How our customers are innovating through the pandemic
“Pandemic response experience” is not the first line you’d expect to see on a CIO’s resume. As a deadly new virus spread across the world in recent weeks, however, IT leaders everywhere have been scrambling to ensure their employees stay safe, connected and productive. At the same time, we all need to protect top line revenues, ensure the customer experience doesn’t miss a beat, and avoid any disruption to customer operations.As the CIO of LIKE.TG, I frequently exchange notes with CIOs at other companies. Most of them use the Now Platform to manage digital workflows for employees and customers. These days we’re dealing with many of the same challenges.Most of us have operations in multiple countries. Most are experiencing supply chain disruptions and addressing the challenge of providing network access and equipment to dispersed employees, many of them unused to working remotely. On the cyber front, many of us are seeing a surge in phishing and social engineering attacks.At the most basic level, we’re all focused on keeping our people healthy and safe. On March 16, LIKE.TG launched a new customer care plan, which includes four no-charge apps to help companies and government agencies manage their emergency response programs. The apps have since been downloaded by more than 1,000 organizations worldwide. In addition, many of our partners and customers are building their own digital workflows to help deliver vital emergency services. This is a truly global effort that spans hundreds of organizations around the world. Let me share just a few examples, to show what’s possible when a global software ecosystem mobilizes to meet a common challenge.The City of Los Angeles used the Now Platform® to build a COVID-19 portal that supports drive-through coronavirus testing. Within 48 hours, the city pushed their portal live to 16 million citizens who can now research and verify symptoms, schedule an appointment, and choose a drive-through testing location.Using the Emergency Self Report and Emergency Exposure Management applications, the city and county of San Francisco has been delivering mission-critical information that resource managers use to assess and manage organizational readiness in healthcare, law enforcement, fire and other essential services.At a retail company specializing in home improvement, the HR team was facing a surge of emergency paid leave requests due to COVID-19. Within 96 hours they built a mobile leave request app on the Now Platform and deployed it to 330,000 employees globally.Finally, a multinational pharmaceutical company is using our mobile employee workflow tools to help its European employees get to work. Currently, borders are closed across Europe for everything apart from necessary commutes. In recent weeks, officials have been asking border crossers to provide documentary proof of employment or be turned back.This is where a mobile, centralized hub and one-stop-shop has proven an unexpected benefit. Thanks to the Now Platform, employees are able to access and download their proof-of-employment letters from their mobile devices with just a few clicks from their mobile devices. Within the first two weeks, more than 2,700 employees downloaded this letter. This has allowed them to travel to their campus, where they are working to develop life-saving medications.I’m proud that LIKE.TG is doing its part to help the world get through this crisis.I’m humbled by the creativity and drive of our partners and customers, who are using the Now Platform to get vital work done in very tough circumstances. I’m confident that together we can get through this crisis and emerge stronger on the other side.
How personal experiences help college students adapt to the workplace
Bethany Karp, employee communications co-op, co-authored this blog post, the second in a three-part series about the LIKE.TG co-op program for college students.One of the most important parts of being a LIKE.TG co-op is learning and growing in workplace skills and career development.As co-ops, we enter the workplace with personal experiences that help us adjust to new expectations. Similarly, doing our best work at LIKE.TG allows us to take some great lessons back to our passions outside of the office.Staying curiousRichard Z., digital acquisition strategy and operations marketing co-op, has visited much of Southeast Asia, Europe, and Mexico. Those experiences taught him what it’s like to adapt to a new environment and the importance of staying curious.He brings these perspectives into his role at ServiceNow. “In many of the team meetings, they speak a lot about things that are going on using terminology I never heard,” he says. "So, I always ask clarifying questions: What is this term? What is the goal of this project?”Richard believes “this entire experience is going to be a learning experience for me. Every input, every criticism that I get is going to help me understand the industry better.”Growing in leadershipMax S., an event field marketing co-op, came to LIKE.TG with a leadership background. As the head of a design agency at Northeastern, he's responsible for organizing interactions between clients and designers. The corporate workplace is helping him grow as a young professional.“I'm getting some really great hands-on experience working for a company that's very much driven to produce and excel,” Max explains. “And then I bring that to everything I do at the agency.” Finding similaritiesMichele G. has discovered striking similarities between her work as a marketing co-op on the corporate events team and as an accomplished musician.She sees parallels in working between different teams, making sure things are executed, coordinating rehearsals, the way graphics are made, and what assets are shared leading up to an event, she says.Even though it can be challenging to work in a fast-paced corporate environment, Michele appreciates many positives. "Seeing my work shine on a daily basis is something that's really been great as a co-op," she says.Like the music industry, event planning requires attention to detail and the ability to adapt. "I've had to be on my toes, but part of that is a thrill,” she adds.Emma T., another co-op on the events marketing team, sees a likeness between video games and marketing events: Both bring people together.“I realized that there are events for every single industry or interest or hobby,” she says. “I'm able to do something that helps bring people together who have the same interests.”Collaborating for the winThe transition from being a student to being a co-op isn’t simple. We’re faced with new schedules, demands, and dynamics every day. Max found he had to shift his focus from guiding others to learning from them. In doing so, he discovered the importance of winning as a team, one of LIKE.TG's core values."People will meet with you, genuinely respond to your inquiries, check in, and guide you to other resources,” he says. “I've sat in on countless meetings where colleagues paused to ask if I understand."They've also met with him after meetings to ensure he had what he needed to help his team and to fulfill the purpose of ServiceNow.Emma has received similar support, “There's a reason I came back to LIKE.TG," she says. "It's such a great company. I've never met anyone [here] who doesn't want to talk or have a conversation. Everyone's willing to help.”LIKE.TG's support, tools, and resources make the shift between classes and work less daunting. “LIKE.TG is very friendly when it comes to the co-op experience," Michele says. "I have loved my transition. So far, I feel like a valued member of my team—I don't feel like just an intern.”Join a company where you can do your best work. Explore LIKE.TG early careers.
How Playbooks improve customer service delivery, agent productivity
Kathy Neff, director of Customer Workflows product marketing at LIKE.TG, co-authored this blog.We all know one bad experience can impact a customer’s perception of—and even willingness to deal with—an organization going forward. That’s why so many companies, in virtually every industry, have made investing in customer experience (CX) a top priority, according to ResearchAndMarkets.com.The problem is, for any given organization, there are a number of customer service processes along the entire life span of an interaction that need to be looked at and made great.These processes are often complex, encompassing multiple siloed teams and departments across the organization. That makes it difficult to visualize and orchestrate the entire process at a glance—and allows inefficiencies and delays to persist. These, in turn, prevent organizations from delivering a great end-to-end digital experience.In general, the main difficulties organizations struggle with fall into four categories: Fundamental – “I can’t see the entire process lifecycle in a single view. The vital data I need to help understand and resolve an issue is trapped in other systems or scattered across other teams.” Operational – “I don’t know where the process is currently or who’s working on it. I have no way of identifying where we have bottlenecks.” Functional – “I can’t provide my agents with all the necessary data to complete their tasks. I don’t know how to guide agents through the steps required to resolve a customer issue.” Strategic – “I don’t know how likely it is we’ll meet or breach our service-level agreements.” The specifics may vary by organization and industry, but one thing remains constant: Unless work flows seamlessly across the process, customer experiences and subsequent business performance suffer. A lack of visibility and control over customer service workflows creates inefficiencies that drive up the cost of service and decrease customer (and often employee) satisfaction.Break down silos and gain visibilityPlaybooks for LIKE.TG® Customer Service Management solve these challenges. By enabling companies to define, visualize, and orchestrate complex workflows, Playbooks help deliver the experiences customer service agents want and customers expect.Playbooks empower agents to view all the necessary steps to solve a customer’s issue or complete their request. They provide visibility into the status of tasks, including those assigned to downstream teams, so that everyone knows where the process stands and what’s still needed from both colleagues and systems.This also enables executives to “see” why work doesn’t flow across all service processes, quickly identify bottlenecks, and make improvements to speed completion.Organizations can create multiple Playbooks, one for each process, to define the data, tasks, and automation necessary to digitize processes. Playbooks provide agents with a visual guide of the various tasks required to complete the process, along with the sequence in which they need to be executed (either serially or in parallel) to resolve the customer issue or request as quickly as possible.Improving the agent and customer experienceIn the Now Platform® Rome release, we significantly enhanced Playbooks to deliver a focused layout experience. This makes it easier than ever for agents to understand the task at hand and accelerate the resolution of issues or the completion of work, thereby increasing their overall productivity. The focused layout (see Figure 1): Optimizes the real estate on the screen to help agents focus on their current task, starting with the creation of a new record. Displays dynamic, contextual data and resources within the Playbook in a collapsible side panel—including activity stream, case details, and related records—making it easy for agents to find what they need, when they need it. Empowers agents by allowing them to view the entire process lifecycle, determine which step they’re on, and get visual cues to indicate the progress of the phase, etc. Figure 1: Customer Service Playbooks: Focused layoutWith these enhancements, companies can streamline their processes to accelerate service delivery and increase customer satisfaction and agent productivity. Playbooks help make work better for people, combining customer engagement and operations to make work flow naturally throughout the company—the way it’s supposed to.Experience the power of Playbooks firsthand. Download one of our packages from the LIKE.TG Store today: Case Playbook for Onboarding Case Playbook for Complaints Case Playbook for Product Support
How prebuilt ERP workflows tame unruly source-to-pay operations
Legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are good at executing transactions and producing document-based outputs, such as purchase orders. But they fall short when it comes to connecting the work of users across departments and functions. Prebuilt ERP workflows can help.Having spent more than 25 years in the ERP space, I’ve seen only a handful of customers with a single ERP instance. Most have heterogenous landscapes with many ERP instances of different release levels with point solutions bolted on top.Faced with challenging economic conditions and system landscapes that are expensive and difficult to maintain, organizations are looking for ways to reduce costs and create efficiencies. At the same time, they’re wondering how to provide better experiences for their employees and external stakeholders, such as suppliers.Should they innovate or reduce risk? Should they drive down costs or focus on building mutually beneficial supplier relationships? The answer to both questions is a resounding yes. Organizations can manage and control spend, scale business, and reach risk and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals with prebuilt ERP workflows.Addressing ERP implementation challengesERP system landscapes have typically grown over decades, often through mergers and acquisitions. They tend to be burdened by customizations, add-ons, and extensions. As a result, teams work from multiple sources of truth that provide limited visibility and create silos. This inhibits integration and cross-functional collaboration.Lack of appropriate system support can lead to considerable “noise” in the procurement process. For example: Employees are frustrated with difficult-to-use specialist systems, so they resort to ordering online. They circumvent established purchasing processes, choosing to expense their purchases rather than using existing suppliers and contracts. This complicates spend management, resulting in fewer discount opportunities.In turn, already-taxed procurement and finance specialists are burdened with tasks that generate zero value, such as responding to employee and supplier requests about nondelivery, incorrect delivery of an order, or nonpayment of invoices, to name a few.According to LIKE.TG customer benchmarking,1 procurement and finance teams spend more than 50% of their time managing this noise. What if there were an easier way to provide a better overall purchasing experience for employees through self-service and automated guidance? Enter prebuilt ERP workflowsPrebuilt ERP workflows can help organizations solve problems that elude point solutions and underlying ERP systems. They deliver out-of-the-box functionality that provides a single engagement layer for: Enhanced user experience Improved process orchestration Automated, self-service tasks LIKE.TG prebuilt workflows don’t replace transactional systems. Rather, they help organizations connect silos between those systems to enable innovation in user experience, work orchestration, and automation. In this way, they can help organizations achieve fast and high returns on the investments they’ve already made.How fast? Average deployment of LIKE.TG Source-to-Pay workflow takes about 11 weeks. It allows organizations to quickly run spend through the system, onboard thousands of suppliers in a matter of weeks, and use sophisticated task management to automate issue resolution.Boosting procurement team productivityThe AI-powered Sourcing and Procurement Operations workflow boosts procurement team productivity. At the same time, it increases spend under management and employee engagement with multichannel, guided experiences.By deploying Sourcing and Procurement Operations, a global sports apparel company estimates it will save $1 billion on procurement by fiscal year 2025. The company went from more than 24 systems and more than 12 ways to start a requisition to a single starting point for any kind of procurement.Unifying all systems into automated workflows has helped the company increase spend under management and its ability to monitor and increase diversity, equity, and inclusion spending to reach its sustainability goals.Onboarding, engaging, and offboarding suppliersThe Supplier Lifecycle Operations workflow onboards, engages, and offboards suppliers with integrated risk management to help organizations create a more sustainable and ethical supply base.A leading aerospace manufacturer realized a 300% return on investment by using a global standard supplier workflow platform. The manufacturer consolidated processes that span finance, supply chain, and legal departments and business systems, from ERP and email to spreadsheets and contracts.As a result, the company can engage with its business partners across a variety of channels, all orchestrated in a single environment that helps reduce part stock-outs and ensure compliance with export requirements. Reaping the benefits of ERP workflowsLIKE.TG prebuilt workflows aren’t limited to procurement or supply chain. They extend to adjacent business areas such as finance, ESG, and risk and compliance operations. In a true better-together play, we ensure that experiences, data, and process flows are integrated across those offerings.ERP workflows connect people, processes, and data, improving efficiency and productivity. They help provide: One delightful experience for everyone: casual users, department specialists, and suppliers across devices Multichannel access, meeting users where they are Increased process efficiencies Decreased cost and churn Shortened procurement cycle times Fast supplier onboarding Prebuilt workflows can typically address 80% to 90% of an organization’s ERP requirements, helping resolve process breaks. To address the other 10% to 20%, LIKE.TG App Engine provides no-code and low-code capabilities to build custom solutions and fill any remaining white spaces in a controlled and scalable manner.Line-of-business stakeholders often have the creativity and subject matter expertise to optimize ERP systems, but not the technical knowledge. Low-code and no-code technologies put easy-to-use tools in the hands of the people who best understand these processes, while offering the necessary guidance and control by IT to monitor the development and deployment of such applications.Saving time and moneyA global agrochemical manufacturing company struggled with data consistency, accuracy, and integrity in its core business processes. Employees manually retrieved and aggregated data from their ERP environment and various point solutions, leading to delays and data inaccuracies.The company turned to App Engine and built workflow extensions to accommodate the master data and task interactions with these transactional systems. Export and post-shipment documentation processes have dramatically accelerated—from one week to less than one day—while order fulfillment processes have shrunk from three hours to 30 minutes.Automating and eliminating the noise of nonvalue-adding tasks translates into real savings—measured in work hours, the ability to repurpose valuable resources, cost reduction through discounts, or improved supplier relationships. That money in the bank goes a long way to help with supply assurance, brand recognition, and achievement of ESG goals.LIKE.TG ERP workflows transform what’s possible, at every point on the cost and risk curve. It’s time to say yes to both employee satisfaction and spend control.Find out more about how LIKE.TG helps organizations modernize ERP workflows.1 Benchmarking data from current LIKE.TG Source-to-Pay Operations customers
How private and public sector organizations can better serve veterans
As we continue to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice made by service members following the 77th anniversary of D-Day, which took place on Sunday, June 6, we recognize the invaluable contributions all servicemen and women have made—they’re the backbone of our nation.We also recognize and appreciate the support military families provide. And yet, all too often, US veterans are overlooked when transitioning from active military duty to civilian life.As a US veteran, I have firsthand experience in making this career move and know how daunting it can be. Private and public sector organizations have a collective responsibility to ensure these individuals are given the necessary tools, resources, and training opportunities to enable a successful transition into professional life after leaving active duty. While there are countless ways to support our veterans, reskilling and providing better access to medical services are two examples of how to make an impact.Provide training opportunitiesThe social distancing requirements associated with COVID-19 impacted American jobs across industries. A study by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed the pandemic likely caused the unemployment rates for veterans to rise in 2020 for both males (6.5%) and females (6.7%). With more veterans out of work, it’s critical for organizations to provide access to training opportunities that will help unemployed vets build the skills employers in high-demand industries value.The federal government has expressed interest in investing in partnerships with other government organizations, businesses, and higher education institutions to provide citizens with greater access to job training, which means veterans will likely have more reskilling opportunities.Key industries are uniquely positioned to develop training programs and employment opportunities that are specifically designed for vets. Although some private organizations are already granting veterans access to training programs that offer certifications, these programs tend to vary in size. That’s why more organizations might consider developing their own programs as a way of helping vets re-enter the workforce.Veterans possess the soft skills needed to excel in many different professional environments, especially in IT. However, they often struggle to showcase these skills on their resumes. The ability to lead people, solve problems, create and collaborate with teams, and adapt to change are competencies valued in the civilian workforce.With the help of certification programs and guidance from trusted HR organizations, veterans can build tactical skills and gain a better understanding of how to translate the expertise from their military careers.Improve healthcare accessIn addition to ensuring veterans are equipped with the skills needed to re-enter the workforce, it’s imperative that we provide better access to healthcare services through the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).Last year, the VA was awarded $19.6 billion in supplemental funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19.A majority of these funds went to the Veterans Health Administration and the VA Office of Information Technology. Although the VA Office of Information Technology used some of its funds to expand its telehealth capabilities, $9 billion hasn’t been used yet, according to the US Government Accountability Office.This suggests there are still opportunities for the VA to enhance veterans’ access to hospital services using the untapped funding. This includes investing in tools that can improve the healthcare services and overall experiences veterans receive, as well as vaccine management tools, such as those offered by LIKE.TG, which can streamline the time it takes to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine.It also includes investing in workflow technologies that help return the VA’s federal employees back to work, improve citizen and veteran services, and create better experiences.As we honor our vets who served on D-Day, we can and should do our utmost to support all vets returning to civilian life, with both industry and federal leaders identifying opportunities to support veterans during this inflection point. While there are many additional ways we can make a difference, setting these individuals up for success and providing better access to health services are two great ways to say “thank you.”Learn more about how LIKE.TG supports veterans through government workflow solutions.LIKE.TG, the LIKE.TG logo, Now, and other LIKE.TG marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of LIKE.TG, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
How proactive support operations can reduce customer escalations
