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Connecting DynamoDB to S3 Using AWS Glue: 2 Easy Steps
Are you trying to derive deeper insights from your Amazon DynamoDB by moving the data into a larger Database like Amazon S3? Well, you have landed on the right article. Now, it has become easier to replicate data from DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue.Connecting DynamoDB with S3 allows you to export NoSQL data for analysis, archival, and more. In just two easy steps, you can configure an AWS Glue crawler to populate metadata about your DynamoDB tables and then create an AWS Glue job to efficiently transfer data between DynamoDB and S3 on a scheduled basis.
This article will tell you how you can connect your DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue along with their advantages and disadvantages in the further sections. Read along to seamlessly connect DynamoDB to S3.
Prerequisites
You will have a much easier time understanding the steps to connect DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue if you have:
An active AWS account.
Working knowledge of Databases.
A clear idea regarding the type of data to be transferred.
Steps to Connect DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue
This section details the steps to move data from DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue. This method would need you to deploy precious engineering resources to invest time and effort to understand both S3 and DynamoDB. They would then need to piece the infrastructure together bit by bit. This is a fairly time-consuming process.
Now, let us export data from DynamoDB to S3 using AWS glue. It is done in two major steps:
Step 1: Creating a Crawler
Step 2: Exporting Data from DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue.
Step 1: Create a Crawler
The first step in connecting DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue is to create a crawler. You can follow the below-mentioned steps to create a crawler.
Create a Database DynamoDB.
Pick a table from the Table drop-down list.
Let the table info get created through the crawler. Set up crawler details in the window below. Provide a crawler name, such asdynamodb_crawler.
Add database name and DynamoDB table name.
Provide the necessary IAM role to the crawler such that it can access the DynamoDB table. Here, the created IAM role is AWSGlueServiceRole-DynamoDB.
You can schedule the crawler. For this illustration, it is running on-demand as the activity is one-time.
Review the crawler information.
Run the crawler.
Check the catalog details once the crawler is executed successfully.
Step 2: Exporting Data from DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue
Since the crawler is generated, let us create a job to copy data from the DynamoDB table to S3. Here the job name given is dynamodb_s3_gluejob.In AWS Glue, you can use either Python or Scala as an ETL language. For the scope of this article, let us use Python
Pick your data source.
Pick your data target.
Once completed, Glue will create a readymade mapping for you.
Once you review your mapping, it will automatically generate python code/job for you.
Execute the Python job.
Once the job completes successfully, it will generate logs for you to review.
Go and check the files in the bucket. Download the files.
Review the contents of the file.
Load Data From DynamoDB and S3 to a Data Warehouse With LIKE.TG ’s No Code Data Pipeline
LIKE.TG is the only real-time ELT No-code Data Pipeline platform that cost-effectively automates data pipelines that are flexible to your needs. With integration with 150+ Data Sources (40+ free sources), we help you not only export data from sources load data to the destinations but also transform enrich your data, make it analysis-ready.
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Advantages of Connecting DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue
Some of the advantages of connecting DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue include:
This approach is fully serverless and you do not have to worry about provisioning and maintaining your resources
You can run your customized Python and Scala code to run the ETL
You can push your event notification to Cloudwatch
You can trigger the Lambda function for success or failure notification
You can manage your job dependencies using AWS Glue
AWS Glue is the perfect choice if you want to create a data catalog and push your data to the Redshift spectrum
Disadvantages of Connecting DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue
Some of the disadvantages of connecting DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue include:
AWS Glue is batch-oriented and does not support streaming data. In case your DynamoDB table is populated at a higher rate. AWS Glue may not be the right option
AWS Glue service is still in an early stage and not mature enough for complex logic
AWS Glue still has a lot of limitations on the number of crawlers, number of jobs, etc.
Refer to AWS documentation to know more about the limitations.
LIKE.TG Data, on the other hand, comes with a flawless architecture and top-class features that help in moving data from multiple sources to a Data Warehouse of your choice without writing a single line of code. It offers excellent Data Ingestion and Data Replication services.Compared to AWS Glue‘s support for limited sources.
LIKE.TG supports 150+ ready-to-use integrations across databases, SaaS Applications, cloud storage, SDKs, and streaming services with a flexible and transparentpricing plan. With just a five-minute setup, you can replicate data from any of your Sources to a database or data warehouse Destination of your choice.
Conclusion
AWS Glue can be used for data integration when you do not want to worry about your resources and do not need to take control over your resources i.e., EC2 instances, EMR cluster, etc.Thus, connecting DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue can help you to replicate data with ease. Now, the manual approach of connecting DynamoDB to S3 using AWS Glue will add complex overheads in terms of time, and resources. Such a solution will require skilled engineers and regular data updates. Furthermore, you will have to build an in-house solution from scratch if you wish to transfer your data from DynamoDB or S3 to a Data Warehouse for analysis.
LIKE.TG Data provides an Automated No-code Data Pipeline that empowers you to overcome the above-mentioned limitations. LIKE.TG caters to 150+ Sources BI tools (including 40+ free sources) and can seamlessly transfer your S3 and DynamoDB data to the Data Warehouse of your choice in real-time. LIKE.TG ’s Data Pipeline enriches your data and manages the transfer process in a fully automated and secure manner without having to write any code. It will make your life easier and make data migration hassle-free.
Learn more about LIKE.TG
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Share your experience of setting up DynamoDB to S3 Integration in the comments section below!
LIKE.TG Data and Kipi.bi Partner to Deliver Improved Data Maturity to Customers
Kipi.bi and LIKE.TG Data have been bringing increased efficiency and maturity into enterprise organizations’ data stacks for years, and both teams are thrilled to formalize their partnership! Both organizations share a keen dedication to enabling data-driven decision-making by allowing businesses to leverage the power of modern data solutions.In this data-driven era, businesses are relentlessly striving to harness the power of data for better decision-making, insights, and growth. The partnership between Kipi.bi and LIKE.TG Data aims to empower organizations to seamlessly build and manage their data stack, unlocking new possibilities in data analytics and business intelligence.
Why Kipi.bi and LIKE.TG Data?
As Snowflake’s 2023 America Systems Integrator Partner of the Year, Kipi.bi brings a wealth of experience in architecting and optimizing data solutions within Snowflake. Their team of seasoned professionals understands the intricacies of Snowflake’s cloud-based data platform, enabling them to tailor solutions that align with the unique needs of each client.
LIKE.TG Data, on the other hand, is a leading no-code, zero-maintenance ETL platform. As a Snowflake Premier Partner, the platform is uniquely built to be able to integrate into the Snowflake data warehouse with ease. With LIKE.TG Data, businesses can set up their data ingestion into Snowflake or any other data warehouse, reduce time-to-insight, and make data accessible across the organization.
The combination of Kipi.bi and LIKE.TG Data allows data-driven organizations to leverage the power of a real-time, flexible and cost-effective ELT platform along with the knowledge of a forward-thinking team of experts within the Snowflake and analytics industry. The two organizations with be working closely together to deliver a seamless experience to joint customers to leverage their data to the fullest extent.
Kipi.bi has been able to utilize the powerful combination of LIKE.TG Data and Snowflake to build robust and scalable data stacks for a number of organizations, like RNDC and Clinical Ink, and they are looking forward to bringing on many more such joint customers!
This is the beginning of the partner enablement series that will be conducted between kipi.bi and LIKE.TG Data, as they are committed to ensuring that their clients derive maximum value from this collaboration. Both Kipi.bi and LIKE.TG Data are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and look forward to helping deliver transformative data solutions across the community!
About kipi.bi:
kipi.bi helps businesses overcome data gaps and deliver rapid insights at scale. With Snowflake at their core, they believe good data has the power to enable innovation without limits.Kipi earned Snowflake’s Americas System Integrator Growth Partner of the Year Award at the 2023 Snowflake Summit and holds 7 industry competency badges. Kipi is committed to pioneering world-class data solutions for Snowflake customers including 50+ Accelerators, Enablers, Solutions, and Native Apps to boost performance within Snowflake. Let kipi.bi become your trusted partner for data and analytics and we’ll empower your teams to access data-driven insights and unlock new revenue streams at scale.
About LIKE.TG Data:
LIKE.TG Data is an intuitive data pipeline platform that modern data analytics teams across 40+ countries rely on to fuel timely analytics and data-driven decisions. LIKE.TG Data helps them reliably and effortlessly sync data from 150+ SaaS apps and other data sources to any cloud warehouse or data lake and turn it analytics-ready through intuitive models and workflows.
ELT as a Foundational Block for Advanced Data Science
This blog was written based on a collaborative webinar conducted by LIKE.TG Data and Danu Consulting- “Data Bytes and Insights: Building a Modern Data Stack from the Ground Up”, furthering LIKE.TG ’s partnership with Danu consulting. The webinar explored how to build a robust modern data stack that will act as a foundation towards more advanced data science applications like AI and ML. If you are interested in knowing more, visit our YouTube channel now! The Foundation for Good Data Science
The general scope of data science is very broad. The hot topics in data science today are all related to ML and AI. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg- the aspirational state of data science. There is a lot that needs to go on in the background for ML and AI within an organization to be successful.
What do we need to have first?
We need to have a solid foundation to build up to AI capabilities within an organization. Some key questions to be answered to evaluate this foundation could be-
Do we have access to the data we need?
How is the required data accessed?
Do we have good data governance?
Do we have the infrastructure in place to implement all our required projects?
Can we view and understand data easily?
How can an ML/AI model go into production?
1. Digitalization, Access, and Control
The first thing to understand is how data is captured within your system. This may be done through a variety of methods, from manual entry into spreadsheets to complex database systems. It’s important to consider which method will allow easiest and clearest access to data within the data stack.
Next, you need to find out who has the ultimate source of truth. Formation of data silos can be a huge issue within organizations, with data from different teams displaying completely different numbers, making it very complicated to make data-driven decisions. It’s important to have a centralized source of truth that will act as the foundation for all data activities within the organization.
Finally, it is important to consider how the data can be accessed. Even if the data is all captured and centralized in a common format, it is of no use unless it can be accessed easily by the necessary stakeholders. A complex and inaccessible database is of no use to the organization – data is most valuable when it is actively used to make decisions.
2. Data Governance
Data governance is an iterative process between workflows, technologies and people. It is not achieved in one go but is a continuous process that needs to be continually improved. It involves a lot of change management and involves a lot of people. But with the right balance can become one of the biggest assets for the company.
Understanding by all involved stakeholders on the owner of data, the processes to be followed, the technology to be used and the control measures in place can ensure that data is safe, secure and traceable.
The Benefits of Having a Cloud Infrastructure
There are a number of reasons why having a cloud infrastructure could prove to be beneficial for an organization’s data stack. With a good cloud analytics process, the benefits are multifold- far beyond just cost savings on the server! These include:
Being process focused: A cloud infrastructure would allow an organization to focus on the processes rather than the infrastructure.
Having an updated system: Being on the cloud means that an organization can always use the latest versions of tools and would not need to invest in purchasing their own infrastructure to keep up to date.
Integrating data: cloud systems allow organizations to integrate their data from different sources.
Enjoying Shorter time-to-market: with a cloud database, it is much easier to create endpoints for applications.
Having a better user experience: generally, cloud environments have a much better UX/CX which leads to a better user experience for all involved stakeholders.
Using a “sandbox” environment: cloud infrastructures often allow for the flexibility to experiment with queries, new analytics processes, products, etc. in a “sandbox” environment that can help the business hone in on what works best for them.
Lowering costs: The cost of cloud infrastructure for basic functions is often quite accessible, and can be easily scaled according to the growth and requirements of the organization.
Increased efficiency: Using serverless data warehouses would mean much faster queries and much more effective reporting.
ELT: The Roads of the Cloud Data Infrastructure
Organizations often have a multitude of data sources like on-premise and cloud databases, social media platforms, digital platforms, excel files, and others. On the other hand, the data stack on the cloud would include a cloud data lake or data warehouse, from which dashboards, reports, and ML models can be created.
How can these two separate aspects be integrated to bridge the disconnect and give a holistic data science process? The answer is through cloud ELT tools like LIKE.TG Data.
Using ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) we can extract data from data sources, load it into the data infrastructure, and then transform it in the way that is required. ELT tools act as the strong bridge between data sources and destinations, allowing seamless flow and control of data to enable advanced data science applications like AI, BI or ML. It allows data engineers to focus on the intricacies of these projects rather than the mundane building and maintenance activities involved with building data pipelines.
Cloud ELT providers allow you to have a lean analytics model (Lean Analytics, Yoskovitz and Kroll), treating analytics like a process, allowing iterations on ideas, as they allow businesses to scale according to their data volumes. Dashboards demos can be built and validated by the stakeholders. Then gaps can be identified, and the dashboards can be launched into production using new ingested data.
Advancements happen within days instead of months, allowing an amazing speed of execution. Hence, the value of such tools increases as an organization grows. These tools also help with access, governance and control, solving many of the basic blocks required for advanced data analytics and enabling accelerated success.
Details About Partners
About LIKE.TG Data: LIKE.TG Data is an intuitive data pipeline platform that modern data analytics teams across 40+ countries rely on to fuel timely analytics and data-driven decisions. LIKE.TG Data helps them reliably and effortlessly sync data from 150+ SaaS apps and other data sources to any cloud warehouse or data lake and turn it analytics-ready through intuitive models and workflows. Learn more about LIKE.TG Data here: www.like.tg.
About Danu Consulting: Danu Consulting is a consulting firm specializing in big data and analytics strategies to support the growth and profitability of companies. Its solutions include data migration to the cloud, creation of BI dashboards, development of machine learning and AI algorithms, all adapted to the unique needs of each client. With over 15 clients and 50+ projects, Danu Consulting has the solution your company needs. Lear more about Danu Consulting at www.danucg.com
7 Tips on How to Manage Remote Workers
Remote work is already a haven for employees and freelancers. As a manager, you’ll also see the flexibility of working from home and outsourcing their business to anywhere from one to a large group of remote workers.
So, when you have a remote team of workers, you must manage them in ways that make production consistent and effective, without being afflicted with missed deadlines and miscommunication. Here’s our guide to manage remote workers, with seven ways to effectively manage your remote workforce, with the tools to manage remote employees, so that your business can still thrive on these terms.
1. Encourage Company Culture
“Working remotely doesn’t mean that there can’t be any company culture,” says Joseph Rouse, an HR at Paperfellows and Australianhelp. “Your workplace culture should have values, at the very least. Having company pride in how you do business and how you communicate allow you to have a good experience with your remote workers. And with that said, your workers should value those same values, and stay in touch with their community as often as possible.”
Of course, when remote team members are working across time zones, employees feel isolated easily, and company culture becomes a difficult thing to encourage. But with regular team meetings via video conferencing, you’ll find you can easily build trust and employee engagement with your remote workforce.
2. Give Workers The Right Tools
To get production going, your workers need the right tools to do the work: access to files, tasks, information, etc. So, make sure that they have access, and that they’re up to date on news, updates, and deadlines, so that they can all get work done at a decent pace.
