur, data is now a crucial factor. The more information you can provide to clients, the more you are likely to retain them. So, ensure you are using the best business intelligence tools for collecting data and turning it into helpful reports for meaningful decision-making.

Implement good procedures

Enterprise security risk management, or managing security programs using risk principles, is a crucial factor that needs to be incorporated into operational processes at every level of business. You simply can’t expect to mitigate risk properly unless you establish the right organizational practices, procedures, and policies to determine and manage security risks. It might be helpful to consider the popular 90/10 rule. 90% of efficient security measures are directly related to policies and procedures, while only 10% should rely on technology.

Improve the company culture

When running a business, creating a more positive work environment will be critical for growth and success. Not only does it aid in increasing employee morale and engagement, but it could also lower your turnover rate, an aspect that might be especially important for security companies that often have particularly high annual turnover rates. If you focus on enhancing your company culture, you can increase job satisfaction, as well as employee productivity and efficiency, in turn benefitting your bottom line. So, aim to offer and actively seek feedback, be transparent in all company matters, demonstrate trust to your teams, award success, and make other efforts to create a better company culture overall.

When it comes to running a security company, there’s no one-and-done solution that suits every business. But if you make it a point to implement the tips mentioned above, you will be able to manage your company more efficiently and with higher success.

7 Tips for Managing and Motivating Salon Staff

Are you looking for ways to motivate and manage your salon staff? Do you know what management skills a good owner needs to have?

Just because you own a hair salon, it doesn’t mean everyone will listen to you by the letter. Based on some research, the most challenging part of this process is managing and motivating your employees. This goes even ahead of attracting and keeping clients.

Considering not every salon requires the same level of commitment and work, you might have to assume a different managerial approach. So, let’s look at what it takes to motivate and manage your staff successfully.

Set up an example

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should lead by setting up an example. Be someone who will inspire them. In this way, your salon staff will be able to identify the link between actions and positive results. You could show them how much money they will make if they are more active, like selling a higher number of products or promoting more services.

You could calculate how much money a stylist with regular clients can earn and compare that with an average worker in a salon. Applying special techniques can help you improve customers’ experience and increase the booking rate. 

Create an accountability system

Positive reinforcement is an essential part of your business process. Basically, it provokes behaviors you want from your staff. Positive reinforcement will motivate your team to follow salon policies and boost performance in the way you want.

Before introducing positive and negative consequences, you need to define standards and expectations clearly. Once you have everything set in place, as a business owner and as a leader, you can hold your staff equally accountable for the performance they agreed to provide as your employees.

Don’t forget about team building activities

Team building activities, primarily when an outsider oversees them, can be a great way to build a great and reliable team that works together on various projects and feels ownership in the mission.

Team building doesn’t always have to be an exercise. You could involve your team members in a low-range planning meeting and brainstorming sessions, along with marketing promotions and events. This way, they will feel important and invest more effort to ensure your services become successful.

Select a team and build a salon culture

When you have to define your salon business in a couple of words, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Those are the things that you’ll want in your team. For example, think about the values you wish your salon to inspire in other people, empathy, professional service, trustworthiness, and choose your teammates based on that.

Keep in mind that these values will create a positive work environment and establish an appealing salon culture that employees would want to be part of. For example, to motivate your employees further, you could provide them with a breakroom packet with some convenience they can use to relax, especially during lunch breaks.

This space in your indian hair shop can help encourage your team to bond and interact with each other.

Acknowledge the great performance when you see it

Set up goals your team can reach and establish a system of rewards. Make sure to praise them every time they do a great job. If some of your employees really stand out, it’s up to you to offer them something extra, but not too extra, because you want to maintain a healthy competition in your salon.

Offering them benefits is one of the best ways to motivate your workers. Recognize and praise their work whenever they do something remarkable. In this case, you’re recognizing their worth and further encouraging them. Eventually, your salon staff will set up goals and work on continuously improving their performance.

You could also post their work on your social media page to recognize their effort.

Invest money in training

As a salon owner, you need to provide your team with access to professional training. If you have a professional and highly trained staff, it will only benefit the salon, and you will be able to charge higher prices for their services.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to pay huge money for this. You can organize in-house training by telling your staff the things you expect from them, or organize meetings to discuss specific skills, or your staff can take turns in showing the latest techniques.

You can always invite brand representatives whose products you use to educate your staff or present industry trends. Outside the salon, you can participate in international conferences or pay for courses for your employees.