Minesh Patel, senior manager of support account management at LIKE.TG, and JP Renaud, senior director of support management at LIKE.TG, contributed to this blog.As part of our customer service and support team, the LIKE.TG support account management (SAM) and customer escalations (CE) teams are committed to averting situations where performance affects customers’ ability to operate their business.Our job is to focus on customer health—in other words, keep LIKE.TG customers out of harm’s way. Our teams are responsible for preventing and mitigating P1 outages and major performance issues.Many of the issues our customers experience are performance-related, due to poor maintenance or variations from best practices. To provide the highest level of support operations, our focus extends beyond LIKE.TG to issues our customers may inadvertently create.Scaling prevention effortsAs the company has grown, we realized reactive problem-solving in the SAM and CE functions couldn’t scale. We were efficiently monitoring our customers’ cloud infrastructure from different angles, but we needed a way to resolve issues more rapidly.We wanted a coordinated approach that could quickly identify and communicate indicators of issues. Detecting these anomalies early would mean we could begin mitigation efforts at these first signs, sometimes before the customer even knew about them.After surveying 6,004 customers throughout six different countries, Gartner® found that 42% prefer proactive service, compared to 21% who prefer reactive service.1 Intercepting issues promptly would enable us to move to a proactive investigative approach integrated across both teams.Our SAM team had a siloed view of overall customer health. It was focused on individual alerts relevant to its specific accounts in the areas of networking, capacity, and database management. The team wasn’t looking for broader problems that could potentially turn into a customer escalation for the CE team to address. The CE team entered the picture when customer issues had the potential to make a large-scale impact. Often, the issue was spiraling out of control before the CE team knew about it.Reducing issues and escalationsThe SAM and CE teams adopted a unified, proactive approach, tapping into the power of the Now Platform®.CE developed two models to help predict and prevent issues. The models monitor and analyze a selection of alerts that have been identified as early indicators for major performance problems or outages. The team is notified so team members can intervene before a significant impact. The models include: Predictive Performance Alerting – identifies customer instances at risk using monitoring alerts Top Transaction Trending – identifies customer instances at risk using transactional response times With these models, the CE team is seeing fewer performance issues and escalations.The proactive mindset has shifted the dynamic. Now, we often approach customers and recommend actions instead of waiting for the account team to alert us. This creates a partnership to solve the issue. (Read more about predictive modeling on the Now Platform.)To complement this partnership, the SAM team developed a Predictive Analysis Dashboard (PAD). It gives support account managers a view into customer health so they can: View specific customer alerts in aggregate to identify early indicators of trouble. Zero in on important metrics and act accordingly based on shifts. Approach monitoring with a forward-thinking mindset. Support account managers log in to the dashboard to spot anomalies in aggregate. They can then try to prevent or mitigate issues before they cause real trouble. This visibility has boosted customers’ trust as they see the value we provide in helping to avoid or substantially reduce the impact of performance issues.Just as important is the feedback from SAM team members who live and breathe customer support. Making a positive impactOne of the most noticeable outcomes has been a sense of relief. Instead of being blindsided by issues, both the SAM and CE teams have visibility into customer health earlier in the support process. The number of proactive actions and recommendations to our customers are trending up, creating a positive impact.The result is a better end-to-end experience for both our customers and our support teams. And that goes a long way toward alleviating some big-time pressure.Find out more about how LIKE.TG uses its own products to run its internal operations.1 Gartner, Proactive Customer Service Is Valued by Customers, Despite What They Say, https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3985773/proactive-customer-service-is-valued-by-customers-despit, Customer Service and Support Research Team, 29 May 2020.GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
How robotic process automation (RPA) streamlines data integration
If LIKE.TG had a robotic process automation (RPA) fan club, I’d run for president. After seeing firsthand how an RPA-driven bot can improve productivity, I’m a firm believer in this technology.Not long ago, I was assigned a new project for my team: Use RPA to enhance data integration and management of our highly complex configure, price, quote (CPQ) system and processes, which our sales team uses to generate product configurations and pricing.With my fingers crossed, I triggered my first unattended bot by sending an email to its Outlook account. I left for my lunch break, expecting the bot to take some time to extract and validate lengthy JSON payloads of data. As I headed out the door, an email notification alerted me that the bot had successfully imported and validated the data for CPQ.Most people might be upset about cutting their lunch break short. I was ecstatic that the bot uploaded product data in record time. In only 15 minutes, it had completed a task that typically took anywhere from a day to a week, depending on the amount of product data involved. The bot accurately updated our highly complex system, required no human involvement, and saved our team hours of manual effort. I was sold. Building an RPA botMy first bot took about four weeks to develop, with two of those weeks dedicated to designing a prototype as part of a proof of concept. I spent the additional two weeks building the first bot—without writing a single line of code.LIKE.TG RPA Desktop Design Studio helped me navigate webpages using user interface (UI) elements, manipulate Excel data, access Outlook to send emails, and make API calls to communicate with other systems. I easily connected these different RPA components to build an automated process that met our requirements.With the use of RPA Hub, the bot is scheduled to check an Outlook inbox every 30 minutes for an email with the subject line of “Product Payload.” Once the email is received, the bot is triggered to begin the unattended process. It captures the product data attached to the email, including product relationships, attributes, and lifecycle data. It then validates the data and updates and inserts it across seven tables in CPQ. Once the automation runs, the bot alerts the user via email that the process is complete and the newly uploaded data is ready for final validation. RPA’s error-handling feature notifies users if any issues arise or manual intervention is needed. From updating and inserting product data to managing intricate table relationships, RPA eliminates much of the drudgery of data integration. RPA shines for complex processesRPA technology is modular, like Lego blocks. It’s easy to reuse RPA activities in other bot processes, making it simple to build and update new bots as you grow your fleet. For example, we were able to reuse most of the original flow to simplify data imports and exports with apps from companies such as SAP, Celonis, and Lightstep.With every bot we create, we’re able to significantly reduce our development time. An RPA highlight for me was creating bots in less than 30 minutes by combining existing modules from past projects.RPA shines when automating complex, UI-based processes with a definite, traceable pattern that can be implemented using a set of instructions. Unlike traditional automation, which uses preprogrammed functions to carry out tasks, RPA can mimic human clicks using UI screen captures and carry out an existing series of manual tasks. All I needed was a laptop running Windows and time to experiment with the new tool. I quickly discovered it was intuitive and simple to use.What makes RPA the best solutionOur journey to RPA started with a challenge: speeding up the original process for gathering and validating large data sets. We wanted to remove the manual tasks that delayed process completion and bogged down team members with high-volume, tedious, repetitive work.We debated whether to build a new tool and design a new data integration process. Doing so would have required a significant investment of time and resources we didn’t have. Instead, we opted to try RPA technology to streamline the tasks of our existing process.I can’t recommend RPA enough for simplifying workflows and automating time-consuming, UI-based interactions. By bringing new efficiencies to our processes, RPA has significantly reduced our typical cycle times from a couple of days to under an hour.We’ve automated more than 50 monthly CPQ product data uploads, thanks to RPA, and that number continues to grow. Our team has deployed eight bots already and plans to launch more.The biggest benefit of RPA is the impact on my team’s productivity. With fewer tedious tasks, my colleagues have more time to focus on more interesting work. For me personally, that extra time means I can now campaign for RPA club president.Find out more about the benefits of RPA. Ready to start building your own bots? Check out this introductory RPA course.
How secure tech can improve public service delivery in Australia
Australia’s government has big aspirations to increase public service capability and capacity. By reducing its reliance on external firms and bringing capabilities in-house, the government hopes to boost efficiency, improve spending, and become a more equitable, inclusive employer.This transition won’t necessarily be easy. Manual processes and disparate legacy systems will make it difficult for government agencies to deliver great employee experiences. To accelerate and expand its capacity to deliver services, government must streamline its digital infrastructure to: Optimize the way public servants do their work Automate repetitive, manual processes Empower people to do their best work At the same time, the Security Legislation Amendment aims to improve the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure in response to increasingly frequent and severe cyberthreats. Agencies must align the need for rapid digital transformation with critical security and compliance requirements, but how?Rising need for public service transformationMost government agencies rely on multiple legacy systems to complete work and uphold critical security requirements. Take the public service application process, for example. To address the current labor shortage, agencies are expected to hire thousands of new employees. If only 10% of applicants move on to the interview stage (as commonly projected), some agencies could be left juggling tens of thousands of applicants.Inefficiencies and opportunities for human error abound, from toggling between systems to entering data manually. Add in the need for comprehensive background checks and detailed onboarding for this high volume of workers, and the process quickly becomes unwieldy. It’s clear legacy systems and manual processes won’t be able to keep up.To improve recruitment efforts and track the talent pipeline more effectively, agencies need to simplify their onboarding processes. Automating an inefficient and error-prone process can exponentially amplify inefficiencies and errors.When done right, optimization followed by automation can free government workers to focus on high-value tasks, improving employee experiences and satisfaction. Balancing security and complianceThe need for rapid digital transformation is clear, but government can’t compromise when it comes to security. Amid the Security Legislation Amendment, critical infrastructure entities—including government agencies—must adapt while supporting digital resiliency. The amendment emphasizes risk management planning and mandates incident reporting for systems of national significance.Compliance with these regulations will include giving government agencies: Full visibility into IT and operational technology assets on their networks Complete awareness of vulnerabilities The ability to respond to threats quickly and effectively Building the future of governmentThe LIKE.TG Protected Platform is uniquely positioned to help address these needs. Built on Microsoft Azure, it gives agencies access to the capabilities and utility of the Now Platform while keeping their data and support in Australia. Because the LIKE.TG Protected Platform is a software as a service (SaaS) platform, it’s possible to deploy it in weeks rather than years. The platform is assessed at the PROTECTED level by an independent assessor for the Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP), assisting with the security and resilience of critical data and infrastructure.The secure platform empowers government to rapidly onboard new public servants, expand capacity, and comply with increasingly rigorous security standards. Delivering real resultsIn May 2022, Australia’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources (DISR) successfully implemented the LIKE.TG Protected Platform to streamline and automate enterprise service management for more than 4,000 employees. The department procured and implemented the platform in less than six months.“By using one platform to manage complex tasks and requests, we have improved our automation and streamlined a range of administrative tasks, enabling us to assign team members to more important work,” says Steve Stirling, general manager of ICT operations at DISR.“In our work with more than 100 Australian state and federal agencies, we see them facing increasing demands to deliver more with less,” says Eric Swift, vice president and managing director of LIKE.TG for Australia and New Zealand.“As a result of this go‑live, DISR will significantly improve its employees’ experience so staff can focus on what’s important: improving outcomes for citizens. In both the private and public sectors, outstanding digital experiences for employees are the key to unlocking productivity and freeing up time,” he adds. “This is driving significant demand from a range of regulated industries for the LIKE.TG Protected Platform.”Find out more about how the LIKE.TG Protected Platform helps public services optimize and automate to complete work efficiently and securely.