You will need to make sure your employees have access to all the software needed to do their work—word processing software, team scheduling and productivity software, and conference call software, especially important for making remote workers feel part of the rest of the team. If this software is free, you mainly only need to provide a download and installation guide for your remote team members. But if the software has a paid license or needs a company login, be aware that your remote workforce may find it more difficult to set this up than people working in-house, especially if they cannot easily get in contact with the IT department, or do not have access to the company IP address and portal.
3. Utilize Video Chat
One of the best tools to manage remote employees, for managing remote workers training or otherwise, there are other ways to communicate with your workers, rather than just texting them. Communication via video chat is a fantastic way to break out of the monotony of standard team meetings, and helps people working from home feel like they are part of the rest of the team during team meetings.
If you are sure to schedule your conference call well in advance, paying attention to your remote workforce’s varying time zones, chat services like Skype, Google Hangouts, and Zoom allow you to communicate with your workforce whenever you’d like. And if connectivity should fail, you ought to fix it right away. Or if your employees experience downtime, see if you can help cover the cost for better Internet or more bandwidth for them, or work with them to see where they can take calls without any issues.
4. Communicate And Set Goals
It’s imperative to communicate clearly with your employees. Do not leave a thing to chance. Enquire and query with your employees to get the discussion going. Also, allow your workers to ask you their requests and queries of their own.
In addition, make sure that you’re stating your expectations to them as clearly as possible. Have goals and timelines that you want to see get accomplished, and hold people accountable for the work that they’re doing.
As above, accountability and measuring productivity are easier when you have the tools and software in place to aid them. But you should agree with your employees whether they are getting paid by the hour, for example, or another way of measuring it. And you should check in with your remote workforce now and then, especially in the middle of a larger project, to see how things are coming along, what stage your employees are at, and see if this corroborates with the goal. This communication will help build trust.
5. Longer One-On-Ones
This is something found in any managing remote employees book. One of the most important tools to manage remote employees, as you allow more communication into the workflow, when you manage remote workers, make sure you have time to have one-on-ones with anyone who needs it. You can update your availability for your “open-door policy” on services like Skype, Slack, etc., so that your employees will know when you’re available and when you’re not.
And, when you do have one-on-one time with your employees, give them a full hour every week to discuss anything that needs to be discussed. Here are some good questions to ask, when doing these one-on-ones:
What’s your favorite part about working remotely?
How would you describe your daily routine for when you work?
Do you believe that you are making a difference in our team? Why do you or don’t you believe this?
Are the tools that you use functioning effectively for you? If not, how can our software and equipment be improved?
You visit the office a certain number of times a year. Is the visit amount extortionate, inadequate, or perfect?
How can I better support you on this remote venture?
6. Respect Your Workers
“When it comes to how to manage remote employees successfully, a lot of companies take them for granted,” says Xavier Samuels, a project manager at Bigassignments and Boomessays. But one of his best tips for managing remote workers is, “In fact, it can be hard to keep remote workers, if you work them too hard, or don’t express your appreciation for them. So, if you’re lucky enough to find remote workers who do their job well all the time, then it’s fair to treat them with respect and pay them fairly for their work. Like regular employees, remote workers appreciate the positive feedback.”
Throughout the contract, if you communicate effectively with people working remotely, like using instant messaging for shorter, more casual messages, and respect your remote employees’ time zones when you do, but stick to sending longer messages and briefs through email, people working remotely will look forward to working with you in the future.
7. Get Together In-Person At Least Annually
What is there to dislike about a face to face team meeting every once in a while?
Whether you host a luncheon or a managing remote employees seminar, it’s fun to see your workers in person rather than through video conferencing, and connect with them on a social level. Employees feel more connected. As you have these social outings annually (if not a few times a year), you can all talk about the company or team’s future together. When it comes to how to manage remote employees successfully, this is imperative. It will build employee engagement and trust among all team members, not just the group who works from home.
Conclusion
By following these simple steps, you’ll create a remote team that not only works with you, but is also appreciative of what you have to offer them.
About author:
Molly Crockett is a marketing and business expert for Ukwritings and Essayroo. She gives managers tips on how to better optimize their business practices. She’s also a writing teacher at Academized, where she teaches young people how to develop their writing and research skills.
8 Simple Steps For Awesome Remote Onboarding
It can be tough to onboard new employees, particularly if they’re remote. They can't just pop into the office for a meeting, and you can't always quickly bring them up to speed on all the company's goings-on. But with a little effort, you can make the process smooth for both the employee and your team.
Several tools and technologies can help make the onboarding process easier for you and your new employee. For example, video conferencing software like Skype or Zoom can be used for virtual training and tours. And there are many online tools, such as Google Drive, that can be used for collaboration and sharing documents.
In addition to taking advantage of these tools, you can make the onboarding process smoother and more efficient with the following guide, designed to help you get started.
1. Have a remote work policy
If you're going to be onboarding remote employees regularly, it's important to have a remote work policy in place. This should outline your expectations for how employees will conduct themselves while working remotely and what you expect from them regarding communication and collaboration.
Having a clear policy will help make the onboarding process smoother and ensure everyone is on the same page from the start.
And it starts in the hiring process: In your application, ask candidates what aspects of remote work appeal to them. Ask them to describe their preferred working style, communication style, and technical skills. If a candidate responds that they do not enjoy the isolation of remote work, you may want to move on.
2. Send equipment and a welcome package beforehand
Few things will frustrate both you and your new employee more than having them spend the first few working days ironing out technical difficulties. So, ahead of time, order all necessary hardware they’ll need and have it delivered to their home.
Here are some items to consider, depending on the requirements of the position:
Laptop or desktop computer
Monitor
Keyboard and mouse
Headset or earphones
Webcam
Printer/scanner
External hard drive or USB drives
Phone or VOIP equipment
Charging accessories and power strips
When it comes to software, if what employees need isn’t cloud-based, ensure it's pre-installed on their device. Include passwords, usernames, and any other security information needed so remote hires can easily get up and running.
Suppose you are working on many different online marketing tools. In that case, putting together a list of recommended tools for your new employee may be helpful. Or if you’re working with a project management tool, ensure that their accounts are already set up in advance, and they’ll have access from day one.
Additionally, making remote employees feel welcome can help embed them into your organization and feel like they’re part of the team. One idea is to send a welcome package with things like:
Welcome letter from the CEO or team leader
Company swag such as T-shirts, mugs, notebooks, or pens
Employee handbook
Snack box with an assortment of treats and snacks to enjoy while working
Tech accessories like USB flash drive, ergonomic mouse pads, or laptop stands
Gift cards for coffee or online retailers
Virtual event pass to an upcoming online workshop or team-building event
Desk plant to brighten up their home office space
3. Be prepared with virtual onboarding materials
Gather all your onboarding materials and make digital copies as part of your remote onboarding program. You may also want to mail them a physical copy along with their welcome package. Here’s a list of things you’ll want to include:
For all employees:
Mission, vision, and values
Organizational charts
Employee directories
Communication procedures (how and when to use email, video calls, and chat)
Tutorials for commonly used tools
Security standards
Templates for standard documents (presentations, email invitations, sales follow-up emails, etc.)
For marketing:
Lead qualification criteria
Content style guide
Blog and SEO best practices
For sales:
CRM contact information standards
How to order business cards
Travel and expense procedures
For software developers:
How to set up a development environment
Codebase
Development processes
Architecture standards
You can help employees track their progress by making videos of everything that they need to learn in modules. Or you can set up a video call so that they’re able to ask questions on anything they don’t understand and managers can easily answer them on the spot.
Creating these learning modules might be a bit difficult, but you can contract a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to create learning modules for any job position.
4. Leverage existing technology and tools
Use video conferencing or online team meetings to ensure a smooth transition. Companies onboarding remote employees can greatly benefit from leveraging technology and platforms such as Zoom for virtual meetings, Slack for communication, Asana for project management, LIKE.TG for HR software, and Microsoft Teams for collaboration and document sharing.
For example, you can use Microsoft Teams to welcome your new team member, outline their responsibilities, and offer support. And some apps, such as Donut, allow employees to chat with a company representative through the internet. Onboarded employees can also receive useful information about company resources, such as knowledge bases, training software portals, and cheat sheets
5. Let new hires know what to expect
Working from home can be a brand new experience to most. Ensure everyone understands what's expected of them during the remote onboarding process. What information do they need? Whom will they be meeting with? What tools do they need to be successful? You can avoid confusion and frustration later on by getting everyone on the same page from the start.
This is also a good time to set expectations for communication. Will you use email, Slack, video conferencing, or a combination of all three? Let your new employee know how you prefer to communicate and the best way to reach you.
6. Set up a dedicated onboarding space
If possible, set up a dedicated space for their remote onboarding process. This gives them a place to go where they can find all the information they need in one spot. It can be as simple as a folder in your company's shared drive or an intranet page with links to all the relevant documents.
Having a dedicated space also makes it easy for you to keep track of your new employee's progress. You can quickly see what they've read and what still needs to be covered.
As your business grows, it might be a good idea to consider tools to help during this process. LIKE.TG’s employee Onboard platform can help to automate a lot of the repetitive tasks that build up as you get the hang of remote onboarding.
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7. Use self-onboarding checklists
Self-onboarding checklists are an effective tool for streamlining the onboarding process of remote employees, ensuring they complete all necessary steps.
These checklists should include tasks like setting up company email accounts, completing required paperwork, reviewing company policies and procedures, and accessing necessary software and tools.
Additionally, the checklist can guide new hires through introductory training modules, schedule their first team meetings, and prompt them to set up virtual meet-and-greets with key team members.
8. Introduce them to the team members
One of the challenges of remote work is feeling like you're part of the team. So take some time to introduce your new employee to everyone on the team, even if it's just through a quick email or video call. If possible, set up regular virtual coffee chats or happy hours so they can get to know their colleagues in a more informal setting.
You can also give them the company’s organization chart so that they do not have a hard time trying to remember who is who.
9. Give them a virtual tour
If your company has a physical office, give your new employee a virtual tour so they can see where their team members work and what the space looks like. If you don't have an office, you can still give them a tour of your company's website, intranet, or social media channels.
Make them feel like they're part of the team by showing them around and introducing them to everyone they'll be working with, even if it's just virtually. Always make an effort to have your camera on to create a warm face to face feeling when giving the tour.
Click Trough an Onboarding Process
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10. Assign a buddy
One way to help your new employee feel welcome is to assign them a buddy. This should be someone who's been with the company for a while and knows the ropes. They can answer your new employee's questions and help them feel comfortable in their new role.
A workplace mentor can provide initial guidance and help eliminate the anxiety many new remote employees experience. Moreover, use video coffee chats and other ice-breaker activities to break the ice.
11. Provide training and resources
As part of the onboarding program, provide your new employee with all the training sessions and resources they need to be successful in their role.
An onboarding training session should entail a thorough introduction to the company culture, key policies, and job-specific skills, along with interactive elements like QA sessions, practical exercises, and opportunities to meet and engage with team members and key department leads.
The goal is to set them up for success by providing everything they need to hit the ground running and make sure you’re both on the same page once their onboarding plan is complete.
12. Encourage communication and feedback
Working remotely makes it easy to feel like you're out of sight and out of mind. To avoid this, schedule regular check-ins with your new employee. This gives you a chance to see how they're doing, answer any questions they may have, and give feedback on their progress.
You should also be open to getting feedback from your employees. This helps you figure out problems and come up with solutions. Feedback will show you places where your new employees have problems. There are different ways in which you can collect feedback from your new employees. You can use surveys, meetings, or performance tracking software.
Check-ins also allow your new employee to bring up any concerns or issues they may be having. By addressing these early on, you can help them feel more comfortable in their role and prevent any potential problems down the road.
You can also ask them to turn on their video during conference meetings to make them settle in properly so you become aware of their onboarding experience. Since employees are not able to meet face to face, online meetings and daily communication are essential in team building and creating healthy remote team relationships.
13. Give them room to grow
Finally, remember that your new employee is still learning and growing into their role. They may make some mistakes along the way, but that's okay. What's important is that you give them the space to learn and grow.Encourage them to ask questions, try new things, and take risks. This will help them become even more successful in their role and feel like they're truly part of the team.
“As soon as we saw LIKE.TG’s Onboard demo, we knew this was the perfect solution for us. We loved that it was extremely simple and powerful out of the box, but that we could customize it with advanced capabilities to make it work in our company setting.”
Elisa Garn Vice President, HR and Talent Christopherson Business Travel
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About Author:
This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is dedicated to providing powerful solutions for your HR teams and creating an exceptional employee experience. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, onboarding, and to save you valuable time!
A Closer Look at LIKE.TG-ADP Integrations
Months into the Coronavirus pandemic, organizations are continuing to feel the need for learning additional, seamless integrations with other systems related to hiring/onboarding, performance management, and employee communications, engagement and rewards.
Our integration with ADP and the inclusion of our Onboard and Workmates solutions in the ADP Marketplace is proof of this power of integration.
If you’re not aware, the ADP Marketplace gives HR teams secure, turnkey apps and technology to develop innovative new approaches to workforce management. LIKE.TG’s integration with ADP now means that any HR user can log in to Onboard or Workmates with their ADP credentials or choose to import all of their workforce data with one, easy click.
Additionally, the ADP Marketplace lets any company (or HR department) put its workforce data to use well beyond typical use with ADP’s payroll, taxes or other functionality. For example, software developers can now create innovative new apps to make even better use of workforce data.
That’s why LIKE.TG has always prioritized integration with ADP applications, specifically our Onboard and Workmates solutions. For example, as the Coronavirus pandemic continues to complicate the workplace with issues related to hiring to team collaboration and performance management, LIKE.TG clients are able to see the benefits of automation and communication that comes from ADP integration.
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.”
Let’s take a closer look at the HR-Cloud-ADP integrations and the many benefits they can provide.
Seamless remote onboarding
The hiring and onboarding process involves multiple groups and has strict legal requirements. Our seamless integration with ADP ensures a reliable data flow to and from LIKE.TG, including employee profile information, direct deposit and more.
Forms can be built automatically using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, which means many onboarding processes can be updated and automated “on the fly,” to support remote workers and HR teams.
Exceptional employee experiences
Convenience has always been key to attracting and retaining top talent, and the pandemic hasn’t changed that. In fact, new employees will appreciate HR organizations that demonstrate a commitment to employee needs at this time and have worked to modernize the experience.
Starting a new job during this time is likely to be stressful, and being able to offer an efficient and even appealing onboarding experience matters a great deal. Integration with ADP ensures that an employee’s first experience is stress-free with fewer headaches and process snafus.
Improved HR efficiency
Integration between Onboard and ADP improves HR efficiency in two important ways:
Employee self-service puts the impetus for workforce acclimation into the hands of your new hires and makes them confident contributors on day one.
It also gives your HR team the tools to create curated task workflows that guide employees through a compliant automated process that you define and manage effectively via an online dashboard.
Effective employee communication
With Workmates, organizations can create a digital town square of sorts, where ideas and needs are communicated between HR, employees, and management. Workmates enable you to implement new company initiatives across a remote workforce simultaneously and even receive immediate feedback.
Workmates also increase overall engagement, as new hires will find themselves comfortably absorbed into workplace conversation by using Workmates and the accompanying org chart as functional company directories.