Set up a survey

Whenever you bring a new product into a salon or start applying a new technique, perform a survey to get your employees’ feedback.

Make sure that all the answers are anonymous. It will help you understand which areas you need to improve.

Some thoughts for the end…

Keeping a great ambience in your salon can be challenging, but once you know to motivate your employees, you will be able to create a dynamic and proactive team.

Going Green? Managing Your Sustainable Business Transformation

Values are, or they should be, at the very center of any business. They dictate your customer relationships, your employee selection processes, and every element of your business strategy. Now that we have so much knowledge about our carbon footprint and the many ways in which we’re harming the environment, there’s no excuse for companies today to stay silent. Nobody can be Switzerland in the face of the climate crisis. 

For that and many other reasons, businesses are now striving to change inside and out, to recognize the crisis and their part in contributing to environmental damage, and above all, to make a difference. Embracing that responsibility starts with how you manage your business from within, so that your HR and business management experts can create and slowly implement smarter, greener strategies. 

This process can take a while, since the shift is far from simple for many industries. Here are a few ways to make this transformation easier on your business and to lead the way in eco-friendly management.

Align your goals and procedures

First and foremost, for your HR department to be able to work on implementation, you need to determine how well your current processes match your sustainability goals. Perhaps you’ll need to switch to digital accounting tools and go paperless, if you haven’t already. Maybe you can adapt your collaboration model to be more flexible and encourage remote work, carpooling, covering public transport fees, and the like.

For many companies, your health and wellness strategies will need to change in order to meet these new standards, too. Some businesses dealing with toxic or dangerous substances need to introduce more stringent protective procedures to ensure employee safety and to prevent environmental damage or hazards. It all begins with aligning your procedures with the goals you want to achieve.

Choose better waste management

In Australia’s most developed, urbanized regions, growing companies often have trouble dealing with waste in its many forms. From energy and water waste on the premises if you have an office, all the way to all kinds of material waste if you have a construction site, rapidly growing companies need to develop better waste management solutions to match their industry’s needs.

For instance, effective waste management in Australia often means utilizing dedicated waste management equipment as well as procedures. On-site crushers and balers, recycling stations, and many other waste processing tools allow employees and business owners to reduce waste and empower reuse and recycling. Wherever your business might be, it’s crucial to follow this mindset and find efficient ways to reduce waste at every turn. 

Employee motivation and training

Most workers will choose your business over others with equally appealing offers precisely because of your values. However, you also need to live up to those promises and standards you present to them in your job ads, which often means motivating your employees through regular and consistent training opportunities. 

This is a chance for them to grow as professionals, giving them immediate value, but it also helps them become a better, more cohesive team working towards the same goals. Training in better, eco-friendly office practices can make your business far more sustainable over time. 

Ongoing assessment and adaptation

Surely, if you’re based in a highly developed region like Australia or New Zealand, you’re most likely responsible before your community, but also before your government when it comes to your sustainability initiatives. There are certain location-specific standards you need to meet and possibly exceed.

To learn whether or not your business is in line with those expectations and standards, you need to be in the loop. For starters, organize regular quarterly assessments to evaluate how well you’re doing with your goals. Your HR managers can then present the results to the employees so that they can together come up with additional ways to change for the better. 

Perhaps you can implement greener office design solutions, switch to LED lights, introduce more recycling stations, or even compost stations for food leftovers. Of course, you’ll also need expert legal advice on how to move forward and implement government-approved methods to go green. 

Know who your partners are 

Choosing your employees with care is one way to go about implementing sustainable practices and building value-based relationships. On the other end of this spectrum of bonds, you have your partners, who should be aligned with your values, too. Do your marketing partners, manufacturers, suppliers, or any other vendors take sustainability seriously? What are they doing differently from others in their niche to make your relationship rooted in shared care for our planet?

So many businesses have hidden policies with harmful effects on the environment. It’s essential to weed out the ones that don’t meet your criteria and start working with those who care as much as you do. Turning a blind eye is not an option, since the world is brimming with experts whose goals are the same as yours – you’ll just need to take your time to find them. 

Sustainability isn’t a linear path, nor is it a one-time goal that you accomplish, and leave be. It’s a continuous learning curve that requires flexibility in how you manage your business and your relationships. It starts with training, equipment, and policies, but it never truly ends: the moment you set your foot on the path to sustainability, that’s the moment your business will need to learn how to succeed in the face of constant change. 