How Technology Can Attract Top Talent
All companies want to hire the best employees, yet only some are able to consistently achieve this. Many times, it’s because they are offering things that other companies don’t. Some companies try to attract people with free breakfasts or company “swag”; This alone isn’t enough to draw in the talented employees that people are looking for. Combine these offers with higher-quality technology and access to programs that increase efficiency and make their job more rewarding and fruitful. Technology to automate the repetitive tasks Repetitive tasks can often be the bane of an employee’s existence, and can often be a major factor in the type of job that people want to take on. A study commissioned reveals the “world's most hated office tasks”, and one of the most surprising aspects was just how much of the day is dominated by these repetitive tasks. According to the study, on average, employees spend over three hours a day on manual and repetitive tasks. Automating these tasks can allow your employees to work on more rewarding projects, ones that further the company more. The removal of these manual and often monotonous tasks creates opportunities for your employees to complete more fulfilling jobs and more creative opportunities. Employees look for a job that would allow them to have a gratifying work experience, and feel as if they are contributing in a meaningful way to something bigger. The more opportunities that you can provide them that give them that feeling, the more attractive the position. Kaylee CollinsHR Analyst of Osmose Utilities Services, Inc “Our hiring managers now have a reliable system that is easy to navigate. Our HR team can actively monitor the process, and assist if needed, but Onboard has helped them save so much valuable time and effort while increasing data accuracy. All of this has helped us improve compliance and gives us a powerful tool to achieve even more results in the future.” Utilize the cloud as much as possible Many companies are still not taking full advantage of the opportunities that the cloud can provide. The flexibility of being able to access all of your important information from anywhere with an internet connection, not to mention the speed, is an incredible asset for any business. The companies that don’t use the cloud may view it as a passing fad, or not quite grasp the versatility of what the cloud can offer, but it’s been around for a while now, and it’s still evolving to offer the best services it can. When using cloud services, it’s important to make sure that you are connecting safely and securely, and a lot of businesses use a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) in order to guarantee that. SD-WAN helps keep all your information private by offering a secure and fast connection to various cloud applications. What’s so appealing about the cloud to potential employees, is the fact that it opens so many doors in regards to flexible work arrangements. Our HR solutions provide a cloud system to help human resources manage remote employees, a huge perk for candidates looking to work from home. The cloud allows employees to have access to their data while on the road, working from home, or anywhere they can connect to the internet. This often lends itself to a more flexible work arrangement, which is great for anything from family emergencies to something more serious like the current predicament, shifting people to a work at home environment. This is a great option for employees, and one that lots of top talent are interested in. Offer remote-ready technology In a similar vein, allowing your employees to work remotely is a great solution for both them, as well as the business. Maintaining high levels of productivity while giving them the ability to retain their job. According to the OWLLabs State of remote work 2019 report, out of the 1,202 full-time workers surveyed, 80% of the people that responded to the survey said that the ability to work remotely “would make them less stressed.” In addition, 80% also said that having the ability to work remotely “would make them feel like their employer cares.” Having at least the option to work remotely is a massive draw for potential employees, and one that could attract high-quality workers. Remote work is even more important in the current landscape, and companies who were not remote-ready are struggling to keep up with their competitors. Equipping company computers and technology with video conferencing software, such as Google Hangouts or Zoom can allow your employees to maintain a high level of communication even while working remotely, which is one of the biggest challenges. Without communication, the wheels tend to fall off of the proverbial train, but allowing for easy face-to-face interaction can help reduce that possibility, while keeping your employees sane. Remote-ready technology is especially important as you scale a business; simply put, more people means more potential problems. More chains of communication, more groups and meetings, but hopefully more productive work of a higher quality. Making sure that they have the tools they need to work most efficiently, and from anywhere, is an attractive asset to potential employees, especially if you are looking to hire employees who will not be working on site. If you have multiple branches, this can also help ensure that all your employees are on the same page and firing on all cylinders. Michael HawkinsFranchise Owner of Interim HealthCare SLC “Interim Healthcare SLC needed HR technology, and we’re pleased with the results we’ve gained from LIKE.TG’s solutions for recruiting, onboarding, and employee engagement. Yet it’s an opportunity for all Interim franchises. It would be so great if each franchise owner could implement similar solutions to replace legacy systems that might not work as well as they should.” Make sure employee’s data is secure With more and more information and data being transferred to the cloud, the protection of that data is more important than ever. While the digitalization of the workplace is encouraged, it’s also necessary to make sure that you are taking the right precautions to protect not only the company's data, but also the data of its employees. Data breaches are very much a real thing, and they can happen to companies of any size. They are not a one-time problem that goes away after some time, but rather can cause long-lasting damage through a lack of trust not only from customers, but also from current and future employees. Many companies offer high-level security options for their employees, which is highly encouraged. If any employees are traveling due to company work, providing them with options that work while outside of the office is recommended as well. Connecting to any type of public wifi or internet connection brings with it a slew of potential security issues, most of them however, can be addressed through the use of a VPN. A virtual private network can help your employees keep their connection secure, and in turn, keep any of their personal or company information out of the wrong hands. Having a company that takes steps to keep the private information of their employees secure can be a great factor for hiring future employees. Knowing that the company puts the security of their employees as a top priority is especially important in an age where almost everything is online. Use simple software to streamline processes It’s no secret that using outdated technology and antiquated programs can cause a great deal of unnecessary stress and frustration for employees, especially when working remotely. This can be a large factor when it comes to choosing where potential employees would want to work, and companies that are constantly looking for the smoothest and most effective ways to work can often have a leg up on the competition. One of the most important pieces of technology you can offer your employees, especially for growing businesses, is some kind of project management software, one of the most commonly used being Hive. Project management tools are invaluable when you are trying to keep track of multiple projects which each have multiple tasks that need to be completed by certain dates. Often it can become very difficult to determine and retain the knowledge of who is responsible for what, and how many different tasks need to be completed. Hive and other project management tools can allow you to create separate workspaces for each task, break it down into different “sub-tasks” and assign tasks on the lowest level. There are multiple different views you can work off of ranging from seeing tasks sorted by the individual responsible for their completion, or by the due date and so on. It’s also important to make sure that you have a company-wide messaging system in place. This allows for quick and agile communication between employees and departments, to make sure that everyone is communicated to properly. Alignment between teams at a company has been identified as one of the “top management and culture challenges globally” in the State of Work study conducted by Slack and GlobalWebIndex. Creating more efficient ways for communication to be conducted across all aspects of the company, from project management to general information, can help employees feel more included in decisions and the inner workings of the company. Understanding the decisions that a company makes, and how they are being made, is an important factor in choosing a workplace. Many employees highly value transparency and the ability to identify the change that their work is creating, all of which are highlighted and encouraged through simple software and streamlined communication. Ensuring that your company can attract and retain the highest quality employees means that you have to offer them the highest quality technology. Allowing for more impactful work though automation or giving them flexible and efficient working environments is a big draw. Maintaining communication while remote, securing their data, and creating additional roads of modernized communication can all show potential employees that your company is prepared to give them the best work experience that they can’t find elsewhere.