What’s more, the integration with ADP ensures that valuable employee details such as anniversaries and birthdays are readily available to HR and managers, putting them in a position to recognize employee dedication remotely.
LIKE.TG-ADP integration lets you do more
Like many organizations, you may be preparing to make a long-term commitment to remote workforce management. Knowing the challenges that may already exist with IT support and integration planning, there is value in having a partner that has already addressed these challenges. With LIKE.TG and ADP, you can be certain that onboarding and workplace efficiency are challenges that are already addressed from day one.
5 Key Factors That Keep Your Employees From Leaving
People come, and they go—especially at work! Sometimes it’s due to involuntary turnover like layoffs, while some employees resign or take another job.
But it’s much better if the people you hire stay for the long term. Why? Because it costs an organization 6 to 9 months of an employee’s salary to replace them. For example, it will cost you $30,000 to $45,000 to hire and train a replacement for a $60,000 salary employee.
Curious how much it will cost you? Try our employee turnover calculator.
High employee retention also helps foster trust and engagement between employees and employers, which is very important for maintaining a motivated and engaged workforce with a strong sense of loyalty.
Simply put, businesses can't afford not to care about the happiness of their employees. First, you need to understand the factors that significantly affect it. Then, if you find any gaps in your processes, improve them now rather than regret inaction later. Below we've listed actionable strategies to address the factors influencing employee retention.
1. Competitive Wages and Benefits
Everyone wants a job that pays them well and offers them great benefits. And employees feel like a company cares about them when they receive competitive benefits.
So make sure that your employees are fairly compensated for their work. This can include offering a competitive base salary, bonuses, and other incentives such as paid vacation, technology reimbursement, health insurance, 401K plans, assistance with educational expenses through programs like Pell Grants, tuition reimbursement, etc.
Offering these benefits will not only make your job roles more attractive but will also help you create a productive workforce. It will also help you attract and retain top talents in your company. As a result, your business outcomes will improve, and your conversions will see a major boost.
Consider offering benefits that grow in value over time or get better with tenure to help prevent employees from leaving for greener pastures. That way, they don't have to start from scratch elsewhere.
What You Can Do:
Now’s the best time to review and assess the current benefits you offer to your employees. If you currently don’t have benefits designed to improve over time, some examples are:
Bonus structures that increase with tenure
Granting more paid time off for employees with greater lengths of service
Stock options with vesting periods
401(k) matching contributions with vesting periods
For newer employees, you can look into enhancing your current health benefits. Alternatively, you can even offer unique benefits such as continuing education, discounts on products or services, laundry services, and free food.
2. Onboarding and Training
Do your employees leave within the first six months? Are they taking on lateral responsibilities at other businesses? If you are having problems with onboarding new hires, then you have short-term retention problems that you need to address ASAP.
So, have you reviewed or upgraded your recruitment processes recently? The way you recruit, onboard, and train employees has an impact on employee turnover. Failing to address retention at this stage might result in losing the best employees immediately.
What You Can Do:
Most onboarding concerns come from inaccurate job depictions during the interview stage. Employees are less likely to stick around if you aren't clear.
To address this, be honest. Give them the obligations that come with the role they are applying for. Make sure that all candidates are clear on expectations from the start. This will increase the likelihood that they will stay with your organization.
3. People and Culture
Humans are social creatures. Above all things, we want to create an emotional connection with the people around us. That's why there's an increasing average number of employees who want to be in workplaces where they feel like they belong.
Creating a favorable work environment will work wonders for you and your employees! An enhanced company culture will reduce time spent worrying about productivity, employee engagement, motivation, and retention.
What You Can Do:
Part of human resources’s responsibilities is to carefully examine the company's values and consider how you can convey them to your staff in a tangible way.
If your organization emphasizes creativity and flexibility, engage with your team members to create flexible working arrangements that meet the demands of both the individual and the company. Here are some ways to go about this:
If you value transparency, make it easy for employees to access relevant documentation and approach dispute resolution with empathy and honesty.
If respect is a corporate value, offer diversity and inclusion training programs to tackle unconscious biases.
You can also demonstrate that you care by asking for and acting on employee feedback.
4. Work Schedules
The pandemic has forced a lot of companies to transition into a permanent work-from-home structure. And employees love the fact that they don’t necessarily need to be present in the office and can work on flexible schedules. It helps them save time and money from the daily commute and gives them the ability to utilize their time more productively.
By offering a flexible work schedule, you allow your employees to have more control over their time. This is a great way to offer them a better work-life balance. It also shows your employees that you trust them and value their time and well-being. This, again, is very important for creating a strong work culture.
What You Can Do:
You can offer flexible work schedules in a variety of ways. For example, you can allow them to choose their start and end times, offer compressed work weeks, or give them the option to work permanently from home. Remote working software could help you manage your remote employees quite easily.
5. Recognition
No one appreciates feeling unappreciated. Employee turnover can be influenced by a lack of recognition, which can reflect a poor management style. It will inevitably lead to employees seeking the attention they deserve elsewhere.
And while a lack of acknowledgment may not cost you your best employees immediately, failing to address it will result in low morale and decreased productivity.
Create a company culture where employees’ hard work is recognized and appreciated. This makes working for the company enjoyable and rewarding. Encourage employees to participate in team-building activities and celebrate successes.
You should also acknowledge and reward them for their accomplishments and hard work. This can be done through bonuses, awards, or public recognition. Sometimes even a simple “thank you” or “well done” can go a long way in motivating employees and making them feel appreciated.
What You Can Do:
Find ways for employees to feel heard and recognized. Everyone loves receiving positive feedback, and employee retention is heavily influenced by leadership's active listening and recognition of employee successes.
In practice, this will look something like:
Implementing a reward system to recognize small and big wins
Providing yearly performance evaluation
Training management personnel to provide positive reinforcement
Scheduling one-on-one sessions between employees and their supervisors regularly
Making sure that they are paid on a salary that is equal to the role they perform
6. Work-Life Balance
Employees want to have time with their families, hobbies, and other activities outside of work. More and more employees want flexible work schedules that allow them to care for their professional and personal lives.
So, make sure that there is no room for employee burnout in your workplace. Burnout happens when individuals feel out of control or under a lot of daily stress. Not only will this decrease their productivity, but it will also affect their mental and physical health.
What You Can Do:
To improve your employees’ work-life balance, every now and then, ask yourself the following questions:
Do you regularly demand or expect employees to work after hours or on weekends?
Is a 50-hour workweek really “normal”?
Do you offer employees the tools, resources, and technologies they need to succeed?
Let your employees have time for themselves and their families. Rather than the traditional 9-to-5 model, consider offering remote working options.
You can also implement flexible working arrangements. This will allow employees the flexibility to manage their working hours. Plus, they can work from home if they need to! Encourage employees to set limits and use vacation time. But, if late nights can’t be avoided, consider compensating them with more time off.
7. Communication
Employees appreciate workplaces where they can freely voice their opinions, thoughts, ideas, and concerns without judgment or fear of retribution. So always encourage your employees to communicate with you openly. Let them know that their opinions, ideas, thoughts, etc., are important to you and that you value them thoroughly.
Organizations that encourage open communication have a better work environment and have employees that are better engaged. They are also capable of fostering trust and respect between management and employees.
What You Can Do:
There are various ways to encourage open communication in your organization. For example, you can establish regular channels for employee feedback, such as surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one meetings. You can also conduct open forums to discuss challenges, successes, and failures.
You should also have an open-door policy where employees feel comfortable approaching the management with their questions and concerns.
8. Career Development
Your employees may sense a lack of growth opportunities within the company. Nobody enjoys completing the same monotonous tasks every day, especially when the scope of the work isn't expanding.
Employees feel insecure about their jobs when there is little room for advancement. This is when they begin seeking other opportunities.
Give your employees the opportunity to learn and grow. The idea is to create a ladder of career advancement where your employees can truly experience growth. This is very important to keep your workforce motivated and improve their efficiency as well.
Investing in your people shows that you care about their professional development and potential for advancement to more senior roles within the organization. This creates a good cycle of belonging, motivation, productivity, and retention.
What You Can Do:
Does your company have an employee retention program yet? If not, your employees are likely to look elsewhere. They’ll search for companies that recognize their contributions more quickly and offer prospects for growth.
Try offering on-the-job training, giving them access to learning resources, offering education programs, mentorship programs, etc. Sometimes it can be a good idea to encourage your employees to attend industry conferences and seminars as part of their learning process.
Another way to make that happen is to create job rotation and internal promotion opportunities. It is your responsibility to lay down a clear-cut career path for your employees.
For their continuous growth, you can provide top performers with training programs, seminars, and conferences, or in-company apprenticeships or mentoring. Alternatively, you can also connect them to online courses.
Happy Employees Stay Longer
Regularly review, reassess, and reinvent your employee retention strategy. Ensure that you meet your employees' needs. Remember, retention will come easy if you boost employee happiness in every process you implement throughout the workplace.
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About Author:
This article is written by our marketing team atLIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is dedicated to providing powerful solutions for your HR teams and creating an exceptional employee experience. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, onboarding, and to save you valuable time!
6 HR Challenges to Managing Remote Teams—and How to Avoid Them
6 Remote Work Challenges for HR
This blog article focuses on 6 challenges HR faces in managing remote teams. To learn even more, please download the LIKE.TG eBook, “A Better Way to Communicate, Engage, and Recognize and Reward Remote Teams” today.
Even before the coronavirus and its work-at-home mandate, remote work was an accepted best practice. Research showed that approximately 60% of employees were working remotely and a full 30% were fully remote. The COVID-19 crisis has pushed these numbers even higher and not just for the short term: early feedback shows that many employees hope to keep working from home in the “new normal.”
Yet many companies continue to use traditional management methods—those designed for office and on-site workers—that are not as effective as they should be for a remote workforce. Such an approach leaves employees feeling disconnected, creates HR inefficiencies, and can even have an adverse effect on the business itself.
Let’s take a closer look at six challenges most HR teams face when attempting to manage remote teams.
#1: Interviewing, hiring, and onboarding
Recruiters and HR teams have always had a hard time making the “perfect hire,” even when they were able to conduct face-to-face interviews. Yet the challenge becomes even more difficult for HR teams attempting to find, interview, and hire candidates from a distance. Where telephone calls are good, video conferences are better—helpful to see and “meet” the candidate and observe important non-verbal cues.
Yet even when candidates are hired, remote onboarding can be a real challenge for HR departments, especially since it may be a new concept for many HR professionals. To help, here’s a quick checklist to improve remote onboarding processes:
Create an individual onboarding plan with check ins at the right time frames (e.g., 30, 60, or 90 days). These should clearly communicate objectives and give the opportunity for questions.
Digitize all documentation including forms, documents, guidelines, tax documents, and company-specific information, such as employee handbooks, employee directories, and more. LIKE.TG’s Onboard solution lets users create personalized portals so new hires can review, complete, and send all of this information before they even start.
Make sure new hires are set up with the right applications, systems access, badges, equipment, and other tools they might need. This can be done by creating a customized checklist that includes the right company personnel. For example, letting facilities know the new employee needs a new badge before they start, helps make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Schedule and conduct remote orientation sessions for new hires. This can serve as a differentiator—imagine how many other companies skip this step—and can go a long way to engaging employees, starting on day one.
Introduce remote team members using a video call, a virtual coffee break, or other event. This will help all team members “put a name to a face” and encourage collaboration.
Make sure new employees have all the other information they might need, including training, employee profiles, employee directories, contact information, and more.
#2: Focus on employee engagement
We all know employee engagement is important, both for the worker and the business itself. For example, research has shown that the teams with a high level of engagement demonstrated 21% higher profitability than those with lower levels for employee engagement.
However, a drop in remote employees’ engagement (along with morale, productivity, and even retention) may occur if HR teams don’t focus on it. Engaging all workers--no matter where they work--is important to make them feel informed, valued, and part of the larger team.
Related resource: To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our eBook, “A Better Way to Communicate, Engage, Recognize and Reward Remote Teams” now.
HR solutions, such as employee communications platforms, can be an effective way to help HR teams connect with remote teams. For example, these solutions can:
Give them fast, easy access to critical information
Use mobile apps to give them the same information using their mobile device
Enable remote teams to communicate using email, chat, calling, or video calls
Let users post pictures, videos, GIFs, and more to make collaboration fun
Let any worker recognize a peer’s hard work or efforts, and earn points for gifts
#3: Improve remote workforce communications
According to Forbes, employees spend approximately 2.5 hours a day reading, writing, and responding to emails--not ideal use of their time. Additionally, research has shown that poor communication now costs companies a total of $37 billion each and every year. The situation--and the challenge--only become worse when attempting to communicate with remote teams.
Modern HR solutions now offer a better way to communicate with remote teams, all in one platform. For example, our Workmates platform gives each employee a centralized, personalized newsfeed and group channels, so they will always receive the information they need. Or, if they have any questions, they can instantly connect to a manager or team member using chat, email, text, or call. You could also engage in remote team-building games.
#4. Training and development
Did you know that 67% of remote employees wish they had more access to work-related training? Unfortunately, the COVID-19 crisis has only made this situation worse.
Sharing information and improving the skills of remote workers not only helps them do their jobs well but it also contributes to personal and professional development. HR teams can provide remote employees with access to training articles, videos, online courses, mentoring opportunities, and more. This can all be delivered as part of a performance management solution, or with an integration to a learning management tool.
#5: Transform your culture
Sometimes it’s hard to connect with remote employees and make them understand, and feel like they’re part of, your company culture. Today, effective employee communication and engagement platforms can give all employees access to all the information they need. For example, these solutions include content management systems (CMS), employee advocacy information, and even recognition and rewards capabilities. All of this helps any company weave remote workers into their culture, and even better, transform it into culture focused on excellence.
#6: Provide access to information
Research shows that remote workers spend 19% more time searching for information they need or otherwise attempting to navigate access issues. Again, this is not ideal use of their time.
One way to overcome this challenge is through the use of a mobile app. The benefit is to give remote workers fast, easy access to all the information they need, yet deliver it in a mobile app that is identical to what they would expect to find using desktop-based software. This way, employees working from home can access the CMS, their own customized content channels, HR records, employee directories, and more.
Implement a winning strategy to manage remote teams
Managing remote teams is now the new normal, even beyond the COVID-19 crisis. However, HR teams may still face a number of challenges as they attempt to hire, onboard, attract, and retain remote employees.
Today, innovative HR teams are embracing HR software, especially remote onboarding and employee engagement platforms to improve the way they connect, communicate, and collaborate with remote teams.
To learn more, download our eBook “A Better Way to Communicate, Engage, Recognize and Reward Remote Teams” today!
About author:
Alexey Kutsenko is the Head of the Marketing and Employer Brand department of DDI Development company. He is passionate about HR processes in the company as far as they are cornerstones of the company’s general success.
6 Signs That the Future of Work Is Here Today
“A great overview by Gigster CEO Chris Keene on how the gig economy is transforming work in the enterprise by making it more customer-centric and high performance. Don’t miss the stories of companies actually doing this.” Dion Hintchcliffe, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
As software continues to eat the world, companies must find ways to build more innovative teams. For these companies, The Future of Work is here today. How companies reshape the way they engage digital talent will have a huge impact on their ability to innovate. Here are six ways digital leaders are creating The Future of Work now.