Embrace innovation and emerging technology in your industry, hear your employees out whenever you can, and you’ll soon have a growing green strategy that will help you reposition your business towards smarter, more sustainable goals. 

Is Drug Testing at Workplace a Good Idea?

Here we have a slightly controversial topic on our hands. Objectively looking drug testing at the workplace has its benefits and of course, it has its drawbacks.

Many companies consider drug testing at the workplace a fair policy and safety precaution – they are not only protecting their business but their employees as well. There are even laws and regulations regarding workplace drug abuse.

Let’s start with all the types of drug testing methods available for workplace testing and work towards whether or not it’s a good idea.

Types of drug testing methods

A drug test determines whether or not an employee is using any illegal substances. Currently, many employers, as well as employees, are starting to realize the importance of this policy. This is also why both employees and employers should be aware of all the possible types of drug testing methods.

The most important thing to know is that you have options as there are at least five types of methods available for workplace drug testing.

The first option is the most common option used for drug testing and that’s a urine drug test. If someone has been using drugs recently, the traces of it will most definitely be detected in the urine.

While urine drug testing is the most common type of drug testing, a saliva drug test is the most popular one. This type of test is pretty self-explanatory and the reason for being so popular is due to its less invasive nature. Besides this method is not as expensive as all others.

The hair testing method is another good way of seeing whether a person has been using drugs. However, many people claim that this method is no good because it doesn’t measure current drug use but it can detect if someone used months before – which is not the point when it comes to workplace drug testing.

Another method includes blood testing. This method is the most invasive one and at the same time the most expensive out of all. And even if this method is often avoided because of its cost and invasiveness, it’s the best way to detect the presence of substances as well as the exact amount of substances used.

The fifth method includes perspiration testing. This method is fairly new and it requires wearing a sweat path on the skin for a couple of days. This patch will detect the presence of drugs through perspiration.

Benefits of drug testing at the workplace

Safety of the employees

The number one reason why drug testing at the workplace is a good idea is safety. Every employer should provide a healthy and safe work environment. One of the ways to do this is to implement the drug testing policy.

Workplace injuries and hazardous situations are often related to substance use. People who use drugs are less aware and they also tend to be less concerned about their own safety and the safety of others. Additionally, drugs tend to slow reaction time which means that those who use drugs are at risk and pose a risk to their coworkers as well.

Drug testing at the workplace will ensure that all employees are safe and healthy and it will prevent a dangerous situation, especially in high-risk jobs.

Avoiding legal problems

The drug-testing program can save you a lot of troubles, especially those of a legal kind. Just imagine how many legal problems can an employee who uses drugs cause. They can endanger not only their own lives but the lives of their coworkers as well as your own company.

Workplace drug testing program ensures that all your employees are safe, that the environment that they work in is also safe and that no one poses any risk.

Avoiding problems and maintaining good company image

Employees who use drugs can’t perform their duties to the best of their abilities. Drug intoxication causes many problems, and one of those includes making mistakes and giving poor results at work. Consequently, this affects the image of your company.

The best way to ensure that your employees are giving the best possible results and thus maintaining a good public image of your company is to implement a drug testing policy into your company.

Drawbacks of drug testing at the workplace

Invasion of privacy

Drug testing at the workplace is often seen as an invasion of privacy. Many employees feel like drug testing is a violation of their privacy, their freedom and also a lack of trust from their employer.

This is especially true in cases of random drug testing when a random employee is chosen to do the test. That individual may feel resentful and insulted.

Expensive drug tests

As mentioned above, there are several different types of drug tests and some of them can be pretty costly. This is the main reason why so many employers tend to stay away from implementing drug testing programs.

Bottom line is that in many cases the benefits of workplace drug testing outweigh the drawbacks. Nothing beats the safety of your employees and the safety of the work environment.

There are different methods of drug testing that don’t have to be all that expensive and yet they do the work. Ultimately, the decision about whether drug testing at the workplace is a good idea or not is on the employer.

Never Let You Go: Addressing the Challenges of Retaining Employees

Let’s face it: finding the kind of talent you need to give your business the competitive edge is tough, but what’s even tougher is holding on to that talent. Gone are the days when a gifted young upstart fresh out of college takes a job with a company and remains there throughout her professional career. According to estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, today’s younger baby boomer will have held an average of 12 different jobs in their lifetime. If you’re a millennial, the number is even higher, with the churn rate of young workers three times that of preceding generations.