How Technology is Making Remote Work Easier
Prior to the current working situation, very few companies had active remote work policies in place. However, working from home has now become a routine practice used by all types of businesses and industries. A survey conducted by Buffer even found that 99% of current remote workers would like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers. This new type of working condition has led to advancements in technology used by businesses for enhancing remote work. Technologies like Zoom and Slack have already had a large impact on business’s ability to communicate and monitor their employees, but there are still more on the way. As companies switch to permanent or longer periods of remote work, managers are looking for ways to continue to connect with their employees and alleviate certain problems associated with working from home. But there is hope on the horizon as new technologies come into play. Remote Training and Tracking Although some businesses have had to cut jobs, others have had to bring in new talent. Onboarding new employees remotely is a challenge for both the trainee and manager. However, tools like video conferencing, instant messaging and webinar are making this process easier to execute. Screen sharing abilities and prerecorded training materials are also features that more businesses have turned to for onboarding procedures. All these technologies help engage new employees. In addition, specialized tools like employee engagement software focus solely on team members, which helps reduce new-hire frustrations. HR managers can track individuals through this type of automated technology, and can upload all information to a data cloud for other team members to review. Shirley GarciaAuditing and Operations Administrator of Medlinks Cost Containment, Inc. and Medlinks Staffing, LLC. “I can’t say this enough: Without LIKE.TG, we could not have communicated important project information or demonstrated that we could take on an increased workload. We now provide real-time workforce statistics and productivity reports that have helped us win more projects.” Once individuals have been onboarded, businesses need to know that they are working. The same goes for current employees too. Companies need to be able to facilitate feedback and check in on their team members. This is critical for maintaining engaged and motivated individuals, and helps acknowledge an individual’s hard work which in turn boosts working motivation and productivity. Checking in with team members frequently can identify any challenges they are facing, how they’re feeling and refocusing on goals. Tools like the Employee Experience Platform can make executing employee recognition easier for leadership. Administrative Automation An issue some organizations have with remote work is relying on employees to report their daily activities. Luckily, automation technology has stepped in to assist managers and individuals with monitoring remote work. Time tracking platforms can generate accurate timesheets for employees, scheduling applications can book meetings around each person’s calendar. Using receipt templates can help you keep your records organized and track your expenses and expense apps can scan receipts into a database via a mobile device. In addition to reporting daily activities, there are tools to help people stay on task during the day. These platforms are meant to not only make employees focus on their jobs, but optimize their workflow, too. Certain tools review a person’s work patterns to provide insights on where improvements can be made. Anti-distraction tools can also turn off notifications when employees need to buckle down on a task. Internet of Things (IoT) Some companies are able to run all of their operations seamlessly thanks to the Internet of Things. Being connected to all of their machines and computers means workflow is not interrupted, and adjustments can happen in real time. Other types of businesses are using IoT to connect all of their owned mobile devices including postpaid and prepaid SIMs in order to rollout software updates to the whole system. IoT also allows employees to work from home in comfort. Devices like smart refrigerators can keep lists of food to order, and in some cases order the food as well. Google Home and Amazon Echo act as a centralized hub in certain homes for controlling other smart devices such as thermostats and plugs which can reduce energy usage. Having IoT connected technology in a home can also be a selling point in certain cases for remote employees buying a new house. Since the outbreak of COVID, many employees have started the process of buying a new home. There are numerous factors behind this home buying drive, including remote work, but as employees relocate, they still need technology to do their jobs. 5G The rollout of 5G is still happening, but it promises to make cell networks better. With speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G, and made to handle more devices on a network, 5G will help people work from anywhere they can get a signal. That’s where remote work comes into play, people will not be limited by their connection to Wi-Fi or ethernet, but can work wherever they get a signal opening up more opportunities for distributed working. 5G will assist businesses with adding new talent to their teams no matter where they are located. Remote work has been going on for some time now, but COVID has added all types of industries to the work from home category. Technology has been a driving factor in helping companies make this switch. From monitoring and onboarding employees to helping order groceries, technology is here to make working from home an easy task. About Author: This article is written by a marketing team member at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
How the NBA is creating the future of employee experience
For the past 75 years, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) have delivered best-in-class experiences to fans. From e-sports to virtual reality, the league has pioneered new ways to connect fans to the game they love.Now, with LIKE.TG, the NBA and WNBA are taking their top-notch experiences from the basketball court to the corporate office.The new workplace experienceTraditionally, many organizations think of “workplace experience” in terms of routine transactions, such as hiring, onboarding, and payroll. It’s much more than that for the NBA, says Len Couture, executive strategist at ServiceNow. “It’s about creating a world-class experience for employees. It’s delightful, seamless, and connected, just like the fan experience,” he explains.Of course, workplace experience doesn’t end at the office door. In a traditional office, an employee experiences friction at every touch point in the workspace. Before having a meeting, they have to manually reserve a conference room. If they spill a drink during the meeting, they have to remember to notify maintenance, and maintenance has to keep track of which rooms they’ve cleaned.Employees have to take time out of their day to order lunch from the cafeteria. If they forget to notify the cafeteria about their dietary preferences, they have to leave the building to grab lunch off-site. Although these are small points of friction, they add up to minutes or hours of lost time. Removing points of frictionThe NBA is using LIKE.TG® Workplace Service Delivery to chip away at the points of friction. Each of these experiences—reserving a room, requesting maintenance, ordering food, accessing the building—is now a digital workflow that employees can request using their phone.Employees can view available conference rooms or desks and book a time slot using Workplace Reservation Management. With Workplace Visitor Management, visitors can show their vaccination or COVID-19 test status to access the building.These digital experiences will evolve over time. “They generally become better and better as employees use them,” Couture says.This new workplace experience can empower employees to do their best work. That means even better products, services, and experiences for fans. It helps enhance day-to-day life for the NBA workforce, just in time for the league’s 75th anniversary.Learn more about how LIKE.TG helps organizations deliver the right employee experience.
How The Role of HR Professionals Is Evolving In A Modern Society
Human Resources (HR) continues to be an important part of any business. For decades, they have played a crucial role in hiring employees, keeping them engaged, fielding concerns and complaints and so much more. However, like many other aspects of business, HR is changing in response to technological advancements, changes in how people work and so much more. But just how is the role of HR professionals changing? Well, one of the most important things still remains to be your CV. Keep in mind that HR wants to see measurable results shown in it, so be sure to provide the right metrics in your CV. There are many other shifts and changes, and this article is going to go over a few of them. Keep reading to learn more about some advancements and major changes occurring in the world and the day-to-day life of an HR professional. A Greater Focus on Remote Workers Still one of the primary duties for HR professionals is to advocate for employees and help them out with their issues. However, how that employee looks might be changing. The growth of remote work has been staggering, and this is only expected to continue. This presents new challenges for HR professionals. Communicating with employees will often be done via video chats or emails, and the concerns and needs of remote workers are often different. Also, things like how candidates are judged and recruited are also different, as is the interview process. Even things like onboarding will look different and thankfully, there are many online guides that can help. Remote work isn’t going anywhere and is likely going to get bigger, and HR professionals have to adapt to this change. More Use of Tools and Automation One of the most notable changes to space is a greater reliance on technology. HR professionals will make use of tools that can help with everything from dealing with payroll and benefits to recruiting and screening employees. One of the very popular software in HR these days is Benefits administration software, used for automating benefits enrollment, plans, and benefits management. These kinds of software have the potential to save companies a lot of time, money, and energy. In particular, automation has shown a lot of promise in business, especially in HR. A lot of the work in this business area is full of mundane tasks like filing, handling payroll, and many other types of paperwork. These are important, but often repetitive, tasks that take a lot of time. By automating these tasks, HR professionals will be able to focus on the more detailed, strategic, and precise requirements of the job. Technology is still advancing incredibly quickly, so look for even more types of technologies to play a role in HR in the months and years going forward. They Wear Many More Hats That in the Past While HR professionals have always had a variety of duties, the modern business landscape is only adding to them. One of the biggest is making an effort to keep employees happy. Employee engagement is crucial today, and HR professionals need to find creative ways to keep their employees happy, healthy and ensure they feel valued. People simply aren’t happy with any job today, they want one that helps them feel empowered. Also, many HR professionals need to play the role of a marketer today. The best candidates may have multiple offers, so an HR team will need to find great ways to market the opportunities your business can provide employees. Another role that many HR professionals might have is to design everything from employee training programs, to different working models such as work from home, or job sharing. An HR professional continues to be one of the most important roles in any business. Their role in the modern-day business landscape is changing due to changes in technology, a great focus on remote work, and the fact they have varied duties About Author: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!
How the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) truly supports business
Technology leaders are expected to do a lot. Their business partners talk about evolution, agility, and the ability to change direction overnight in response to new and emerging threats and opportunities — with no loss of productivity.Keeping up with the pace of change while delivering on all the work that maintains the integrity and security of the business can be a daunting challenge. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) delivery model can help IT leaders manage the transition from a stability-focused infrastructure to a continuously evolving infrastructure.Scaling Agile across the enterpriseSAFe has been around for a few years, but it’s been gaining traction recently. Today, it’s being used to scale the principles of project- and product-level Agile methodology across all of IT while helping to support alignment with business priorities.The framework takes the Agile principles IT leaders are familiar with and applies them to more strategic, planning-focused layers of the organization. By better coordinating strategy and delivery, SAFe helps ensure work is being done effectively and efficiently — and that the right work is being done by the right people at the right time.In addition, SAFe helps IT leaders work closer to the strategic business priorities of the organization, benefiting everyone.Aligning IT and businessIT remains accountable for ensuring today’s organization is safe, secure, stable, and operational. IT is also responsible for supporting the evolution of the business in order to continuously optimize performance in an ever-evolving world.Balancing those two priorities requires: A full and accurate understanding of business needs The ability to adjust technology services to meet those needs Consistently prioritizing and delivering on work that optimizes value is critical. SAFe has several tools and techniques to help maintain alignment between the business and technology while improving teamwork, collaboration, efficiency, and effectiveness within the various IT functions.Think of SAFe as technology-relevant, optimized business practices — a way for all IT staff, not just leaders, to achieve the most for their time and effort.Find out how SAFe can help you drive global digital marketing in our webinar. And listen to our podcast for more information about SAFe.