1. Remote workers and work from home teams are the new normal
The best talent is not always located where you are. Even within a company, silos can prevent the right people from working on the most critical innovation projects. Making it possible for team members to work remotely is the only way to liberate talent across the company. This is also the only way to source critical skill gaps that are not available inside the company, like AI/ML engineers. Supporting distributed teams calls for adopting a common set of processes and collaboration tools, including Slack, Github and Jira.
2. Hybrid teams beat monoculture teams
Innovation requires a diverse mix of talent. The most innovative teams blend in-house employees who have industry context with expert global talent who have advanced technical skills. This is the opposite of the traditional systems integration model that outsources innovation. Hybrid teams also have the value of helping companies build in-house skills by working side by side with expert freelance talent.
3. Elastic Staffing beats fixed staffing
Many companies adopt agile team processes but staff teams inefficiently — they follow a fixed staffing model that allocates each role as a full-time position for the duration of a project. This is only half agile. Because it makes experimentation too expensive to try, and reduces employee mobility and satisfaction. Compare this to Elastic Staffing, which allocates resources based on the workload for each project phase. For example, developers can join a project after the detailed design is complete, and technical architects may only be needed part time. Elastic Staffing can reduce the total hours to deliver innovative products by over 50%.
4. Employees want to be treated more like freelancers
Top employees want the freedom and flexibility to choose how they work and what they work on. This doesn’t have to require radical organizational changes. For example, applying the Google 20% rule, where workers can choose their own projects 20% of the time, can boost morale and build skills. This lets more senior employees peer review deliverables from other projects to reduce risk. It also helps more junior employees grow by being exposed to new business and technology challenges.
5. Freelancers want to be treated more like employees
Top freelancers want stability and work benefits without sacrificing their flexibility. Companies that learn how to work effectively with freelancers will have their pick of the best global talent. This includes setting up projects for success with distributed teams, incorporating advanced technologies, and providing predictability for freelancers that helps them plan effectively. In California, laws like AB5 are beginning to mandate providing more benefits for freelance workers, and putting them more on par with the benefits that full-time employees receive.
6. Automated team and talent assessments are here
Technology will ultimately reshape jobs, but today, technology is reshaping talent ratings. Every collaborative tool – from Slack, to Jira, to Github – has open APIs that can automatically collect data about the productivity and quality of work being produced by people and teams. Tools like Pinpoint can collect this data. Applying analytics to this data enables the creation of “karma scores” by person and by team, to provide objective and trusted evaluation of skills.
Examples of The Future of Work today
A global telco created hybrid teams that mix in-house staff with top global experts to accelerate their machine learning and predictive analytics initiatives. They manage these distributed teams following Silicon Valley best practices and have been able to deliver new applications that leverage AI up to twice as fast as traditional in-house development teams.
One of the world’s largest digital agencies created an entirely new digital transformation business unit using hybrid teams that blend employees and global freelance talent. This approach enabled them to onboard over 100 engineers in less than six months, with minimal recruiting costs.
Summary
The Future of Work describes a cultural shift that companies must adopt to grow their innovation capacity. The pace of those changes is accelerating as more companies adopt new work from home rules that support remote workers. Companies that embrace a Silicon Valley-style culture of innovation can become more customer-centered, more able to tap new talent pools, and to dramatically reduce risk.
About the author:
Chris Keene: As CEO, Chris drives Gigster’s vision to de-risk digital innovation. Chris was previously VP Cloud for VMware, where he led the $400 million Pivotal spinout. Chris also founded and took public Persistence Software (NASDAQ:PRSW)
This article is originally posted on Gigster.com
3 Tips to Make Your Next Employee Meeting Meaningful and Memorable
Managing people—especially in an organization — requires a level of social, emotional, and cognitive fortitude and intelligence that not everyone can boast. This is why people-focused roles, like being a business owner or working in a company's HR department can be overwhelming.
Every step you take has to be intentional and has to work towards the good of the company. But in the same breath, you have to also keep the peace among staff members while fostering harmony and cooperation.
When engaging with a member of staff one-on-one, it's relatively easy to achieve this. But what happens during employee meetings when every member of staff is there at the same time? With all the different ideas and personality types in the room, keeping the peace or even achieving any serious objective can prove futile.
Does this mean that organizing productive staff meetings is a pipe dream? Thankfully, the answer is no. You can hold employee meetings that your staff will look forward to.
We've outlined a few simple tips to help make your next employee meeting both meaningful and memorable — in a right way. Whether you're holding the meeting in a physical room or via teleconferencing, you can take these staff meeting best practices to the bank, regardless of the business or industry you work in.
1. Keep The Discussions Within the Meeting's Scope
One of the most apparent traits of productive staff meetings is that all discussions stay focused. No one wants a meeting where the convener just rambles on about anything and everything concerning the company.
Every meeting should have a plan that should be strictly adhered to. This is not the time to address a dispute between two employees, openly rebuke an employee's shortcomings, or talk about the misuse of office equipment. Do this, and all you'll be achieving is a lower staff loyalty score.
A neat hack would be to prepare the agenda a few days before the meeting and hand it out to your employees. This way, your staff knows what the meeting is going to be about and have a few days to prepare themselves for it. This makes for a more agreeable audience when the day comes around.
All your employees have got work to do to help grow your company, so keep the meetings short and focused so everyone can return to work.
2. Encourage Employee Input
People tend to learn better when they talk less and listen more, an approach that should be taken by every business owner and manager when dealing with employees. The people that work in your establishment are much more than the roles they fulfill. Some of them have vast personal or professional experiences from their life before and outside your company.
You may be the one at the helm of affairs, and you may know the objectives of the company more than anyone else. However, having more experienced heads to brainstorm with never hurt anyone. When you let your employees give their two cents, it opens you up to a world of possibilities as to how to deal with the current problem. It may be a novel idea or a reminder of something you've heard before. Either way, it helps the problem-solving process.
Not to mention that it is suitable for the workplace atmosphere when employees know that their boss is willing to listen to their problems and their ideas and act on them. It gives them a sense of belonging and worth and increases the company's loyalty score.
This approach to problem-solving during meetings significantly reduces the possibility of the leaders coming to a one-sided and subjective decision that does not work for everybody.
3. Keep Your Focus Only On The Stuff That Matters
The best way to deal with the wrongness of a situation is not to expound on how wrong it is, but to focus on how to make it right.
This is, unfortunately, a mistake many business leaders still make when something goes wrong in the company. Say a deal goes bad, they call for a staff meeting and dive into an investigation to find out how things went so wrong. They spend all the time berating the employees and attacking all the decisions they made leading up to the bad deal. Most of the time, this achieves nothing but dampens the spirits of everyone in the meeting.
A better approach to have an effective staff meeting would be to focus on how to salvage the deal, perhaps even to make a better offer for the other party to consider—no attacks on each other, no tearing down of other people's opinions, and no finger-pointing. Focus on moving forward and delivering optimal performance.
And while on the quest to solve a problem, remember to involve all staff members that have an idea, including those who may have made poor decisions that led to the problem. Sure, not everyone's idea will be brilliant, but typically, ideas given in this context are not all wrong either. Put every idea on the table, pick the elements that make sense, and merge them. By the time you implement this, the issue will disappear.
Conclusion
As stated earlier, handling employees in any company can be a terrifying scenario, or it could be an enjoyable experience. It all depends on the strategies you apply to get them all moving happily towards the company's ultimate goal. These three tips work not only in a meeting set up but also for individual and collective relationships between employees and the company leadership. Now go out and have a productive meeting.
About Author
Frank Hamiltonhas been working asan editor atreview serviceOnline Writers Rating.He isa professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digitalmarketingand self-education.He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.
Four Tips that Can Help Improve Your Staff’s Productivity
The key to any successful business is a hard-working team. Without a dedicated staff pushing the buttons behind the scenes, businesses would grind to a halt. However, keeping teams motivated can be a struggle, especially in the midst of high-pressure environments that are filled with deadlines, problem-solving, and stress.
As motivation drops, so does productivity, so how can you ensure your staff is working at full capacity? Here are four tips on how to improve the productivity of your team.
1. Take advantage of efficiencies
‘Busy work’ is the bane of many employees’ lives. This kind of work is defined as tasks that have hours spent on them when a quicker alternative is available which could save a lot of time and energy. Take your Point of Sale proposition, for example, identifying what products are selling well and which need a push is one of the most key pieces of data when deciding to restock or not.
Cutting out manual stock checks and implementing a modern POS system not only saves time but will ensure that human error never leaves you sold out of a bestselling product accidentally.
Less busy work, fewer headaches, and more efficiency.
2. Improve workplace conditions
Your place of work can be a major contributor to productivity if it allows your employees to feel comfortable whilst they’re working. Temperature can be a major factor in this, and maintaining a pleasant working temperature, while tricky, will ensure employees keep their minds focused on the job at hand rather than wondering why they didn’t pack an extra sweater.
Creating ‘chill out’ zones for employees to enjoy on their breaks - or just to get away from the screen for a few minutes - are also invaluable. While it might seem counter-intuitive to create an area where employees are encouraged to down tools and take a period of relaxation, it’s been proven that these periods of respite more than make up for it in terms of the productivity levels they provide.
3. Provide opportunities for growth
Delegation is a tricky topic for many managers, especially if they’re one of the founders of a business. Letting go and giving employees increased responsibility will not only help spread the workload but will also give employees much needed growth opportunities.
While there is an element of risk involved in the delegation, these can be negated to ensure tasks are given to well respected and proven employees.
Handing out these opportunities will not only save you time they will also give employees a chance to prove themselves and help them to step out of their comfort zones and grow professionally.
4. Keep your employees happy
Probably the most important point of all. A happy workforce is a productive workforce and keeping spirits and morale high is proven to have a positive impact on performance. Happiness levels are also likely to lead to fewer sick days, fewer internal disputes, and create a less stressful atmosphere.
Tackling the above issues will help employees feel valued, looked after, and challenged which are three crucial components of workforce happiness.
5 Strategies for Transitioning Back Into the Workplace After Quarantine
It’s hard to believe, but we’re now going on nearly six months of some type of self-quarantined work from home (along with our spouses, kids, roommates, and even pets). It may have taken some time to adapt, but for the most part, we succeeded in working remotely.
Yet now the tides are changing again, both as schools and businesses all consider various reopening strategies.
This situation may lead to more questions than answers. For example, does your company have a plan to accommodate the “new normal?” If so have you shared it with the workforce, or similarly, held discussions with employees to let them know what to expect?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, here are five strategies to help transition back into a traditional workplace as well as ways you can fully support your staff.
1. Prepare employees for your reopening strategy
While reopening may not be as abrupt as the initial transition to remote work was, chances are good that things will still move quickly as more state governors, school districts, and local officials give their approval. Your company will have to decide how to move forward. If you don’t have a reopening strategy, take the time to formulate one now. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Do you plan to continue a remote-work model?
Will you need to use a hybrid model, with some tasks being done onsite and others remotely?
Is your workplace equipped to bring everyone back with safe distancing modifications?
Once you have a strategy in place that seems feasible, let your employees know what the plan is, so they can assess their individual situations, such as child care requirements, transportation, or other details. Whatever workplace model you choose, you’ll need to simultaneously protect your business and support your employees.
2. Determine any staffing cuts and communicate them
The global economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is an ugly story yet to be fully told. While experts are making some dire projections, no one is really sure how it will develop, but rough roads may lie ahead for businesses and individuals alike.
If the company is going to have to cut personnel or salaries to stay afloat, it’s important to communicate this to your employees so they can plan appropriately. Many will want to launch job searches, cut home expenses, examine their credit scores to see if they have access to borrowing funds with favorable terms, or make other financial arrangements. Give them the greatest opportunity possible to take care of themselves and their families.
Additionally, if employees’ roles will be changing as the result of cuts or realignments, be sure you communicate this to your employees and give them the support they’ll need during any transitions.
To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now.
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3. Plan for necessary infrastructure and policy changes
You may need to revamp your physical workspace to meet your state’s or municipality’s requirements for reopening. This might include reconfiguration, physical restructuring, or installing floor markers or plexiglass barriers. Don’t wait until the last minute to start making these changes; the transition may take longer than you think to achieve compliance.
Establish and communicate health-oriented policies (i.e., taking temperatures or cleaning procedures) to employees and customers alike. Outline the new responsibilities and expectations for both your company and its employees. Remember to order enough personal protective equipment for your employees’ use: include a stock of masks, disinfectant wipes, spray disinfectants, hand sanitizer, and soap.
Be sure employees are equipped to enforce any directives that customers will have to follow to keep your business compliant, such as waiting outside your facility to limit customer numbers inside, maintaining social distancing and mask-wearing while inside, etc. For everyone to remain safe and healthy, it’ll be a team effort.
4. Offer employees tips and perks
Many workers who had to go on unemployment have been using up their savings during the pandemic and could use financial assistance or at least resources and information to help them get by.
Recognize employees for all their hard work and what they’ve endured while working at home.
Reward them with points that they can redeem for gift cards, corporate items, or other “thank you” gifts.
Evaluate life insurance plans and see if you can identify a discounted group plan to help employees feel more secure about their families’ futures.
Many schools may start with distance learning in the fall, which means many employees will need help with child care. Explore on-site options, offer financial assistance for child care, or allow flexible work schedules to support your employees.
After spending 24/7 at home for three months, many of your employees’ homes likely experienced a lot more wear and tear than they would have under normal circumstances. Suggest a good home warranty program to make sure they’re covered for problems not included in their homeowners’ insurance.
Offer training or education opportunities to help employees feel more confident about being able to maintain their marketability in an economic downturn.
Offering your employees a variety of perks or helpful ideas will go a long way toward boosting morale and confidence in a time where many feel frustrated by the ripple effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
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.”
5. Remember your customers
Your customers are your company’s lifeblood, and you’ll want to keep this foremost in your mind (as well as your employees’ minds) as you formulate your reopening plans. Remember that many people are struggling financially, so it won’t pay to be too aggressive in your sales approach. Some customers will be actively looking to purchase, while others might regard your offerings more as “wish list” items at this time.
But no matter what stage you’re approaching in the sales funnel, it’s always important to keep up consistent communication with your community. Send thoughtful emails, handwritten notes, or useful promotional gifts to maintain strong relationships with clients (these will prove to be well worth the investment). If you’re good to your customers — even when they’re not buying — they’ll return the favor when they’re financially able.
Moving into a post-COVID-19 era will almost certainly be unlike anything we’ve experienced before. The better prepared you are to transition to the “new normal,” the more successful you’ll be when it happens.
Additional Resources:
Protect you business with Cerity - Workers' Comp InsuranceLearn how to start your own start-up
Christopher BaggottChief Executive Officerator of Medlinks Cost Containment, Inc. and Medlinks Staffing, LLC.
“Our staff has praised the increased communications level Workmates delivers. We use it to communicate important project matters and give staff specific ‘kudos’ or even recognize their birthdays. More importantly, we use Workmates to clarify important project details that needed rapid dissemination among the entire team.”