And that’s not good news if you own a business. If your company is hemorrhaging employees, that also means it’s hemorrhaging money. When you lose an employee, not only have you lost the skillset for which they were hired, but you also lose productivity. And lost productivity means lost profit.

What you gain, however, are additional costs in recruiting and retaining new talent. In fact, the costs to replace an employee can be as much as 50% of annual salary for an entry-level worker—and for a senior executive, those costs can soar to as much as 200%! So, what can you do today to hold on to your most talented employees for many tomorrows to come? Read on to find out!

Find the Right People

The first step to holding on to your most talented employees is to make sure they’re the right fit before you even hire them. If your company is understaffed or there’s a particular position that needs to be filled urgently, the temptation to rush the recruiting process can be great. But that’s a mistake.

It’s far better to take the time you need to ensure that the candidate you have your eye on is a good fit for your company’s future as well as its present. Incorporating this long-term strategy into the hiring process is going to help you weed out those candidates who are only interested in or fit for a short tenure, versus those who are willing and able to invest in your company for the long haul.

Make a Good First Impression

It might feel like onboarding and retention don’t have much in common, but that’s actually not at all the case. In fact, your new hire’s onboarding experience is probably going to set the tone for how they feel and think about the company. Unfortunately, though, onboarding is something not many employers pay adequate attention to. Want proof? An estimated 42% of new hires don’t even have their own computers or workstations on the first day!

If the onboarding process is confused or haphazard, if the company seems unprepared for the introduction and integration of the new employee, that’s certainly not going to reflect well on the business, its staff, or its processes. And once you’ve lost your new hire’s trust, it takes a lot of time and effort to get it back. Worse, if your employee doesn’t trust you or feel good about the company in general, you’re probably not going to keep them very long.

If a new employee is being integrated into an existing team with a strong bond, your onboarding is going to have to include more than just making sure the new recruit has a workstation and some tasks for the first day. Team building will be essential to cultivating trust not just between you and your new hire but between them and their new team. At this early stage, encourage team building via more informal activities like daily huddles or team outings. These will allow all parties to get to know each other and foster bonds that will help everyone succeed.

Grow Your Talent

While it’s key that you screen your candidates carefully and that you provide your new hires with a seamless and skilled introduction to your company, your work is far from over. It’s just beginning, in fact. Because once you have your talent in place, you need to cultivate it. People don’t like to be bored. They don’t want to stagnate. And no matter how skilled your employees may be, there’s always room, opportunity, and desire for growth.

This is why professional development needs to be central to your retention strategy. Hiring a chief learning officer (CLO) for your business is a wonderful way to help you cultivate—and keep—your best talent. The goal, ultimately, is to provide your employees with robust opportunities to learn new skills and expand existing ones, to pursue new degrees, certifications, and licensures, and to advance within the company. Essentially, if your employee can see a future with your company, they’re more likely to stick around to make it happen.

Run the Numbers

Thanks to the brave new world of data analytics, employers now have more and better tools than ever to know their business and their employees. In fact, people analytics are a powerful way to monitor the performance, engagement, and satisfaction of your workforce. Best of all, these resources can help you spot emerging trends that might compromise morale or lead to the loss of your best people. And once you’ve identified the threat, you can do what you need to end it before it escalates.

The Takeaway

Now more than ever, business owners need savvy to ensure their businesses thrive in an increasingly competitive global business environment. Developing successful employee retention strategies is one of the most potent weapons employers have for cultivating an efficient, cohesive, and high-performing workforce to cope with the formidable challenges of doing business in the new millennium. What it takes, though, is a strategy of careful recruiting, seamless onboarding, continuous talent development, and the integration of the latest and greatest in people analytics software.

Image Source: Pixabay

 

5 Ways HR Can Learn from Project Managers

What do the departments of project management and human resources have in common? As it turns out, more than you may expect.

Although it may be news to some, many of the skills needed to manage the various intricate components of a project are the same as those required to hire, promote, and protect the employees of a company. Both positions include juggling a lot of pieces while also providing positive results. Here are five tips that HR personnel can learn from the project management team.

1. Planning

Planning is an essential step for all project managers. As soon as they are faced with a new need or assignment, the first step is to go to the drawing board and think about all possible solutions, and then figure out deadlines for completion, what staffing will be required, and any other additional needs. HR employees must take the same steps when it comes to filling the needs of the company and its assorted departments.