How the SEC’s proposed climate disclosure rules can affect your business
Edua Dickerson, vice president of ESG and finance strategy at LIKE.TG, co-authored this blog.Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns are rapidly rising to the top of the corporate agenda. Not only is ESG a corporate responsibility, but it’s also a win-win for enterprises.By embracing sustainability, ethical labor practices, and effective processes and controls, organizations are laying the groundwork for increased value creation, according to McKinsey. In other words, ESG is an opportunity to prosper by doing the right thing.Investors are also keenly interested in ESG. In fact, we’re seeing ESG becoming a critical factor in the investment decision process, both for institutional and individual investors.Climate risk reporting mandateEvidencing this fundamental shift in investment priorities, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a statement on March 21, 2022, proposing rules to standardize climate-related disclosures—including climate-related risk disclosures—as part of certain SEC filings, such as 10-Ks. The SEC’s action follows a wave of similar regulatory requirements in geographies around the world, including the EU, UK, and New Zealand.If adopted, these new SEC requirements could come into effect as early as Q4 2022. That means large companies (those with a public float of $700 million or more) with a fiscal year end of Dec. 31 will have to start phasing in climate disclosures for their fiscal year 2023 report filed in 2024, with smaller companies following a year or two later.Increased emphasis on governance and riskMany large companies already disclose much of this climate-related information in voluntary reports. However, the requirement to include such information in a periodic report will demand additional rigor, increase the need for auditability, and heighten executive and board-level scrutiny.The proposed SEC disclosures share common elements with existing ESG reporting frameworks, including: Direct (Scope 1), indirect (Scope 2), and value-chain-related (Scope 3) greenhouse gas emissions How the organization identifies and addresses the impact of climate-related risks over the short, medium, and long term How the organization intends to meet its climate-related goals and targets How it’s progressing against these goals and targets Essentially, there’s an increased emphasis on climate-related strategy, governance, and risk management by the SEC. Building ESG into the organizationGiven the increased scope and mission-critical nature of these SEC disclosures, businesses will need effective tools and processes to gather, analyze, and report on climate-related strategy and performance. They’ll also need to create, manage, and measure programs to align company activities with stated climate-related goals.This visibility and control need to span the entire business. The imperative is about more than just running an ESG department. It’s about building ESG into every aspect of what an organization does.Unfortunately, many organizations—including those aligning to standardized reporting frameworks such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)—still rely on manual, error-prone processes such as spreadsheets and emails for ESG reporting. This approach doesn’t scale to efficiently provide the climate-related information that investors need and that the proposed SEC rules help address.Instead, IT teams need to work with ESG/sustainability and risk management professionals within the business to implement sophisticated software solutions that enable effective execution, monitoring, governance, and disclosure of climate-related initiatives and concerns across the business.These tools must capture ESG strategy and targets, tie ESG program execution to these goals, provide capabilities to identify and mitigate ESG risks, and automatically gather ESG metrics through internal processes—and by gathering information from third-party ESG data providers (for example, to gather emissions data for an organization’s supply chain).Enabling ESG managementAs part of the LIKE.TG community, you can leverage your investment in the Now Platform® to empower your business with our ESG management tools. LIKE.TG combines the capabilities of LIKE.TG® ESG Management, Integrated Risk Management, and Strategic Portfolio Management into a unified solution that helps your business: Document climate strategy, including focus areas, targets, and quantified goals Assess and track climate risks, including creating controls and executing plans to address these risks Identify and prioritize climate initiatives based on their value, cost, and alignment with ESG strategy Manage progress of these climate initiatives, keeping ESG programs on track Gather climate metrics and evidence from internal data owners with auditable workflows Automatically collect climate and other ESG metrics from third-party providers Synthesize information, including strategy, targets, risks, projects, metrics, and other data into auditable and traceable disclosures Find out more about LIKE.TG ESG solutions.Learn more about LIKE.TG’s ESG progress in our Global Impact Report.
How the Workplace Can Help to Improve Employee Health and Wellbeing
A person residing in the UK spends around 3,515 full days at work throughout their life. This is a huge amount of time from a person’s life. Breaking it down to simpler figures, employees tend to spend 34 hours and 26 minutes on average at work in a week. To stay fit, one must follow a proper diet. The diet just doesn’t include food; it includes what you watch, what you read, what you listen to, and whom you spend your time with. To stay healthy physically and mentally, you need to pay attention to everything that you absorb. Since people spend so much time at their workplace regularly, it is important for them to have a healthy environment. The workplace has a huge role to play in an employee’s health and wellbeing. A healthy workplace improves employee’s health behaviors, reduces elevated health risks, significantly reduces your health care cost, and prevents you from paying high fees to therapists. Besides that, your well-being improves productivity, is likely to reduce absenteeism, improve relations with your colleagues and co-workers. The most important is that it helps in sustaining high employee morale. Here are a few ways how the workplaces can help improve employee health and wellbeing. Encouraging Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Food contributes directly to a person’s health. Eating healthy will keep you fit and active. A healthy body makes a healthy mind. Workplaces that support healthy eating habits among their employees are contributing to their health and wellbeing. Soft drink vending machines are now being removed from the workplace. Some companies have also started programs that guide the employees about nutrition and a healthy diet. Besides that, budget-friendly plans are being provided to the employees that cannot afford to spend their entire month’s salary just on food. Fruits are being used as an evening time snack which is a healthier option. You should also promote physical activity to improve employee health and reduce their stress levels by offering them gym facilities on-premise or giving them discounted gym memberships. You can also promote a physically active workplace by holding sporting events. Use More Plants at the Workplace There are numerous benefits of keeping plants indoors. The main job that they do is to naturally purify the air by taking in carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Indoor plants at workplaces are also known to reduce employees’ anxiety and stress. They prevent employees from getting sick while also enhancing the ambiance. Therefore, use plants to increase wellness. There are specific plants that are kept indoors which adjust to low sunlight and grow even in the presence of working air conditioners. Some low maintenance indoor plants which workplaces can keep to ensure the good health and wellbeing of their employees are: Snake plant ZZ plant Spider Plant Dracaena Monstera Deliciosa Introduction to Conflict in the Workplace(and How it Erodes Productivity & Culture) Download the Ebook Now Improving Indoor Air Quality Poor air quality inside workplaces can cause “sick building syndrome.” This causes people to feel tired, dizzy, reduce concentration, and can also make the eyes itchy and watery. Improper ventilation at workplaces is the major cause that the poor air cannot escape out and fresh air cannot come in. Synthetic materials that the building is made out of, chemical cleaners used on a daily basis, and the furnishing inside the office also contribute to the poor air quality inside the office. Air quality can be improved in the following ways, which will directly contribute to improving employee health: Windows to be kept open so that the air flows in and out Humidity levels to be kept below 60% Reducing the usage of chemical cleaners Servicing air conditioners regularly Use air purifiers Make sure cleaning is done properly Stretching Breaks Taking breaks while working is important to avoid exhaustion of your mind. Workers who care about their mental health and want to take breaks for reduced stress are sometimes afraid to take a break for fear of being presumed lazy. Some people get so busy with work that they tend to forget to take a break. Sometimes they also forget to eat their lunch. Workplaces should allow employees to take a small break from work. These breaks can be utilized to perform some stretching exercises that help in reducing muscle aches and eye stress. Stretching is a healthy exercise, and all the employees doing it together can be a lot of fun. In addition, breaks also enhance employee morale Realize the Importance of Work-Life Balance There is a difference in how machines are programmed to work and how humans are programmed to work. Understanding the employee’s potential and mental state and not overburdening the employees that they are forced into working overtime is one way the workplace can contribute to the wellbeing of their employees. If the employee is mentally exhausted due to the workload, it can decrease the work quality and efficiency of the worker. To be able to give your best, you need to be mentally relaxed, and that is one thing workplaces need to understand. Allowing holidays, vacations, and sometimes early offs can help employees relax and stay healthy mentally as well. Organizations can also provide benefits, such as health insurance, to promote the health of their employees. If they have health coverage, they will be more likely to visit the doctor before their health completely deteriorates. A healthy work environment is essential for employee productivity and perks, such as health insurance, are absolute. Mental Health Training We always see workplaces being concerned about the physical health of the employees. We have witnessed the use of safety equipment where employees possess the risk of physical injury. Fire-extinguishers are hanging on the walls of every office. Just as caring about your employees’ physical health is essential, so is a concern for their psychological well-being. By providing mental health training to managers can help them in identifying if an employee is undergoing any kind of mental stress. Be it due to work or personal reasons; workplaces should encourage the culture of helping out each other in such situations. These pieces of training are especially essential for the people working in the HR department as they are the ones who are coordinating with every employee. Since mental health is being less stigmatized, creating a comfortable environment will allow employees to open up and seek health. Ergonomic Equipment Ergonomic equipment is designed to ensure the comfort and safety of the workers. Throw out your old, outdated, and non-ergonomic equipment, which is likely to cause injuries to employees. Replace it with fresh ergonomic mice, desks, office chairs, and monitors, etc., to reduce the risk of injuries and provide more comfortable workstations. Using ergonomic equipment will improve employee productivity. You can use standing desks instead of sitting desks to avoid problems caused by sitting for a long time. Ergonomic screens are also built in a way that reduces the negative impact continuous light makes on the eye. It may sound like a costly option; however, the quality and durability are worth investing in. Moreover, you would not have to worry about replacing or repairing them each year, so you are saving money by investing in ergonomic equipment. This will make the workers feel more energized, adapt to a healthier work style and play a part in their mental health and wellbeing too. Conclusion Workplaces play an important role in making or breaking the personality of a person. That is the place we learn new things from every day. That is the place where we even go every day. The kinds of environment we get at our workplaces create a major impact in our daily life, including determining the status of our health and mental wellbeing. About Author: This article is written by a marketing team member at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
How to Analyze Survey Data: 9 Effective Ways
Analyzing survey data is key. However, how to analyze survey data is crucial to gaining valuable insight into your business.The analysis helps you make well-informed decisions across diverse fields, including market research, customer service, agent relations, and customer satisfaction.In current marketing practices, customer survey results are a major and effective means of collecting data for directing profitable business transformations.For instance, through effective survey data analysis, organizations can uncover patterns, trends, and correlations within the survey reports, leading to actionable information that can be used to improve business practices and outcomes.Let’s learn more about survey analysis by looking at the best ways on how to analyse survey data and covering some key techniques and strategies for effective analysis. What is data analysis?Data analysis is the process of inspecting data to find valuable information that can be used to inform decisions and test ideas.Applied to customer surveys, data analysis can be used to find methods for streamlining purchasing processes, identify support obstacles, improve customer relationships, and increase customer retention.A recent report published by Product board found that approximately 52% of businesses improve their brands based on customer feedback.Strategies of how to analyze survey data effectivelyIn contemporary customer survey result analysis, it is crucial to wield a variety of techniques to investigate survey reports that have already been collected.The following items are essential to effectively analyzing survey data:1. Know and understand all measurement levelsSurvey data analysis can be classified into different measurement levels, each serving a unique role survey reports. Familiarize yourself with the following levels:Nominal: Data is classified into distinct groups or categories based on specific characteristics with no inherent order or value.Ordinal: Data is categorized into distinct groups based on specific characteristics with an integral order or ranking, but the intervals between categories are not equal.An example of ordinal data is customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey responses that use a Likert scale. (In this context, a Likert scale quantitatively analyzes a customer’s attitude, behavior, or opinions on their experience with the business).Interval: This level of data combines features of nominal and ordinal. It has equal intervals between values, without a true zero point, and quantifiable differences between data points. This means that the numerical difference between any two values is meaningful and can be used for comparison and analysis.Ratio: This level exhibits equal intervals between values, along with a meaningful zero point.2. Ensure the customer survey data is high-qualityWhen performing analysis, consider factors that may affect the survey data, such as the phrasing of the questions, the objectives of the survey, respondent attitude, and the information you intend to use.Surveys should use clear, concise, and unbiased questions to acquire accurate responses.3. Differentiate