Workmates
For even more information on employee communication, collaboration, and engagement, we invite you to learn more about our Workmates employee experience platform. Sign up for a free, no-obligation demo to see how Workmates is changing employee management, in the new normal and beyond.
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 softwareincreases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
Five Ways to Boost Morale in a Distributed Team
As we head into fall and the uncertainty of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s likely that your team is still working remotely. Employees may have even moved into different states to live with family members, or they may simply be working from the comfort of their own living room. Whatever the case may be, it can be difficult to get all employees on the same page when you’re suddenly faced with the challenges of managing a widely distributed workforce.
Engaging all employees and making sure they’re highly motivated and as productive as possible is vital to your overall success. Distance should never be something that stops your company from achieving your most critical goals, pandemic or not.
To help you stay on track, here are five, simple, straightforward, yet actionable ways you can boost morale (and productivity) in any distributed team.
#1: Communicate!
When you’re in an office and have a quick question, it is easy to lean over and quickly ask a neighbor or other team member for their insight. At least it used to be. Yet now, working from home makes that type of quick information exchange difficult, if not impossible.
Most of the time, these types of questions don’t even require a formal meeting, email exchange, or even a phone call. At first glance, this may make it seem that, without the in-person connections, you could lose the valuable back-and-forth that employees need to remain productive.
This doesn’t have to be the case at all, especially with the right employee experience (EX) software. For example, modern EX platforms now include powerful messaging apps that make natural communication fast, easy, and effective. These apps make it much easier to communicate quickly and consistently, and any employee can quickly create a group chat, or even a specific channel dedicated to a certain topic.
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.”
The benefit of these apps over email is clear: Email can be clunky and may lose the valuable, real-time insights if one employee is offline or just doesn’t answer in time. Additionally, email threads with multiple participants can quickly get off track or make it hard for employees to find the answers to a specific question. A simple chat (either one on one or with a group) eliminates all of these issues and provides the ideal way to share important information.
#2. Schedule weekly team meetings
Weekly team meetings are another indispensable part of working with a distributed team.
In the past, in office-based environments, you probably held regular in-person meetings that kept everyone up-to-speed on the last updates related to projects, company details, or even employees’ personal development.
Yet now, remote team members may lose this connection and could begin to feel isolated. It may be hard for them to hear company announcements, learn how they’re performing, or how they may be able to help with a specific project or task. Holding regularly scheduled team meetings, ideally as often once once a week, lets your employees know what’s happening, any COVID-19-related changes, and even how they’re doing.
Tip: Not everyone has access to high speed internet or the right hardware, so be sure to take stock of everyone’s household amenities so you know whether anyone will have any roadblocks to completing work and attending meetings in the regular schedule.
#3. Keep the team’s eye on the prize
Another benefit of working in an office (and that can be difficult to replicate in remote-working models) is an overall sense of purpose. Whether employees are focused on hitting a quarterly revenue target, finishing a huge website relaunch, or just staying on top of their own goals, instilling a sense of community will help the entire team keep their eye on the prize.
Knowing what they’re working toward, and how they are helping make a difference can be inspiring—and could give them the extra motivation they need while boosting team morale. Be sure to send out weekly or biweekly updates on the status of the larger project, so your team knows exactly where they stand and how they can keep improving the bigger picture.
Here are a few more ways you can give your team a bird's-eye view:
Develop or subscribe to a workflow dashboard that tracks your team’s progress in real time, showing when specific tasks are completed and how that affects the whole project.
During your weekly meetings, be sure to bring up the state of recent projects, and let team members know what they can do to help keep workflow efficient and optimal.
Make a work-wide calendar that shows general due dates and deadlines that must be met in order for your project to roll out on time. This can help visual learners stay on top of their personal priorities,
#4. Reward hard workers
Once you’ve got a project rolling and your team onboard, it’s time to assess everyone’s personal progress. Back at the office, you may have had an employee of the month award, or you may have given bonuses to workers who completed their work above and beyond expectations.
It may not feel as important when you’re working remotely, but you should definitely keep these traditions going — or start them, if you didn’t have them before. Team members want to know that they will be rewarded for successfully taking on projects and showing leadership qualities. This will give them the morale they need to increase quality and output, too; it’s basically a win-win. If it’s in the budget, offer prizes or bonuses to employees who really stand out.
#5: Don’t forget the fun stuff
Finally, don’t forget to have fun with your team. Work isn’t always just about work — sometimes, letting off a little steam through a bonding event can be exactly what your team needs to feel more confident in themselves and in the company as a whole. Bonding while remote can seem like a challenge, but there are great options:
Video chat bar trivia or poll to unleash everyone’s inner nerd
Online multiplayer party games (paired with a video chat)
The simple, classic video chat happy hour
A watch party where everyone can tune in to see a streaming movie
Really, the options are endless once you get creative.
Empower remote teams
Don’t let morale sink just because everyone is working from home. With the right strategies, innovative techniques, and fun bonding events, you can boost your team’s spirits and get everyone in the right mindset to complete their work happily and efficiently.
The perfect platform for managing a remote workforce
For even more information on employee communication, collaboration, and engagement, we invite you to learn more about our Workmates employee experience platform. Sign up for a free, no-obligation demo to see how Workmates is changing employee management, in the new normal and beyond.
To learn more about giving access to vital HR and work information — even when they're not in the office. Download our ebook now.
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About Author: Samantha Rupp holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and is the managing editor for 365businesstips.com. She lives in San Diego, California and enjoys spending time on the beach, reading up on current industry trends, and traveling.
The C.O.P.E. Approach: 4 Ways to Make Working from Home Easier for Your Employees
The COVID-19 pandemic has made remote working the only way to keep many businesses running as companies across all sectors have been compelled to limit site-based activities in the interest of public health.
A Gallup surveyhas revealed that the number of US employees who work remotely has doubled from 31% to 62% since the pandemic started.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an upsurge in the number of employees who were working from home as authorities impose lockdown regulations to slow down the spread of the virus (Image Source).
What’s interesting is that remote work could be the new normal even after the COVID-19 scare is over. For instance, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that “if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen.”
This is echoed by a Gartner report, which found that 74% of businesses are planning to make at least 5% of their employees work remotely, permanently.
The Challenges Newly Transitioned Remote Employees Face
While workers who have recently switched to a remote work arrangement are enjoying many benefits such as eliminating their commute to and from the office, they are also facing a number of challenges. According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work 2020, the biggest challenges remote workers face include:
Collaboration and communication issues
Loneliness
Not being able to unplug
Distractions at home
Staying motivated
New remote workers may also struggle with the above challenges. Additionally, a separate survey by the messaging platform Slack shows that those who are new to working from home struggle more in the following 3 areas compared to their more experienced counterparts:
Productivity
Sense of belongingness
Overall satisfaction with work arrangement
O - Operationalize Daily Check-Ins
Almost all successful remote teams have structured daily check-ins. The agenda may vary day-to-day. For instance, Mondays can be spent planning weekly project schedules, while Fridays can be dedicated to reviewing the accomplishments and the challenges of the week. You can also dedicate days for one-on-one check-ins.
The key is for these daily check-ins to be regularly scheduled, predictable, and to have clear agendas.
P - Practice Flexibility
One of the unique aspects of remote work is that you need structure. However, at the same time, you need to allow room for flexibility. Businesses should take into consideration that blending home-life and work-life comes with interruptions and distractions that disrupt an employee’s normal work patterns.
It’s important to be able to think beyond the traditional 9 to 5 mentality and embrace more flexible work arrangements. It may sound challenging at first, but remote teams that thrive embrace flexibility and agility. Here are a few of the things you need to consider:
Master asynchronous communication
Set certain hours wherein your team members’ work hours overlap
Use shared calendars so you know when everyone is working and when things are getting done
This is closely related to the first element of this approach, which is technology. The more strategically you use technology, the more flexible and agile your team can be. For instance, time monitoring tools allow you to ensure that employees are working when they’re supposed to, which allows them to determine their own pre-plotted schedules.
E - Ease Stress and Anxiety
These are extraordinary times. Tension is high and uncertainty is rampant. As explained by the Center for Workplace Mental Health, “Many are teleworking full-time for the first time, isolated from co-workers, friends, and family. Our daily living routines are disrupted causing added anxiety, stress, and strain—physically, mentally, and financially. It is completely natural for this disruption and uncertainty to lead to anxiety and stress.”
One of the most important and yet overlooked steps to help employees adjust to remote work is easing their stress and anxiety. Left unaddressed, stress and anxiety create hurdles for employees and businesses to truly thrive in a work from home setup.
So, what can you do?
Communicate empathetically: Employers and managers need to consistently talk to their employees in a way that they feel supported and cared for. Show empathy. Acknowledge that any anxiety they’re feeling is valid and offer support where you can.
Demonstrate transparency: This is not the time for closed-door, managers-only meetings. Be transparent about what’s going on in your organization and the steps you’re taking to ensure business continuity. Make your employees feel that all possible scenarios have been explored.
Promote self-care: Encourage employees to spend time outside of work to take care of themselves. Recommend activities that they can do in the safety of their homes such as meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga.
Create fun activities: Host virtual happy hours or online games—anything that will allow your employees to share light-hearted, non-work related moments with each other.
Help Your New Remote Employees C.O.P.E.
Remote work is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Whether you decide to have your employees permanently work from home, move to a hybrid setup, or just wait until the COVID-19 pandemic becomes more manageable, helping your newly transitioned work from home employees is pertinent so your business continues to function.
Using the C.O.P.E. approach, which combines technology, regular check-ins, flexible scheduling, and mental health management, is a perfect jump-offpoint for you to help your employees not only survive but to thrive in this new normal.
About author:
Dean Mathews is the founder and CEO of OnTheClock, an employee time tracking app that helps over 9,000 companies all around the world track time.
Dean has over 20 years of experience designing and developing business apps. He views software development as a form of art. If the artist creates a masterpiece, many people’s lives are touched and changed for the better.
When he is not perfecting time tracking, Dean enjoys expanding his faith, spending time with family, friends and finding ways to make the world just a little better.
8 Tips to Help You Manage a High-Performing Virtual Team
Every business is eager to build a group of high-performing professionals, but the task is much more challenging if you are running a remote team. After all, this type of work eliminates everyday face-to-face conversations and quick chats that help most managers solve minor issues and discuss major projects on the go.
According to the report, 84% of respondents claim virtual communication is more difficult than in-person communication, while nearly 90% of online teams typically include at least two cultures. It means that the primary task of virtual team leaders is to enable uninterrupted and effortless communication.
But that is only one aspect of the process, so let’s take it one step at a time and check out eight tips to help you manage a high-performing virtual team.
1. Give Your Employees the Right Equipment
Online workers need high-quality and reliable equipment because it’s the only way to keep the workflow smooth and uninterrupted. As a business owner or manager, you cannot neglect this aspect and expect employees to obtain the best technology on their own.
On the contrary, you have to provide employees with the latest software that is super-fast and safe to use. Each member of the virtual team should have at least a couple of devices that can be used interchangeably – laptops, desktop computers, tablets, smartphones.
You also need to think about any additional programs, tools, and platforms relevant to your field of work.
2. Goal-Setting Is Fundamental
The first tip is rather technical, but the second one is fundamental performance-wise. Namely, you need to think through your business goals carefully and determine the right objectives and deliverables for each member of the virtual team.
The thing that really matters here is to be very clear about your demands and set measurable key performance indicators. For example, an online paper writer service will set goals for every author and determine parameters such as the word count and deadlines.
3. Delegate Tasks Properly
Micromanagement does not work in the online environment, so you’ll need to learn to delegate tasks properly. Every member of the digital workforce should know his/her responsibilities and focus on a single project at a given moment. Here’s how you can delegate professional duties across your team:
Divide larger projects into smaller segments of work and hand them out to your employees. That way, each worker will concentrate on a highly specific task and make progress quickly.
Create a schedule of work that is neither too tight nor too loose. Your expectations should be ambitious but realistic.
4. Use Multiple Communication Channels
Although it may seem counterintuitive, the experience taught us that multiple communication channels can contribute to the greater efficiency of virtual teams.
How come? Well, it turns out that every communication platform serves a different purpose and represents a natural extension to some parts of the work.
For instance, email is great for official communication with strictly determined messages and clear deliverables. On the other side, live chat software is much more convenient for everyday information exchanges, while video conferencing suits complex discussions that require thorough explanations and elaborations.
5. Organize Online Meetings Regularly
The fact that you cannot meet colleagues in person does not mean you shouldn’t organize online meetings. This is the core of virtual work, so we encourage you to schedule meetings regularly and discuss the most important topics with your coworkers.
The pace of communication depends on your team’s needs, but we can give you a practical example - essay writers meet every Monday morning to talk about their weekly plans, but they also meet on Friday afternoon to make a brief summary of weekly achievements.
6. Take Advantage of Project Management Tools
Traditional means of online communication are always useful, but you can boost employee productivity with project management tools. If you are not using one already, we can point out a few options that proved to be valuable for virtual teams:
Slack brings together multiple communication channels
Trello gives you incredible flexibility in terms of communication, planning, and monitoring
Jira makes project tracking easy and transparent
Jira alternative Monday.com lets you shape workflows to fit the way your team collaborates
7. Recognize Achievements and Reward Top-Performers
If you want the most talented individuals to stay with your team for a long time, you better recognize their achievements and reward top-performers. Unlike traditional business teams, virtual colleagues don’t have the chance to meet in person, exchange praises, and celebrate professional victories.
To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now.
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This is where managers need to step in and acknowledge employees’ business results. After all, we all want to feel appreciated for what we do, so it’s always a good idea to publicly praise the results of your best workers and perhaps even reward them in a way that corresponds to a given achievement.
8. Keep In Mind the Life-Work Balance
You don’t have to be a top-level manager to understand that your virtual team needs some rest from time to time. A survey shows that unplugging after work hours is the biggest pain point for 40% of employees who work in a virtual environment.
Your job is to make sure that every member of the virtual team gets enough time to recover from daily duties. Do not call them after work and do not expect them to open and answer late-night messages. It will keep them fresh and energized in the long run, so you won’t have to worry about their performance anytime soon.
The Bottom Line
Virtual teams are very specific because they rely on alternative channels of communication and cannot count on traditional face-to-face interactions. In such circumstances, managers have to be careful and plan out everything in a way that suits the new business model.
In this post, we analyzed eight ways that could help you manage a high-performing virtual team. Don’t hesitate to use our tips, but you are also free to write a comment if you have other interesting tips – our readers would love to see it!
About Author: Becky Holton is an essay writer UK who regularly contributes to the dissertation service. Becky is covering a broad scope of topics, including digital marketing, HR, business, finance, and brand building. She is the mother of a lovely toddler and a passionate yoga practitioner.
Employee Referrals in Tech: All You Need to Know
Nowadays, hiring the right developer is not the easiest nut to crack. Recruiters and companies need to go through a lot to attract tech talent. One of the very first steps is to define the requirements and needs for a given job role. Another one is to make a list of places to look for some new employees. Then, good old hunting may take place.
However, this is often turning out to be less effective than it has been before. Hence, tech companies are dying to find some new solutions in light of the ever-growing demand.