Just like with project management, it is all about defining what success looks like for the current needs and working toward them. How will success be measured? Are you looking to find anyone to fill a vacant position, or are you searching for candidates that can advance and grow with the company? What new positions may be needed in the future? These questions must be answered before the recruiting process can even begin.

2. Avoiding Pitfalls

Because of the complexity and impending deadlines associated with major projects, common pitfalls must be avoided so the process can move along as easily as possible. Some common project pitfalls might include a sudden procedural change or a project member dropping the ball on their personal responsibilities. Project managers must have contingency plans, and so should HR professionals.

Common pitfalls for HR managers might include limited awareness of employee rights, a failure to complete proper paperwork, or limited knowledge of disciplinary procedures. A major concern would be the loss of an employee from a team that is already understaffed. Plans must be created before potential pitfalls cause issues for your business. Create organizational charts and introduce training classes that ensure that every individual in your HR department is fully trained on their responsibilities, so all bases are covered.

3. Collaboration

Since a project manager is working with so many separate parts that are handled by an army of team members, there must be a good system of collaboration. Project managers need to understand that they don’t know it all and that their team should be involved in the planning process. This is the same in the HR department.

There are a variety of responsibilities within the human resources team, from employee relations and benefits to payroll and hiring. The trick is to work as one fluid group to ensure that the proper employees are hired, that they have all the necessary benefits and signed paperwork, and that they end up becoming a happy and productive member of the team. To achieve this balance, proper communication is necessary, so have a meeting with all staff members where a consensus can be reached for creating the best system of collaboration.

It is also essential for human resources staff to communicate effectively with the supervisors of each team in their business so they can know what needs are necessary. Managers should always have the ability to reach out to HR for important employee matters. Additionally, HR should also have an open-door policy for employees who have personal concerns.

4. Tracking

The job of a project manager is not one filled with rest and relaxation. Instead, constant attention is needed for projects that are often complex in nature. The only way for one person to take control of the chaos is with an effective tracking system that accounts for the movement of each team member, including what has been completed and what is still pending.

Human resources also involves many moving parts, and luckily, there are systems available for better employee management. When it comes to hiring, applicant tracking systems can provide stability as they keep track of current applicants, rank them in terms of ability to do the job, and ensure that all paperwork is presented. For current employees, you can take advantage of personnel tracking software that tracks employee paperwork, tax information, and certifications, among other important records.

5. Managing Personality Types

When project managers assemble their team, they understand that even though everyone comprehends the main goal of the project, every member of the team is not the same. Each employee has their own processes, motivations, and work ethic. Still, the manager must be able to understand these traits so they can bring out the best in every member.

Similarly, in human resources, the goal is to keep employees content. The employees of your company also have different motivations and levels of success that they want to achieve. It is important to work to those traits and promote those who deserve the opportunity. Employees also have different motivators. Some may be happy with a monthly bonus, while others prefer a fixed schedule. It is the job of HR to understand the core of each worker.

Yes, the HR and project management teams have much in common, and the professionals who best harness these skills will see the most success. Adding these traits will lead to happier employees in both arenas.

Image Source: Unsplash 

The True Cost of Hiring the Wrong Employee

Image: Unsplash

Making one bad hire might not seem like a huge blip on the radar. However, the negativity associated with the wrong fit could send ripples throughout your organization. This can impact your business’s bottom line in a variety of ways.

Below are several ways hiring the wrong person can impact your business.

Budget

Taking the time to find the right candidate requires resources in time spent and the costs associated with paying for ads on job searching platforms. Then, when you bring the new hire in, there’s onboarding. After all of this, if the employee isn’t the right fit, you’ll have to repeat the process again, requiring more time and money spent.

How much could this cost your business? On average, one bad hire could set a company back $14,900 — and this is for just one employee. This number also doesn’t take into consideration the costs to replace them or to retain other employees. The Undercover Recruiter states bad hires cost organizations on average $240,000.

This is a sizeable expense that not only impacts your company’s bottom line, it can affect other areas of your business as well.

Employee Morale and Culture

Finding the right fit both from a skillset and culture fit perspective benefits both the new employee and your current employees.

However, what happens if the culture isn’t the right fit? A change in culture could lead to more stress on the job for everyone involved, especially if there are clashes in communication styles or a drop in production. In turn, this could result in your employees looking for other employment opportunities.

Rounding back to the budget, retention is a key driver of hiring costs. It isn’t cost-effective to hire the best fit alone, you also want to retain your employees, as this reduces training and onboarding costs and improves employee morale since everyone fits in together; this is why company culture plays a huge role in finding the right fit.