between closed- and open-ended questionsSurvey reports questions can be differentiated as follows:Closed-ended questionsClosed-ended questions are questions that offer predefined response options, such as multiple-choice or yes/no formats. Such questions facilitate quantitative analysis and simplify data processing.Open-ended questionsThese questions give respondents room to provide unrestricted answers in their own words.Importantly, the answers to such questions provide qualitative data and offer valuable insights into participants’ thoughts, feelings, and opinions, giving companies direct information that can be leveraged to improve their business.4. Analyze quantitative data firstQuantitative data involves numerical information, providing statistical precision and allowing companies to begin analysis much faster.There are two types of quantitative data:Discrete: This type of data has a fixed value. One example is the number of product licenses held by a customer.Continuous: This type of data varies over time. The value isn’t static. One example is the number of support tickets opened by a specific customer over the course of a week.By analyzing such data, you can better deliver objective analysis.5. Supplement analysis with qualitative dataQualitative data adds depth and context to quantitative findings by capturing the complexities of customer experiences. Qualitative data in customer surveys is mostly collected through interviews, observations, and open-ended questions.6. Identify relationships with cross-tabulationCross-tabulation is a method of examining relationships between two or more variables. It helps you merge data in a very compact and understandable manner.The following factors should be included in any cross-tabulation analysis of customer survey data:Demographics: Collect precise information on the different demographic groups that responded to survey questionsGender: Analyze how responses vary based on genderAverage: Calculate averages or means for specific variables within different demographic groups7. Use time-series analysisWhile analyzing survey data, you need to be able to compare your past data with current data.This will help you easily discover related data, better predict business growth, and detect gaps or inconsistencies in the survey data, the surveys themselves, or the customer service provided.8. Analyze missing dataEmploy appropriate techniques to handle missing values, such as imputation (the substitution of missing values for reasonably estimated values) or deletion.By doing so, you’ll still have the data necessary to perform productive, effective, and useful analysis.9. Differentiate between correlation and causationThe human mind likes to identify patterns. This tendency often leads to associating two unrelated events that occur independently of each other.Therefore, it is crucial to thoroughly examine and differentiate between all correlation and causation aspects of every analytical finding. Consider all relevant variables before drawing any conclusions.How to present survey resultsTo ensure your analysis has maximum impact, it’s important to employ strategies that enhance its visibility and cater to the needs and preferences of your audience.Let’s explore the best ways to do so.1. Use high-quality data visualizationsTo ensure your analyzed data is visually appealing and easily understandable, employ the following techniques:Choose appropriate charts and graphs: Select chart types and KPI visualizers that enhance clarity, emphasize key insights, and effectively represent your dataSimplify complex data: Break down complex information into smaller, digestible visual elementsUse clear and legible fonts: Choose easy-to-read fonts, particularly when presenting data on slides or in reports2. Put analyzed data at the forefrontTo effectively present survey reports, make it the focal point of your communication. Consider the following approaches:Summarize key findings: This allows your audience to grasp the main points up frontTell a compelling story: Connect data points to a broader context or objective to make it engagingProvide context and interpretation: Offer insights, observations, and expert interpretations to help your audience understand the meaning behind the numbers3. Present survey reports effectivelyTo ensure clarity and avoid confusion, present each type of survey results separately.Use multiple slides or sections: When presenting data in a slide deck or report, dedicate separate slides or sections to different types of customer survey data analysis.Organize data logically: Group related data together and provide clear headings and subheadings to guide your audience.4. Label your data components clearlyTo facilitate understanding and prevent misinterpretation, effective labelling of data components is crucial.Provide clear titles and captions: Use descriptive titles and captions to provide additional context or explanations for the data.Clearly label axes and units of measurement: This helps your audience easily understand the scale and context of the data being presented.Include data source information: Provide information about the source of the data and any relevant disclaimers to maintain transparency and credibility.5. Shape your analysis report to your audience’s satisfactionTo effectively engage your audience, you should consider their needs and preferences. Practice the following:Tailor the presentation to the audience: Understand your audience and summarize the detailed data so that the audience will engage with it. This means excluding irrelevant or inessential analysis.Proactively address specific concerns or questions: This demonstrates your expertise and helps build trust in the analysis.Actively seek feedback before and after delivering analysis: Utilize colleague and audience input to refine your presentation style and improve future data presentations.Turn survey data into meaningful business insightsNow that you know the keyways on how to analyse survey data and presenting your finding, try using LIKE.TG—powerful, customizable help desk software—to help you collect, analyze, and present your business’s data through built-in reports and analytics.LIKE.TG will also help you increase your customer service agents’ productivity and effectiveness.To learn more about how your customer service can excel with the aid of LIKE.TG, sign up for a free trial. Or you can schedule a live demo and experience LIKE.TG firsthand alongside our product experts. You can also reach out to our support team if you have any questions.Related articles3 Best Ways to Collect Customer Feedback Surveys and How to Use Them40+ Popular Customer Satisfaction Survey QuestionsCustomer Satisfaction (CSAT) Survey: Definition and Details You Should Know
How To Attract Millennials and Gen Z’ers Into the Construction Industry
The construction industry is facing challenging times. The average age of workers in the construction industry is 42.5 years. This means that the construction workforce needs new blood within the next 20 years. A study estimates that by 2025, the global workforce will be made up of 75 percent of millennials. And the problem is that for the millennials and Gen Z’ers jobs in construction companies are not appealing. This is why attracting and retaining young construction labor talents is very challenging. If you are looking to attract and retain millennials and Gen Z candidates to your organizations, here are four statistics you should know and ten actionable tips to implement right away in your construction company. 4 Key Stats About The Millennial And Gen Z Workforce They are already planning ahead. Up to 36 percent of millennials and 53 percent of Gen Z employees are keen on leaving their current position within the next two years. Flexibility is important to them. 22 percent of millennials and 19 percent of Gen Z employees reported they are likely to quit organizations that don’t encourage flexible working practices. They are tech-curious. A whopping 91 percent of Gen Z employees report that they would be more attracted to organizations using sophisticated technology. Up-to-date technology infrastructure is important. Organizations using substandard technology are likely to repel 42 percent of millennials. How to attract millennial and Gen Z candidates into the construction industry: 10 actionable tips 1. Give millennials and Gen Z’ers something to be proud of More than ever, millennials are looking for careers that give them a feeling of purpose. A study by Bentley University reports that 84 percent of millennials feel that making a positive impact on the world is more important than being recognized as a professional. This highlights that the next generation of young professionals want to achieve something they can be proud of. To attract millennial and Gen Z candidates, consider putting forward the positive impacts your organization has on the world. If you cannot find any, consider participating in or contributing towards projects that make a difference. These can include supporting community and social development or even protecting the environment. 2. Encourage positive social interactions in your construction labor business When deciding whether or not to work for a company, 52 percent of millennials consider a healthy workplace culture to be important. This highlights that the next generation of talents places a higher value on the company's culture than on its brand. Since most workers in the construction industry cannot afford to work remotely, they very likely spend more time at work than at home. It is critical you encourage positive social interactions within your workforce. Company events, informal gatherings, and other activities that bring your team together can make your company more appealing. Also, consider sharing all these moments on your organization’s social media profiles to get the attention of millennials and Gen Z candidates. 3. Flexibility & work-life balance is important Flexibility has gradually become one of the key perks young professionals look for when choosing a job. According to a poll by American Express, 75 percent of millennials agree that a successful organization should have flexible working options. Moreover, respondents of this survey concur that organizations should not impose a rigid structure on their workforce. Millennials and Gen Z professionals value flexibility as it allows them to better manage their work-life balance. If your organization has flexible working options, be sure to highlight these perks in your job vacancies. As mentioned in the section above, use the power of social media to communicate about benefits you offer with your current, and potential future employees. If you currently do not offer flexible working arrangements, consider implementing at least one of the following: flextime, reduced hours, compressed workweeks, or even remote work. 4. Learning and mentorship opportunities for your construction labor force Millennials and Gen Zers seem very interested in active and ongoing learning opportunities. They recognize the need to stay up to date with the latest trends and discoveries. A survey reveals that more than 50 percent of millennials and Gen Z adults believe that regularly updating their skills and knowledge will benefit their careers. To attract young professionals to your construction company, you have to provide them with learning opportunities. This can be in the form of upskilling workshops, coaching from experienced professionals, or even through mentorship programs. Offer these learning sessions at regular intervals to show you care about their personal development. 5. Career development prospects Just like millennials and Gen Zers look for learning opportunities, they also pay extra attention to their career development prospects. A study by Glassdoor reveals that 87 percent of millennials value career progression possibilities. While some may characterize millennials as impatient, it is clear that they are highly motivated and expect to see results as soon as possible. To get the attention of millennials and Gen Z candidates, you must be able to show them what to expect in terms of career growth. Since millennials like to be challenged, show them what they should do to climb a step further. Keep in mind that they may look elsewhere if they realize they do not have any room for career growth. 6. Understand and use their full skill spectrum Different employees, regardless of the generation they belong to, possess different levels of skills. Nothing is more discouraging to an employee than seeing that their skills are underutilized. Studies reveal that only 28 percent of millennials feel their current employer uses their skill set to its full potential. Potential young talents should feel you are interested in understanding their skill spectrum. Right from the interview stage, gauge their complete skill set. From there on, encourage them to fully use their skills in their daily job. Review at regular intervals, and provide adequate feedback so that your new recruit knows how to improve. 7. Decent compensation package The compensation package you offer to your candidates is crucial to their final choice. Your proposition directly reflects their value to your organization. According to a report by MRINetwork, 28 percent of millennials selected “compensation and benefits” to be the top priority when considering a new job. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to compensation and benefits. Do your homework and see what is being offered elsewhere in the construction industry. Additionally, before putting your offer on the table, plan ahead of time and calculate potential increases in package benefits as your recruit career advances. 8. Supportive company culture Millennials want to be reassured that their job is important and that their employers value them. Feedback, mentoring and coaching young professionals shows your support and belief in their abilities. Moreover, they want to contribute to the success of their organization. Allow your younger recruits to come up with unique solutions and recognize their accomplishments. Linking millennials and Gen Zers with more experienced workers can do the trick. This shows you care about what they are learning and support their development. 9. Clear communication, vision, and targets A clear company vision is especially vital for millennials just starting out in their professions. Business owners may link their vision to their staff by painting the larger picture. This provides employees with a clear feeling of purpose as well as an awareness of how their efforts fit into the overall goal. Clear and concise communication is an absolute must. Prospective candidates should already know where they will fit in right from the interview process. This keeps them engaged, challenged, and encourages them to join your construction organization. If they feel connected to the end goal, this can even inspire them to stick to your company. 10. Encourage innovation and use of technology in your construction business Most millennials and Gen Z’ers have received general education that somehow incorporates the use of technology. Moreover, the last couple of decades have strongly encouraged innovation in almost all industries. These have now become key components of their business thought process. By highlighting your organization’s interest in innovation and making use of the latest technology, you will very likely grab the attention of millennials and Gen Z candidates. Is your next construction project using eco-friendly materials? Are you using apps to track and manage your construction assets? Make it known to the public. The key here is to demonstrate innovative efforts. Off you go With each passing day, the current construction workforce is getting older. The industry needs new blood more than ever, and the competition for talent is getting stiffer. As things stand, it seems there will be no workaround possible. Many construction companies will need to rethink their position and adapt to the aging workforce. Attracting millennials and Gen Z’ers may just be the move to take their business to the next level. About Author: Bryan Christiansen is the founder and CEO of Limble CMMS. Limble is a modern, easy-to-use mobile CMMS software that takes the stress and chaos out of maintenance by helping managers organize, automate, and streamline their maintenance operations.