This is where employee referrals come in. As simple as it seems, there are many things for you to take into consideration before you launch employee referrals in your tech company. What should you know about it, why is it worth checking out, and how can your company benefit from increasing employee advocacy? If you have ever asked yourself any of these questions, you do not have to look for the answers any further.
Employee referrals: why should you think about implementing them?
There are at least a few reasons for believing in employee advocacy. It is not free and it takes quite a lot of time to implement, but it can pay off sooner than you think. Below you will find a few things to take into consideration.
There is high trust in referrals
The numbers speak for themselves: referrals can deliver amazing results in many fields, including recruitment. According to Career Builder (via TalentLyft), 82% of employees rate referrals “above all other sources for generating the best ROI.” Additionally, 88% of them rate referrals above all other sources for the generated quality of new hires.
But why is this the case? Well, referrals coming from those we trust are taken seriously into consideration. We believe in the words or comments of those we know, while we tend to disagree or not trust those from people we do not. Simple as that. This is where the power of referrals comes from, and is what has just started being realized by tech companies. Involving employees in generating leads - in this case, potential candidates - can be like hitting the jackpot.
Employee referrals positively impact time to hire
According to HR Technologist, “employees hired via referrals come in 55% faster than those sourced through career sites and this could make a world of difference for competitive firms, tight schedules, and demanding product development pipelines”. Since it takes approximately 41 days to hire a developer, cutting this time in half is a definite win because you can snatch some candidates before your competitors do.
Referrals are based on genuine opinions
In the majority of cases, people who refer something to somebody are not likely to make a mistake in doing so. They trust what they recommend, or at least they should. How does it work like in tech? If a particular employee shares a genuine opinion about the workplace, it may have a great impact on someone who is considering applying to your company. What is more, it may have a great impact on someone who did not previously consider applying, but the recommendation is so tempting that they now want to give it a go.
You get access to undiscovered talent
We have just mentioned that by implementing employee referrals (and the right incentives for employees for doing so), it becomes a bit easier to convince someone to take part in the recruitment process. This includes people who were not likely to consider the offer if not for a recommendation.
According to LinkedIn’s research, companies can expand their talent pools as much as 10x by simply utilizing their employee’s networks. This is especially true in the case of IT professionals, who tend to know people interested in the areas they are proficient in.
Many of those people are currently employed elsewhere, without any particular desire of changing that status quo. However, a persuasive recommendation may be a great impulse for a change. According to Dice, in 2020, 38% of technologists said they would change employers, down from 45% in 2019.
This means hiring will likely become even more difficult for employers worldwide this year. As a result, they need all the tools they can get to attract new employees.
If it comes from someone they know and trust, resigning from their current job and switching to a new one is a step closer. This way, as an employer, you get inclusive access to an undiscovered, and almost unlimited, talent pool. What is more, the quality of potential applicants in the pool is really, really high, and the recruitment process can be sped up.
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.”
What to remember when implementing an employee referral program?
1. Onboard your employees
No matter what the terms and conditions of your referral program are, the rules need to be clear and everyone who is involved needs to be familiar with them. Employees who are really engaged and understand the rules and incentives can deliver results quicker as almighty brand ambassadors.
You need to double-check if your developer referral program is competitive and appealing enough for great employees to start recommending equally great candidates to join your team.
2. Remember to reward
Your employees will have to invest their time and networks in bringing you some new additions to the team. They do not have to do this at all, so by giving them some incentives, they can be more willing to encourage others to apply.
There is nothing wrong with rewarding people who send some great candidates your way. And while getting a nice reward is warmly welcomed, it may turn out that often a simple token of appreciation for your employees’ contribution is even more precious. Your employees can have a great impact on your company’s growth and you should never forget about this fact.
The most important thing is to keep the promises you make to your employees and keep the rules transparent. As an example, Netguru openly shares that they give iPads to those who successfully refer a new employee and that’s what they do.
3. Encourage applicants
Referrals are like gold, but alone they may not be sufficient! Potential applicants will surely peep at you on social media, your website or your LinkedIn Company Page. While they probably trust the person who referred you to them, candidates still want to see things with their own eyes. If your online presence is full of holes and not really inviting, it can put potential employees off.
4. Tech screening for the win
Your company might attract the most skilled people in the world, but they still do not have to be the best fit for your needs. While your employees may have nothing but goodwill to refer some great candidates, it may turn out that those referees do not meet the expectations of a particular project (for example, they do not have the required developer background despite being fluent in three other programming languages).
This is why tech screening is incredibly important. It can save you a lot of time, and effort, but also disappointment for both parties. Without precise tech screening, you could hire a person who does not suit the project, or the hiree may feel it is not their cup of tea from day one. And this is often what happens when the applicant tracking system is full of holes.
To wrap up
Developer referrals programs can be incredibly efficient if you have a strong company culture and set up the right rules. It is a win-win-win situation. You gain access to amazing talents without spending years trying to find them, your employees can get extra rewards and feel even more appreciated, and highly skilled developers are offered a great opportunity of joining your company. What is there not to like?
About author
Tom Winter is the CRO at DevSkiller, a developer screening and online interviews-in-one platform powered by RealLifeTesting™. Madly in love with everything tech, Tom specializes in streamlining the hiring process of tech talent and data-driven recruitment. He’s also an avid conference speaker.
Conduct a Job Interview to Hire the Best Candidate
Hiring mistakes are made all the time. A candidate looks great on paper, provides an amazing performance during the recruitment process; but, once on the job, that great candidate turns out not a good fit. You scratch your head and wonder, “what happened?”
Often, it is not your fault, other than you believed a candidate’s answers when they were not honest. But, sometimes, it comes down to asking the right questions in the right way, in order to dig a bit deeper into skills, personality, and improving your overall working style.
Now, on to Those Interview Questions
So you’ve done your homework: created a great job description, uploaded it to your ATS software to track the results and now you have candidates waiting in your pipeline to be evaluated during the next stage.
First and foremost, write out your questions in advance. This doesn’t mean you will use all of them during the hiring process. But it does bring consistency as you evaluate the candidates you have selected for interviews. And, take notes. This is how you can compare their answers later on and keep the candidates straight in your head. Having a certain structure to your questions will also help for a good interview.
Here are 6 questions that should get to the “meat” of a candidate for the job and allow you to make a good final decision.
1. Tell me about yourself. This, of course, is really open-ended, and it should be. You want to get a feel for what the job seeker believes are the most important things in his life. Pay attention to one’s beliefs, values, and priorities. Often, you can get a “feel” for their fit for your environment and culture.
2. Why do you want to work for us? This question is important because it will show you whether the candidate has taken enough initiative to research your organization and have learned something about the potential employer’s mission, culture fits, etc. It’s a bad sign if the answer only relates back to the job description and his qualifications.
3. Describe your strengths. Of course, you want those strengths to relate to the skills of the position opening but look for strengths that go beyond just hard skills. Do you need a “people person?” Will this position involve working closely with a diverse group of others? Does it involve leadership roles? If so, what is their approach to leadership? You can continue to ask sub-questions as they address this question, to hone in on the specific strengths you want. And always ask for examples as they go along.
4. Tell me about a failure you had and how you responded to it. Behavioral interviewing has become a common tool for determining how a person is likely to deal with a challenging situation. This question can be either professional or personal. What you are looking for is how they reacted and what steps they took to mitigate the failure or to move on afterward and stay productive. It’s the process you are looking for, not the details of the event.
5. Why do you want to leave your current position? You want valid reasons here – career growth perhaps. Beware of candidates who complain about their current position, their supervisors, team members, etc.
6. Describe your greatest career success. Here you want detail. If you don’t get it, ask for it. You want them to give real results.
Some Additional Tips
1. Spend More Time Listening than Talking.
Candidates are nervous during job interviews. It’s easy to take command and do a lot of talking yourself. Don’t do it. You need to ask questions and wait for answers. It’s okay for a candidate to take some time to think about an answer before responding. Tell him that’s okay. Force yourself to be quiet and listen.
2. Spend Some Time Digging into Job Hopping
Job hopping is more common than it used to be. So, do not see it as an upfront negative. But do explore frequent job changes during the candidate’s work history, to be certain that those changes were not because of issues with bosses, co-workers, etc. The candidate will bring that work experience into any new job. Consider getting in touch with your potential employee’s former hiring managers to ask questions and make thorough reference checks.
3. When Possible, Hold Peer Interviews
You are not the person who will work with this new hire on a daily basis. And your opinion is not the only one that counts. The need for peer interviews is really necessary. And they should have the power to come up with their own questions for the job candidates. They know what they need and want, perhaps more than you. If, for some reason, this is not possible, at least gather interview questions from them, be certain to ask those questions, take notes, and share the responses.
Final Words
If you have an engaging job description, have screened the job seekers well, and done the right pre-planning for the interview process, you can improve your chances to hire the perfect candidate in the end.
About the author:
Daniela McVicker is a career expert and an editor at Top Writers Review. She’s also a business communication coach, helping future job applicants to achieve success on their career paths.
How do I bring my employee back to work safely, and how do I help my employees feel safe?
The last three months have been a phase of anxiety and depression with the COVID-19 explosion. Moreover, countries have gone into lockdown. Employees are working from their homes. Now, the government is looking at implementing business reopening measures. Employers also need to plan to move their employees back to their physical workplace location.
COVID-19 pandemic spreads via respiratory fluids, so the guidance got from local, state, and federal government directs employers to remain closed until they are capable to execute safeguards for limiting coronavirus spread.
The safeguards according to CDC include -
Practice healthy hygiene
Social distancing
Intensify ventilation, cleaning, and disinfection
Telework cancel insignificant travel
Restrict shared item spaces
Seating distance of a minimum of 6 feet
Wear masks
Train staff on every safety actions
Other CDC ongoing monitoring protocols for business to establish before opening are -
Establish a daily routine employee health check
Sick employees need to stay home
Monitor nonattendance and have flexible time-off policy
Have an action plan to handle situations where an employee tests COVID-19 positive
Create and test an emergency communication network for employees
Establish communication with the local and state authorities
Establish disability discrimination law while deciding which employees can return back to work, according to their medical conditions
Employer’s safety protocols for staff returning to work
Employers need to formulate their return to normalcy as safely as possible. Government and CDC safety guidelines can help them prepare for workplace return, after a long coronavirus lockdown.
Some areas employers need to cover
Monitor temperature
Limit access points inside your workplace premises and check employee temperature in an outside area. The employee with temperature 100° and more must be sent home. Ask the employee to maintain a 6-foot distance from other staff members, while they move to go out.
Wear masks
The staff members, who handle the public need to wear a mask. If you are unable to supply masks ask the employees to make their own. CDC has recommended that common people can wear masks made from cotton cloth for protection from coronavirus. If you are not a needlework person wear a scarf or bandana to cover your mouth and nose.
Wearing masks at the workplace will reduce the risk of getting infected or spreading the virus [sometimes people are not aware that they are coronavirus positive because there are no visible symptoms].
Talk less and email more
People release aerosol particles while speaking. The loud you talk the more possibility of more germs and viruses get released increases. Employees need to avoid physical communication. It is wise to email a text or sends messages because maintaining 6-feet distance reduces the risk of getting infected, the best communication method is chatting online or via phone.
Disinfect high touch surfaces
Sanitizers and disinfectant wipes are not easily available but you will need to keep common surfaces like tabletops, restrooms, and doors clean. Therefore use homemade disinfectant sprays and wipes. You can find how to make it on YouTube.
Consider adding extra handwashing stations. Prepare signage or instruction for visitors and employees to avoid confusion associated with containment practices on reopening.
Shut common areas
Break or lunchrooms need to be shut down. Encourage employees to take a break at their desks or limit the number of employees in common areas for lunch, but maintain a safe distance.
Maintain distance all the time
Evaluate the physical workplace layout to ensure there is a minimum of 6 feet distance between two workstations. It is wise to stay as far as possible from your coworkers. Employees in their cubicles and offices can easily maintain distance. Employees that work closely need to maintain minimum space distance. Be creative to work efficiently with a smaller amount of close contact. Distancing is necessary to limit the spread!
High-risk employees need to be protected
According to COVID-19 data people having underlying medical issues or whose immunity is compromised are at high risk to get infected. Employees need to prioritize their health and ask for time off or work from home. Employers can offer financial relief to such employees if they are unable to return to work.
Carry lunch and beverages
Coffee machines and refrigerators in the office are high traffic areas that need to be closed temporarily. Vending machines are safe to use when everyone washes their hands before and after they hit the buttons. Businesses can ask employees to carry utensil dispensers and single-serve straw from their homes.
Modify work hours, if necessary
Shifts or staggering hours may be needed to make sure employees maintain sufficient distancing. Alternate workdays for different employee teams or groups will help in the social distancing needs.
Employee training
Employers may offer video training to employees returning to work, so they are aware of the new rules. HR needs to train supervisors on the best way to enforce the social distancing policy. Encourage employees to wash hands properly at specified frequencies.
Employers need to stay updated about COVID-19 protocols recommended by CDC and mandated by the government.
To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now.
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About Author: Andrew Dominik is the founder of Quality Guest Post , the leading content marketing site. He has considerable experience in internet marketing and business development. His areas of expertise are the development of marketing goals and strengthen online brand reputation. He loves to write about social media, entrepreneurship, business growth, and startups.
5 Creative Ways to Give Kudos to Your Employees
Not so long ago when a project I worked on had a successful outcome, it was easy for my manager to stop by my office or cubicle to offer a personal thank you or job well done. She might also recognize the results of my work in a team meeting; the kudos met with a smattering of applause and even “congrats, man” from around the room.
Since March when our workforces became almost entirely remote, these kinds of opportunities for organic employee recognition are harder to come by. While we may all agree recognizing and rewarding employee accomplishments is still important, it can easily slip as we struggle to balance the demands of driving new business, managing a remote workforce, and maintaining work-life balance at a time when it has never been more difficult.
With management approval, employees can redeem their earned kudos for rewards points for things like gift cards to pre-approved vendors, corporate gifts, or other items. Employees can even transfer kudos points for an even stronger connection and culture.
Getting Creative with kudos
Rewarding staff for going the extra mile is a great way to raise performance and motivation levels, especially today. As managers and HR leaders, you may need to regularly encourage peer-to-peer recognition as your workforce continues to adjust to being remote. That means coming up with some creative ways and opportunities for employees to recognize each other’s efforts, inspire their teammates, and think outside their home office.
To help, we came up with five ways to use kudos to increase teamwork and recognize your employees for the great work they do every day.
To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now.
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#1: Highlight customer-to-peer recognition.
While many of us are remote, so many employees are filling essential roles where engaging with customers, patients, and guests is especially vital. Every employee appreciates when a customer recognizes them to a manager for good service, but not every customer takes the time to do so.
Why not enable your employees to recognize each other for delivering outstanding service? Adopt a type of “see-something, say-something” policy that encourages employees to recognize and reward each other for providing good service, diffusing difficult situations, and going the extra mile for a customer.
To be specific, we’ve seen many examples where one team member will hear the customer say something great about another teammate. “Susan is so great. She was so accommodating when I was running late for my appointment and helped move the schedule around to fit me in.” Instead of letting such a compliment drop, many LIKE.TG customers are now using kudos to relay this message directly to the employee.