One bad hire could disrupt community continuity. While it’s good to hire candidates who provide fresh, valuable perspectives to your business, it’s also important to examine how they fit into the department they’ll be in. Will their communication styles mesh well with others in their department? Do they share the same occupational values?

These are important considerations because you want to make the transition as seamless as possible. When there are cultural disruptions, it can impact your company and the customers you serve.

Customer Experience

Your customer experiences are vital to your organization’s success. If you hire the wrong person in a client-facing position, then it’s your company that will suffer from a loss in sales.

The reason for this is that brands want to provide a unified approach to communicating with customers. This gives clients the perspective that everyone in the organization is on the same page — a key indicator of a well-run company. If you hire someone who doesn’t grasp or, even worse, doesn’t care about the company’s identity, this will show itself when speaking with customers. This could damage your company’s reputation irreversibly.

Driving Away Potential Hires

When prospective employees search for jobs, they have more tools at their disposal now than ever before. One way they examine whether a company is right for them is by reading employee reviews on sites like Indeed or Glassdoor. Some may also read customer reviews to gauge how well an employer treats their clients.

With these factors in mind, if you made the wrong choice(s) as it relates to hiring, employees will take notice of this. This could reflect in employee reviews of a company, as they question leadership’s decision-making abilities. As a prospective employee, reading these kinds of reviews will make you think twice about applying with them. After all, if there are inherent problems in leadership, how good can the company culture be?

Culture is everything to employees, and reputation is everything to employers. So, here’s how to hire the right candidates the first time.

Employing Best Practices

You want to take your time to find the best fit for your company. Doing this requires a concerted effort among everyone involved in the hiring process from senior and departmental leadership to even your IT team, who can use AI to help you craft accurate and engaging job descriptions.

Along with an accurate job description, you want to create benefit packages that attract and retain the best talent. This makes your employees feel valued and gives them more incentives to participate. Furthermore, when you do find good prospective candidates, it’s important to test their skills. This is where skill assessments are vital. Not only does this allow the candidate to showcase whether or not they can do some of the duties of the job, but it also tests the validity of their resume.

Lastly, you want to build a company culture that finds, welcomes, and nurtures the right fit for your organization’s needs. As part of this process, you’ll want to establish an onboarding program that clearly defines your company’s culture and how your employee(s) fit into it. This will help them transition into the role while also knowing what’s expected of them.

Ultimately, hiring the wrong employee can have a multi-pronged effect that could affect all areas of your business. By using these tips, you increase your chances of hiring the right employee the first time.

Employee Feedback: How Do Netflix and Pixar Deliver It?

Learn the exact methods Netflix and Pixar use for delivering feedback to their employees!

Employee feedback: A key to successful employee performance

Providing feedback to employees is an essential component of every successful and productive company culture. Delivering feedback regularly helps to make sure that employees are on the right track and achieving their goals as targeted.

Unfortunately, most companies don’t utilize this powerful management tool. The Globoforce study found that 65 percent of employees say they’d like to receive more feedback than they currently get.

Recent Gallup research finds that only about one in four employees “strongly agree” that their manager provides meaningful feedback to them – or that the feedback they receive helps them do better work.

So how can you ensure providing regular and useful feedback to employees in your company? Learn from the leading companies! Let’s examine the methods Netflix and Pixar use for delivering feedback to their employees.

Pixar’s method for delivering employee feedback

Plussing is Pixar’s magic formula for giving feedback. Plussing has played a game-changing role at the film company Pixar. The general guideline is that you may only criticize an idea if you also add a constructive suggestion. Hence the name plussing.

Here’s an example:

An animator working on “Toy Story 3” shares her rough sketches and ideas with the director. Instead of criticizing the sketch, the director will build on the starting point by saying something like: “I like Woody’s eyes, and what if his eyes rolled left?”

Netflix’s method for delivering employee feedback

Stop-Start-Continue is another employee feedback model that was popularized by Netflix. In this drill, each person tells a colleague one thing they should start doing, one thing they should stop doing, and one thing they’re doing really well and should keep doing.

Netflix also created a system for sending “Stop, Start, Continue” feedback to anyone at the company once a year. The company picked an annual feedback day and asked that everybody send their comments, in “Stop, Start, Continue” format to everyone they had feedback for.

For those who want to know more

If you’re looking for more great tips for managing employees, sign up for our FREE 7 days email course: Short Leaderships Tips for Managers!