How to be an IT ninja
Ninjas are known for their stealth and agility, skills that take much practice and study to master. They are never satisfied with their current abilities and always seek to improve.Those noble aspirations are not limited to secret warriors. In the current climate, IT leaders are also busy adding new capabilities to their skillset. In my IT Experience Podcast, I regularly sit-down with IT pros who have valuable advice for their peers.The following principles can help you hone your ITSM and ITOM ninja skills as we build the post-COVID-19 workplace.Keep a growth mindset - When I sat down with Khalid Kark, Managing Director at Deloitte CIO Program, he shared his research on kinetic leaders. A kinetic leader is always reinventing herself.It’s even more critical to maintain a growth mindset. Leaders can’t just focus on focus only on responding to traditional problems. Instead, view every new challenge as an opportunity to drive agility so you can stay resilient and innovate. A growth mindset will help you create value in difficult times, whether by deploying automation to keep employees productive or building intelligence to respond to customer problems faster.[Shameless plug: It’s one thing to be an IT leader, it’s another thing to use ITSM that’s a leader in the Gartner MQ.]Align IT and business to deliver digital outcomes - IT transformation leader David Stefferud, used an analogy to explain why transformation projects often fail. Let’s say your business is looking to sell more canned peaches. But IT keeps asking for more money to upgrade their systems. The mismatch of goals and expectations creates contention among the teams, without advancing their common goal of moving those peaches.Instead, IT should come back and say, ‘I'd love to help you sell more peaches, but we need to rethink our digital capabilities to support that?’Focus on intelligence versus data - Many IT leaders care about data collection. It’s true that analytics is useless without quality data. But if data collection consumes years of effort by expensive data scientists and then doesn’t yield useful results, it becomes a burden.According to Loom Systems founders Gab Menachem and Dror Mann, IT leaders need to build intelligent systems instead of just capturing data and then relying on lengthy analysis to surface the insights they need.Make automation your top priority - Thangavel Viswam, an IT ninja on the LIKE.TG IT Operations team, shared how his team has automated resolution of VPN issues. Before they automated problem identification and i resolution, they used to have to resolve hundreds of incidents. Now they're down to tens and twenties. During COVID-19 when employees everywhere started working remotely, they hardly had to work on VPN issues. That freed up time for them to work on other strategic tasks.Put your ninja suit on and be ready to adapt and grow - IT leaders can drive business value by: Making allies in the business by understanding their business needs. Creating common digital transformation goals. Develop their intelligence and automation muscles.
How to Be the Top and Effective Employee Manager in Remote Job
Other than the COVID-19 pandemic which pushed most businesses to begin work from home programs, remote jobs are becoming more popular for several reasons. For example, they can provide you with a better work-life balance by allowing you to limit social interactions. This means that you will have more time for work arrangements and other important things like family or hobbies. In this blog post, we'll discuss how to take advantage of all these benefits and become the top remote job manager. What is the Lure of working remotely and the Drawbacks that may come with it? Irrespective of the time zones, remote jobs present a variety of benefits in comparison to their traditional counterparts. This partly explains why remote work or telecommuting has become so popular. The main benefit that many people enjoy with this type of job, especially working moms, is the better work-life balance they get by not having to go into an office every day and face lots of distractions like coworkers stopping by your desk for quick chatty conversations. You can also leverage powerful collaborative tools like WorKmates in managing remote employees to maintain relationships with other employees working from home more easily. Managing remote workers also allows you the opportunity to spend time on things other than just work can lead to a better work-life balance (for example, you can exercise or have time for family). The Drawbacks: Since remote jobs are becoming more popular and people are able to find them easier than ever before, it's harder to stand out. You need an edge to be seen as the best candidate if you shift to remote work. This may mean having a specialized skill set for managing remote teams, that is difficult for other candidates or working on very specific projects with high visibility. There could also be concerns about not feeling like part of an office culture because you're not there every day. How can you Balance your Work-Life with other Aspects of your Life? This is a very difficult question. There are different types of work-life balance, such as personal vs. professional and individual vs. family. These two examples show that there's no perfect solution. You have to find what works best for you in terms of balancing time with other aspects of your life. For one example, if your goal is more about finding the right balance between time spent at home versus time spent on work tasks or on any of your team meetings; then it may be helpful to create an "at home" schedule or chart where you designate certain hours for working from home so that you're able to stay connected with your partner while still getting things done. This way, when they come over during lunchtime, like always, they won't feel neglected because they know you're there. If you also have other commitments like assignments that make it slightly difficult on the tasks at hand, you may want to hire a professional paper writer to help with some of those tasks. For another example, if your goal is to find the right balance between professional time and family time; then it may be helpful to schedule monthly blocks of workdays that are solely for working while also scheduling weekly blocks where you have planned vacation days or a long weekend trip with your partner. This way, when you come home from being away for so much work-time, like always, they won't feel neglected because they'll see how happy all the rest of the time was every day. Tip: It's important to remember that these solutions for managing a remote workforce will vary depending on what type of person you are. Figure out which one works best for YOU in terms of balancing personal vs. professional needs and individual vs. family needs. If you can't think of anything, go back to your career goals and ask yourself what type of work-life balance do you need? Take time each day for things like exercise or hobbies so that when you are working at home, it's not just all work. It'll help with the overall satisfaction level. Tips for Managers on how to be an Effective Employee Manager in Remote Jobs To effectively manage remote teams, the most effective managers are ones that know how to motivate the individuals on their team. This can be done in various ways, such as understanding different personality types. This way, they know when it's best to reward the juniors based on their unique needs or learn what motivates people differently and provide them with tasks that will suit those needs. Many find this easy because instead of having one bad day for every six good days, you'll have five good days for every one bad day. To be an effective remote employee manager, it would also help if you have a plan for when things do go wrong. It's just like on the road. If there are no emergency lanes, then what happens when you break down? That means that it's important to create an exit strategy and know-how long various tasks will take so you don't end up working around the clock in your office building or home. If this does happen, though, try not to work too late as well because being productive during longer hours can be difficult. It'll help with the overall satisfaction level. It is also important that you trust your team just as you’d trust your dissertation writers U.K for exemplary work. This is important because you will rarely know everything that there is to know about the given task. Therefore you must trust your team members with the tasks at hand and give them the freedom to do what they believe best. Finally, be sure to define the rules of engagement. This is essential because your team members will respect you if you are able to set the expectations and clear rules of engagement. You need to define how your employees will know what they are supposed to achieve, when a work is done well or not without the normal face-to-face interaction. You can do this through video conferencing or making phone calls to the relevant parties. And by ensuring that all parties are happy with it, you will earn the respect and trust of your team members. Final Word People are different, so it's important to know what you need to be the best manager of your remote team. From video calls to using the relevant collaborative tools, the key is to figure out which one works for you. About Author: Aziz Nicleson is a journalist with 4 years experience working in London magazine "Shop&buy." He has also worked at reputable essay writing agencies like EssayMama, NinjaEssay, and rushessay.com where his roles involved managing editing essays. Aziz have also been playing professional mini-tennis for several years. His novel, titled “His heart” competes on the same level as some of the world's best literature.
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