#2: Points for a positive attitude.
Seems like a simple expectation, but for many remote employees work and home are colliding in ways they never expected, which can make “coming to work” every day feel like a monumental challenge.
As a manager, it is important to take the time to understand what your employees may be juggling at home: small children struggling with virtual learning, teenagers with too much time on their hands or elderly parents requiring care. Don’t overlook the challenges employees are facing at home; instead appreciate their efforts to find the right balance and encourage them to ask for help when it is needed.
In this case, we’ve seen kudos given to employees managers knew were dealing with difficult challenges at home, acknowledging how much the team (and entire company) appreciated their contributions.
#3: Share your quarantine hacks.
We’re all in this together, and we’re all discovering new ways to cope with home office life and quarantine family raising. So why not have some fun with it?
Encourage your employees to share their “hacks” for working from home and entertaining their families during quarantine days. It could be creating fun backgrounds for Zoom meetings, a quick and easy recipe to feed your family or movie suggestions for young kids. With work and life blurring together, why limit recognition to just work? We’re all seeking new ideas.
Then, recognize the best contributor or anyone who submitted a good idea. Kudos even lets you create custom badges for a project like this.
#4: Highlight those who improve life in the community.
Employees going above and beyond for the business and the extra mile for their families. What about recognizing employees pitching in to help their communities during COVID-19? From delivering groceries and meals to elderly neighbors to fostering pets in need of care, so many people are finding ways to give back to their communities in their free time. Let them know you appreciate their efforts. You may also find recognizing them inspires their teammates in unexpected ways.
#5: Encourage personal improvement.
Some employees may be looking for inspiration to break up their quarantine life. Create opportunities by encouraging employees to seek personal or professional development, healthy lifestyle choices and career coaching. You may also consider how to convert these into team initiatives—weight loss or exercise competitions, or peer-to-peers training for example.
Quarantine and work from home can make employees feel “stuck” but encouraging them to try new things together can be affirming for everyone.
We hope you enjoy these five kudos tips for improving employee recognition and rewards. For other suggestions on using LIKE.TG’s Workmates solution to manage remote teams and enhance the overall employee experience, please download our eBook, “A Better Way to Communicate, Engage, and Recognize Remote Workers.”
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 softwareincreases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
Remote Working Safety Guide
There have been major advances in information technology. Universally, the workforce is becoming more and more flexible. This means that more people are working away from the office.
Remote working has many benefits, but it also raises safety and health concerns. The real issue, however, is cybersecurity. Most companies vigilantly protect their networks and devices from security threats. Working from remote locations makes this hard.
This guide will give you tips on how to better protect yourself from cyber threats while working from remote locations.
Advantages of Remote Working Flexibility
With remote working, you are in charge of your own schedule. You have control over what time you do your work as long as you meet your deadlines. This is a major motivating factor since it makes working efficient.
Less Costly
Working remotely or from home is a cost saver! You won't have to spend money on things like transportation costs, eating lunch out, and purchasing a business wardrobe. The overall effect is increased savings on your part.
Fewer Interruptions
Remote working allows you to focus on your work without distractions like office chatter. This greatly increases productivity. Of course, there’s the temptation to be less productive at home, but in reality, it’s easy for managers to monitor workers based on output.
Better Health and Well-being
Most remote workers agree that they have more time to include daily exercises into their schedules. As a remote worker, you also won't be exposed to sick employees. On the other hand, if you are sick you'll be able to take care of yourself while still being productive.
Better Work-life Balance
Remote working doesn’t require you to adhere to strict working hours like in the past. This allows you to focus on other aspects of your life like picking up kids from school, household chores, and many other things that are important to you.
Reduces Environmental Footprint
With remote working, people don't have to travel to and from work every day. Carbon emissions from cars are renowned for causing pollution. Having fewer cars on the road goes a long way in environmental conservation.
Christopher BaggottChief Executive Officer of Medlinks Cost Containment, Inc. and Medlinks Staffing, LLC.
“Our staff has praised the increased communications level Workmates delivers. We use it to communicate important project matters and give staff specific ‘kudos’ or even recognize their birthdays. More importantly, we use Workmates to clarify important project details that needed rapid dissemination among the entire team.”
Disadvantages of Remote Working
Personal Distractions
When working from the office, there will be far fewer personal distractions. When working from home you’re constantly reminded of family responsibilities and duties. If you’re the type of worker who needs structure and supervision, this may be hard to achieve from home.
Lack of Motivation
Since there is no strict timetable to stick to, you are likely to lose self-discipline. This will make you less motivated to do your work. This really depends on the type of worker you are and what you need for motivation.
Less Collaboration
If you’re working remotely, you won’t be able to consult with colleagues. Although working side by side with fellow employees can be distracting, it’s still helpful in achieving collaboration on projects.
Lower Pay
Companies don’t typically pay remote employees well, especially in the first-world with high costs of living. Workers in third-world countries really thrive with remote work, as they are often paid in stronger currencies. Still, they are also paid less than their first-world counterparts for the same work.
Risks of Remote Working Phishing Attacks
This is a type of social engineering attack used to steal data and information like credit card numbers, and login credentials. It occurs when an attacker dupes a victim into opening a scam email or text. As a remote worker, you are susceptible to this attack especially if you don’t use email address search tools before opening your mail.
Unsecured Networks
A reliable and secure internet connection is not always available to remote workers. Working on a public network is especially risky. Using public networks can lead to potential data breaches and other security risks.
Computer Sharing and Personal Use
At times, working remotely may mean you share your work computer with family members or housemates. This can pose a potential security risk especially if you have sensitive information on your computer.
To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now.
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Safety Tips for Minimizing the Risks
Update Programs and Operating Systems
Applications and operating systems have numerous vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals can utilize this to infiltrate your device. They normally rely on people’s laziness to update software.
The latest versions of programs usually have inherent vulnerabilities. It’s therefore essential to regularly update everything installed in any device you use for work.
Using Email Address Search Tools
This will help protect you from phishing emails. All you need to do is install an email address search tool to check every suspicious email you receive. If you do not recognize the sender of an email, do not open it before using the search tool.
Protect devices with an Antivirus solution
Companies take different measures to protect their devices from malware. These include restricting online access from unauthorized devices, prohibiting employees from installing applications, and installing security solutions.
If you have work documents on your computer, you should install a reliable Antivirus on any device with corporate data.
Lock your device
It’s easy for someone to spy on your work if you leave your device unattended. It’s therefore important to ensure your screen is locked before you move away. Even when working from home, it’s essential to lock your device. Be on guard to ensure all devices are password protected.
In addition to the above, you can configure WI-FI encryption to prevent attackers from gaining access to your WI-FI network. Also, keep an eye out for advancements in security protocols. Remote working may have its fair share of cons, but when all is said and done, it’s the way of the future. Getting accustomed to these safety precautions will ensure you’re equipped to do your job without any hiccups!
About Author:
This article is written by Marketing Team ofLIKE.TG.LIKE.TG is a leading global provider of Applicant Tracking, Onboarding, Offboarding, Communications, Engagement, and Recognition solutions. Its powerful and user-friendly software eliminates manual/paper processes, increases employee productivity and engagement, improves time and cost savings, and reduces regulatory compliance risk.
HR Innovation and creativity – 3 mindset shift towards the future of HR
If you are in the HR profession and want to know how to be more creative and innovative towards the future of HR this article is for you. In this article, I'm going to share with you three mindsets that you need to embrace if you want to be more creative and innovative in your role as an HR professional.
Increasing employee productivity is the heart of the success of today's workplaces even though a lot of technology like outsourcing automation artificial intelligence and many other softwares are available yet it's the people who do most of the work keeping employees motivated and to boost productivity is a daunting task for an employer so here are some great suggestions by which an employer can bring about improvements and changes in the work environment and bring about positive results.
Now, why understanding this is important?
Because the workplace is changing, the marketplace is changing and the roles of an HR professional are also changing. So that's why you need to pay more attention to how to be more creative and innovative. Specifically in this article, I want to share with you three mindset shifts that you need to embrace. So what are the three mindset shifts you need to embrace? Let me go through it one by one with you.
1. Number one is "Think different":
Think different. That means you need to embrace a different mindset. Traditionally, HR embraced a process-driven mindset. That means HR will map out a lot of different processes and the employees need to follow. But now you need to shift the thinking. You need to think differently. Instead of thinking about the process, you need to shift your thinking from process to experience. One cannot paint all employees with the same brush as each one is different and unique there is diversity in their potential have different needs and aspirations the employer must identify each one's area of excellence encourage them and help them realize their own potential after accomplishing a difficult task successfully.
From process to experience - What does that mean?
This means you need to think from an employee perspective. You need to think from a user perspective. You need to think about how you can walk the journey together with the user or the employee, and then you map out your process and your experience journeys accordingly. So that's the first thing you need to embrace to think differently to shift from process to experience.
2. The second mindset shift is "uncertain":
Embrace uncertainty. So what does that mean?
That means nowadays, because of the technological development, because of the market development, because of the social developments things are moving at hyper speed and things are getting increasingly uncertain and that's why you need to embrace this new mindset of "Speed trumps perfection". Speed trumps perfection. That means speed is super important. You don't need to wait until the perfect timing to launch something. You don't need to wait until the perfect product or perfect policy, perfect guidelines in place before you launch it. So what we suggest is you need to embrace speed. Whenever you have some new guidelines and new policies, you may want to launch it on a small scale. Launch it. Test it among employees to get there early feedback, so that you can improve the next version. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment to do certain things, you need to embrace this "Speed trumps perfection". You have the version one; Launch it, get some feedback, improve it. Launch the version two and so and so forth. So that's the second mindset shift.
3. The third mindset shift you need to embrace is "Be Open":
Be open. Be open to what?
Be open to the marketplaces. Be open to what's happening outside of the industry so that you can adopt the borrowed creativity. Borrowed creativity: That means look at what's happening outside of the industry and see if you can adopt and use it for your own industry. Inviting industry experts to train and share experiences are good ways to create a professional flow as training does not end once an employee is on board placing employees in challenging and diverse environment enhances productivity and creativity there is excitement to perform well and think out of the box that must be encouraged allow them to experiment and be liberal in giving space as young energetic minds are hugely talented.
Traditionally our mindset was "oh that policy. Let's say it is a four-day workweek policy that is available and happening in the technology industry and you may think that oh, we are not a technology company. It won't work for us in this industry. That is their own policy because they are the technology sector. So what you can do right now is you need to be more open. Be more open to new ideas happening outside you. Instead of saying that "oh, we are different, we cannot adopt that", what you can do is "oh this policy is working well in the technology sector or in that particular industry. How can we modify and make it work for our industry? So that's the mindset shift. If you need to be open instead of saying "oh, we are different. We can't do that" What you need to do is we can say "oh it's working in that industry. How can we modify and adapt it, so that we can make it work for our own industry."
Final thoughts:
So to recap what are the three mindset shifts you need to embrace. Number one is to think differently. Number two, embrace the uncertainty so that you can focus on speed rather than perfection and number three is be open. Be open to other industries. Be open to other industry trends. So in short, "DUO" mindset - Different, Uncertain, and Open. So I hope this article sharing is something useful to you and I hope this can help you become a more creative and innovative HR professional.
Discussions HR Can Have with New Hires to Build Trust
Welcoming new hires into the office brings exciting growth and fresh faces and perspectives to a company. In order to establish a strong relationship with new hires, it is important that HR takes the time to sit down and have meaningful conversations with these employees. Here are a few of the discussions that HR can have to build a deeper trust with their new hires.
Prepare an organized onboarding process
Oftentimes, the HR team might be some of the first interactions that new hires have on their first day in the office and even beforehand. Because of these early interactions, a way to gain credibility with your new employees is to be as streamlined and organized as possible with your onboarding process.
This guide was designed to help you navigate through those difficult tasks and help determine the right software for your organization, download our ebook now.
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With advancements in onboarding software, companies now have the opportunity to drive employee engagement from day one. Whether this includes utilizing electronic signatures, mobile app notifications, or effective payroll and tax form management, finding ways to help employees adjust to a new work environment and taking the hassle out of mandatory onboarding procedures can go a long way. Onboarding provides insight into your company’s culture and can act as a way to make a great first impression for your new hires.
Be transparent with growth opportunities
The opportunity to grow within an organization is something that most employees prioritize. But considering they are just entering into the office, they may be less likely to ask questions about how this process works within your organization. One way that the HR team can develop trust with new hires is by outlining this process early on in their employee onboarding experience.
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.”
Equipping workers with the correct and adequate amount of knowledge surrounding the procedures, requirements, and opportunities available within your organization creates a united front. Similarly, outlining the specifics, such as conducting annual performance reviews, sets the stage for fair promotion and leadership opportunities. This open communication from HR can help give employees a better idea of the timeline and what to expect in their career advancement opportunities.
Provide an in-depth explanation of benefits
Employee benefits are something that new employees will certainly be interested in learning more about—especially considering that a benefits package differs from company to company. Of course, reviewing this benefits package is typically part of the onboarding process, but you can better build trust with your new employees by spending extra time to ensure they are maximizing their benefits. This exemplifies your commitment to helping them reach their full potential in and out of the office.
To promote transparency and build that trust, you can even discuss the areas where the benefits your company offers may not be enough to fulfill the new employee’s specific needs. For example, while many employers offer some sort of group life insurance coverage, this amount is oftentimes not enough to adequately cover the needs of their entire family.
Being transparent about your company coverage is important when building rapport with new hires. Discussing your company limits regarding additional coverage or even recommending other life insurance companies for a private policy outside of your network shows your capability to help a new employee feel more secure when starting a new position.
Discuss the future of the company
An HR department carries many responsibilities, but a critical role to consider especially when welcoming new members to your organization is discussing the future of the company. While it may seem premature to discuss big changes, such as shifts in management, business strategy, or internal workflow, this sense of transparency in any upcoming changes ensures that everyone is on the same page. While this level of communication is key, deciding the best way to effectively communicate based on the department and employee also creates a personalized approach in incorporating everyone’s needs to not only help your employees grow but the company as well.
With the nature of HR, it is essential to maintain a level of professionalism. With that being said, it does not mean that you don’t have the opportunity to have meaningful and memorable experiences with new hires. Considering the stresses that come along with starting a new job and how an HR department can help ease the transition and create trust with new hires from the start.
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 softwareincreases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
What is an Intranet? And How Can You Benefit from the Right One?
Company intranets have been a part of corporate life since the mid-'90s. But in the last half-decade or so, they've evolved to include many social, relationship-building features. Naturally, the merit of these developments is hotly debated.
While we can all agree that strong company relationships are important, how these relationships are developed is a point of contention. Is social intranet software a productivity killer, or an important business tool?
In this blog post, we'll explore the main benefits an intranet provides, and whether or not your company should invest in this type of application.
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15 Benefits of Integrating a Company Intranet
Wondering whether to use a company intranet platform or not? You're not alone. The topic has been picking up steam lately. Clear and concise communication is essential for any role in a business, and the quality of a company’s internal communication sets the stage for the future.Here are, in our opinion, the 15 biggest benefits:
1. Increased Productivity
It’s easy to think that the availability of socializing or sharing personal information via social intranet may lead to distractions and decrease productivity. However, the reality is quite the opposite. The benefits of easier collaboration, efficient communication, and enhanced organization are far more important. Also, it should be noted that social intranet software allows for conversation monitoring. Making this known to employees will often discourage any inappropriate sharing without ruining company culture. In addition to serving as a central point of communication, the intranet ensures prompt distribution of key company updates and information, reducing employee search time.
2. Improved Collaboration
Email, for all its advantages, is not an ideal internal correspondence tool. Messages are easily lost, buried beneath a mountain of other emails.
Social intranets separate internal and external communications, allowing team members to easily send large files when necessary and respond to each other in a more timely fashion.
Lastly, the community aspect of social intranet software encourages employees to share ideas in a transparent and streamlined way. Different thoughts and suggestions often make for better businesses.
3. Enhanced Employee Satisfaction
Employee satisfaction is an important component of any organization. Studies show that the average employee tenure at a company is a mere four years, and employee turnover costs businesses an average of six to nine months' salary per departed worker.
By implementing solutions like a social intranet, organizations can improve employee engagement and satisfaction, therefore reducing turnover rates. Studies have shown that 60% of companies found increases in employee engagement through intranet use.
4. Facilitates Internal Communication
Communication Effective communication is the foundation for success within any organization. An effective company intranet solution encourages communication to flourish across your organization:
Teams can have an open dialog
Colleagues can share and contribute knowledge
Leadership (managers/supervisors) can stay in touch
Different departments can provide and share updates
The best part is that communication moves in both directions. Anyone can share, comment, and provide feedback. An intranet both streamlines communication by bringing it into one place and entrusts individuals with a voice and company knowledge.
It is important to note that intranets today not only facilitate information sharing between employees and the company but also encourage employees to collaborate and share information among themselves.
5. Personalized User Experiences
Unlike traditional intranets restricted to a one-size-fits-all approach, modern social intranets customize channels, page content, and company portalsbased on employee roles, departments, or groups. Tailoring the intranet experience to individual employees according to relevant criteria increases their interest and engagement levels in the platform's information.
6. Builds a community of self-service
Previous approaches to company intranets were made up of collections of web pages and links to disparate documents and systems. Over time documents would become outdated and links would be broken or expire, leading to frustration for employees and HR admins.
Modern intranets are designed from the ground up to be a repository of vital company information—secure, accessible, and easy to maintain. The community approach to sharing and managing information gives employees self-service access to content and applications they need at any time and from anywhere.
Social intranet by Workmates takes the community a step further, making information easy to find with powerful search capabilities and easy to promote with viral content sharing from intuitive libraries and repositories. Plus the integrated employee directory makes finding and sharing content with groups, teams, and individuals a snap.
7. Connecting Across Locations and Time Zones
Globalization has led to an increase in organizations with remote workers or those who work across time zones. Companies now use intranets to connect remote employees, field-based teams, satellite offices, and any employee who may not be in corporate headquarters, keeping everyone aligned and improving overall employee performance. By serving as the central online hub for the company, intranets provide insights to employees across locations, enabling seamless communication regardless of physical distance. This connectivity, available through desktop and mobile apps, ensures that remote employees, field-based teams, and satellite offices can stay connected, leading to improved morale, productivity, and engagement.
8. Recognition and Rewards
Employee recognition is a fundamental part of the employee experience, and it helps to improve employees’ engagement levels and overall satisfaction. According to the SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey, effective peer-to-peer recognition is 35.7% more likely to have a positive impact on financial results than manager-only recognition.
Employee recognition software empowers every employee to recognize and be recognized on an equal playing field. Employees can recognize and be recognized on an equal footing, ranging from peer shoutouts to tangible rewards. This culture of appreciation and motivation enhances the overall employee experience and boosts morale.
9. Boosts Employee Efficiency
A unified communication system significantly enhances efficiency in the workplace. Nearly half of US workers prefer to communicate with their colleagues online, saving time and increasing productivity. Modern intranets eliminate the need for cumbersome email workflows, reducing time wasted on version control and confusion. By providing easy access to the latest documents and forms, intranets save valuable time and allow employees to focus on more strategic initiatives.
10. Comprehensive Content Management
Intranets serve as comprehensive repositories of essential company information, encouraging community-driven content sharing and management. This approach empowers employees with self-service access to vital information, ensuring they have access to necessary content and applications whenever needed. Modern intranets like Workmates enhance content sharing with search capabilities, intuitive content libraries, company announcements, and integrated employee directories, simplifying content discovery and sharing among groups, teams, and individuals.
11. Cultivates a Culture of Workplace Happiness
Amplify the office atmosphere and experience through increased employee recognition and engagement. A company isnot a company withoutits people and most intranets are about the people. Bringing them together, bringing out the best in them, and enriching your company culture in the process. Transform your organization with intranets that cultivate connections, nurture talent, and enrich the company culture, leading to increased retention rates and improved performance.
12. Improves Employee Engagement
Fully engaged employees are far more likely to be satisfied, motivated, and committed to their work and company.
Overall, an engaged employee is more:
Positive in their work approach
Committed to developing and maintaining careers at their organization
Creative in solving problems
Motivated to meet and exceed goals
Proactive about learning new skills and starting new projects
Connected to the mission of the company
By incorporating social features such as likes, comments, and sharing, social intranets promote interaction and engagement among employees. Gitnux report shows that 74% of intranet users access their intranet daily, and the shows that intranet can foster a sense of community and belonging, leading to higher employee morale and productivity.
13. Simplified Implementation and Usage
Employees typically embrace social intranets because they mimic the same usability and features they are accustomed to with the social media sites they use every day. Like any new application, familiarity is critical to success and maximizing your company’s investment. Training is significantly reduced as a barrier to adoption, and employees are more likely to revisit the intranet regularly to explore the tools and information available to them.
By offering centralized access to essential tools and information, social intranets drive collaboration and provide enhanced support by serving as engagement points for various department functions like HR documents or IT support processes.
14. Mitigated Security Risks
It is crucial to address the security advantages provided by social intranets. Without an internal system for communicating and sharing important documents, employees will be forced to use other solutions such as Dropbox and Slack.
These are wonderful tools, but they aren't controlled by your company's IT department and may be more susceptible to hacks than an internal system.
By investing in a company intranet platform, your private company details will remain "in-house" and more secure. Isn't that worth the investment?
15. Seamless Integration
Modern intranets make integrating critical applications like document management and payroll systems simple, enabling seamless information sharing and access. For instance, integrating intranets with payroll systems streamlines processes for HR teams, ensuring accurate and up-to-date employee data across all teams and applications. This integration fosters trust among employees regarding the security and accuracy of their data.
Conclusion
Today, intranets are a constant reality of the current workplace, and social intranets provide many benefits to companies, as we've just seen. To be productive and enhance corporate growth, intranets should be user-centered yet also designed such as to achieve corporate strategy. In addition to content delivery, intranets are used to enhance team collaboration and productivity, increase employee engagement, and minimize security risks, ultimately, developing a successful corporate strategy.
About Author:
This article is a collaboration between LIKE.TG and Ben Hadfield, a writer and editor who specializes in producing quality content across a wide spectrum of mediums. We hope you enjoyed the wealth of knowledge and experience that went into writing this post!
4 Tips for Effective Background Check Of a Remote Worker: for Employers & Employees
A background check is a part of normal life for those who work remotely, and almost anyone can run one. Often a job applicant provides references of previous employers to give evidence of their successful work history. Many companies have been compromised by candidates who take advantage of a trusting relationship though, so further steps are taken to ensure their next person hired is of great caliber. This quick guide will give all the information you need to know about employment background checks.
Working Remotely
Especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, working from home has never been so popular for employers and employees. Even leading up to the pandemic, almost five million Americans were working from home. Coronavirus likely sped up a shift that was already gaining momentum.
Common Mistakes When Hiring Remote Workers
Not every employee has habits that are conducive to working from home and not every employer is made to have the ideal working from home environment for beginners. Like so many aspects of employment, there is no such thing as a fundamentally bad employee or employer. However, they can be ill-suited though.
Risks and Difficulties Hiring a Remote Worker
Hiring a remote worker still means having someone who will be a member of the team and get the job done. Consider making it so the candidate can have at least one face-to-face interview, find out if they have experience in the remote working software programs that your company uses, and conduct a thorough background screening.
Working from Home Means Working
The biggest concern when hiring someone to work from home is having them actually work from home. Boundaries should be made clear between employees and employers, and it could be the case that the traditional nine to five working model needs revision. Flexible work hours or even a result-orientated work ethic could be considered if it’s fitting with both parties.
To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now.
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Remote and On-Board Hiring
Remote hiring means hiring someone who is to work remotely from the office. Remote onboarding is the follow-on from that process. To ensure that the new hire is fully invested personally in the operation, it may be worthwhile having them come to your head office for a day or even up to a week. Get them familiar with the rest of the operation, even consider having them spend some time with another remote worker. This will give them a feel of the culture and what is expected as a member of the team.
Tips on how to conduct an effective background check on a remote candidate?
There are many ways to conduct an effective background check, but the three main records that can get checked are driving records, criminal records, and drug screening.
Driving Records
Every state has some way of checking someone’s driving records. Driving record checks will reveal any incidents that the employee may have had while driving a car, as well as any encounters with law enforcement.
Criminal Records
Criminal record background checks will reveal whether or not the prospective employee has had any interaction with law enforcement, as well as the nature of that attention.
Drug Screening
Drug screening can be done remotely by a number of providers. It involves collecting a urine sample from your prospective employee to find out if they dabble in illicit substances.
Tips on how an employee should Prepare for Employment Background Screening
The reason why employers conduct background checks is to ensure that they are hiring a strong member of the team who will have a positive influence. If you’re applying for a position where you are working remotely, chances are the prospective employer is conducting a background check. In order to be prepared, it is best to know what they are going to find out first.
1. Get a copy of your credit report
Getting a copy of your credit report is quick and easy. It will tell you whether you have had any failures in paying bills, whether you have a mortgage, and how you are rated as a financial citizen. Many employers use credit reports to get an idea of who they are hiring.
2. Check your motor vehicle record
There are ways to copy driving records in your state so that you can check your history. It is recommended to also see what you might be able to do to rectify any past incidents. You can quite often contact your DMV to have points removed or records expunged.
3. Check court records
Go to your local court and find out what records they have. This will be a good way of finding out what is potentially on your criminal background check.
4. Stick to the facts
You know how good or bad you are as a citizen, and what is on your record. Getting hired is not an interrogation, and potential employers often value absolute transparency. If you know there is something on your record, it may be worth being upfront about the facts and raising it before they do.
Conclusion
There are many ways to increase productivity, Encourage employees who are working remotely to set a schedule and take regular breaks. It’s also crucial that you check-in with them from time to time to ensure that their morale is high. Don’t just monitor them for productivity. Keep an eye on their well-being and morale as well. That’s a win-win for everyone.
About Author: Patrick Peterson is a writer/editor at AutoDetective. Born and raised in the automotive world. He’s a passionate writer who crafts exquisite content pieces about everything related to cars and bikes.
Ways You Can Hook in New Hires with Your Company Culture
The competition for jobs nowadays becomes tighter and tighter year after year, with more and more graduates joining the workforce. But, the difficulty is not just experienced by the applicants. Hiring companies also sometimes encounter some problems in finding the right people for the job and keeping excellent talents in their roster. This is why it’s important for organizations to inculcate the value of company culture from the get go. Every time new hires are onboarded, they should be made familiar with how everything works in your business and how their role is crucial in your organization. Here are some ways for you to hook in new hires with your company culture.
To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now.
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1. Build your organization’s image and reputation.
One of the most important things a business should work on is building a positive reputation as a business. This helps you invite high quality and motivated talents who will be willing to stay with your company and learn about your organization’s culture. Nowadays, building an online presence can be very helpful for businesses, especially since more and more people are relying on the internet to learn about various things, including companies to whom they can work for. Make the most of your online marketing efforts and get your name out there so that aspiring applicants will know what to expect as soon as they become a part of your organization.
2. Highlight employee stories.
People love success stories. If you have employees who have been in the company for years and worked their way up towards success in your company, and if you think they can inspire your current and future employees, then you might want to grab this opportunity to share their success with the whole organization, especially with your new hires.
3. Set up meetings with their future teams in a less formal setting.
A great way to welcome new hires and help them embrace your company culture is by scheduling their first team meetings in a positive and memorable way. Some companies set up lunch meetings, pizza parties or small welcome parties for new hires. You can come up with your own method of welcoming your new team members in a less formal manner, so that they will feel more welcome and at ease with their new workmates and their new environment.
4. Let them feel that they are a valuable addition to the company.
Another way to give your new hires a positive welcome is by making them feel that they are important to the company. They should know the importance of the position they are filling up and why it’s important that they embrace the work and the culture of the company. Making them feel valued can improve their morale and encourage them to adopt your company’s culture.
5. Challenge them to be a productive part of the team.
To help motivate your new hires to be more productive and more open to a new culture, it will help if you challenge them. Encourage them to be more focused on work and help build a positive work environment for everyone. Setting up their work attitude as soon as their first day at work is a great way to help them understand they are now a part of the company and that they are expected to adopt the work culture that you have.
6. Make your benefits and work environment worth their while.
Another important thing that you should prioritize if you want your new hires to be more receptive towards your company culture is by providing them with work benefits and an environment that is suitable for the work they have to accomplish. This includes their work tools, co-workers, work space, health care, compensation, rewards, recognition, and more.
7. Encourage new hires to ask questions.
You should also remind and encourage your new hires to ask questions. It’s important that you make sure the new members of your team are aware of everything that they should know as soon as they become a part of your team. This way, they become more familiar with your company and with all of your processes. Asking questions will help them learn more, absorb information better, and get clarifications on things that might not be clear for them. A good way to approach this is by assigning a point person your new hires can ask questions from. Encouraging them to be inquisitive and to know when and how to ask the right questions will also help you avoid any costly mistakes that may hurt your organization and your reputation.
8. Invest in Your Employees
One of the best investments that you can make for your business is your manpower. To make the most of the talents that you have in your roster, you should provide them with as much knowledge and resources that you provide to help them become effective and productive members of your organization. Provide them with training and quality work tools, and to motivate them to do their work well, see to it that you reward them for their productivity and for doing high quality work.
Christopher BaggottChief Executive Officer of Medlinks Cost Containment, Inc. and Medlinks Staffing, LLC.
“Our staff has praised the increased communications level Workmates delivers. We use it to communicate important project matters and give staff specific ‘kudos’ or even recognize their birthdays. More importantly, we use Workmates to clarify important project details that needed rapid dissemination among the entire team.”
Bottom Line
Hiring new people into your organization is a great way to replenish your manpower anytime someone leaves. Whether you are hiring an experienced worker or a fresh college graduate looking for work at a job fair, it’s important to make sure that you have the right people doing quality work to help your organization grow. Getting new hires fully acquainted with your company culture can sometimes be very challenging, but with the right approach and strategies, you can win your employee’s loyalty and dedication to your organization’s goals.
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 softwareincreases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.