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DynamoDB to BigQuery ETL: 3 Easy Steps to Move Data
If you wish to move your data from DynamoDB to BigQuery, then you are on the right page. This post aims to help you understand the methods to move data from DynamoDB to BigQuery. But, before we get there, it is important to briefly understand the features of DynamoDB and BigQuery.Introduction to DynamoDB and Google BigQuery
DynamoDB and BigQuery are popular, fully managed cloud databases provided by the two biggest names in Tech. Having launched for business in 2012 and 2010 respectively, these come as part of a host of services offered by their respective suite of services. This makes the typical user wanting to stick to just one, a decision that solidifies as one looks into the cumbersome process of setting up and maximizing the potential of having both these up and running parallelly. That being said, businesses still end up doing this for a variety of reasons, and therein lies the relevance of discussing this topic.
Moving data from DynamoDB to BigQuery
As mentioned before, because these services are offered by two different companies that want everything to be done within their tool suite, it is a non-trivial task to move data seamlessly from one to the other. Here are thetwo ways to move data from DynamoDB to BigQuery:
1) UsingLIKE.TG Data: An easy-to-use integration platform that gets the job done with minimal effort.
2) Using Custom Scripts: You can custom build your ETL pipeline by hand-coding scripts.
This article aims to guide the ones that have opted to move data on their own from DynamoDB to BigQuery. The blog would be able to guide you with a step-by-step process, make you aware of the pitfalls and provide suggestions to overcome them.
Steps to Move Data from DynamoDB to Bigquery using Custom Code Method
Below are the broad steps that you would need to take to migrate your data from DynamoDB to BigQuery. Each of these steps is further detailed in the rest of the article.
Step 1: Export the DynamoDB Data onto Amazon S3
Step 2: Setting Up Google Cloud Storage and Copy Data from Amazon S3
Step 3: Import the Google Cloud Storage File into the BigQuery Table
Step 1: Export the DynamoDB Data onto Amazon S3
The very first step is to transfer the source DynamoDB data to Amazon S3. Both S3 and GCS(Google Cloud Storage) support CSV as well as JSON files but for demonstration purposes, let’s take the CSV example. The actual export from DynamoDB to S3 can be done using the Command Line or via the AWS Console.
Method 1The command-line method is a two-step process. First, you export the table data into a CSV file:
$aws dynamodb scan --table-name LIKE.TG _dynamo --output > LIKE.TG .txt
The above would produce a tab-separated output file which can then be easily converted to a CSV file. This CSV file (LIKE.TG .csv, let’s say) could then be uploaded to an S3 bucket using the following command:
$aws s3 cp LIKE.TG .csv s3://LIKE.TG bucket/LIKE.TG .csv
Method 2If you prefer to use the console, sign in to your Amazon Console here. The steps to be followed on the console are mentioned in detail in the AWS documentation here.
Step 2: Setting Up Google Cloud Storage and Copy Data from Amazon S3
The next step is to move the S3 data file onto Google Cloud Storage. As before, there is a command-line path as well as the GUI method to get this done. Let’s go through the former first.
Using gsutilgsutil is a command-line service to access and do a number of things on Google Cloud; primarily it is used to work with the GCS buckets. To create a new bucket the following command could be used:
$gsutil mb gs://LIKE.TG _gc/LIKE.TG
You could mention a bunch of parameters in the above command to specify the cloud location, retention, etc. (full list here under ‘Options’) per your requirements. An interesting thing about BigQuery is that it generally loads uncompressed CSV files faster than compressed ones. Hence, unless you are sure of what you are doing, you probably shouldn’t run a compression utility like gzip on the CSV file for the next step. Another thing to keep in mind with GCS and your buckets is setting up access control. Here are all the details you will need on that.
The next step is to copy the S3 file onto this newly created GCS bucket. The following copy command gets that job done:
$gsutil cp s3://LIKE.TG _s3/LIKE.TG .csv/ gs://LIKE.TG _gc/LIKE.TG .csv
BigQuery Data Transfer Service This is a relatively new and faster way to get the same thing done. Both CSV and JSON files are supported by this service however there are limitations that could be found here and here. Further documentation and the detailed steps on how to go about this can be found here.
Step 3: Import the Google Cloud Storage File into the BigQuery Table
Every BigQuery table lies in a specific data set of a specific project. Hence, the following steps are to be executed in the same order:
Create a new project.
Create a data set.
Run the bq load command to load the data into a table.
The first step is to create a project. Sign in on the BigQuery Web UI. Click on the hamburger button ( ) and select APIs Services. Click Create Project and provide a project name (Let’s say ‘LIKE.TG _project’). Now you need to enable BigQuery for which search for the same and click on Enable. Your project is now created with BigQuery enabled.
The next step is to create a data set. This can be quickly done using the bq command-line tool and the command is called mk. Create a new data set using the following command:
$bq mk LIKE.TG _dataset
At this point, you are ready to import the GCS file into a table in this data set. The load command of bq lets you do the same. It’s slightly more complicated than the mk command so let’s go through the basic syntax first.
Bq load command syntax -
$bq load project:dataset.table --autodetect --source_format
autodetect is a parameter used to automatically detect the schema from the source file and is generally recommended. Hence, the following command should do the job for you:
$bq load LIKE.TG _project:LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _table --autodetect
--source_format=CSV gs://LIKE.TG _gc/LIKE.TG .csv
The GCS file gets loaded into the table LIKE.TG _table.
If no table exists under the name ‘LIKE.TG _table’ the above load command creates a new table.
If LIKE.TG _table is an existing table there are two types of load available to bring the source data into this table – Overwrite or Table Append.
Here’s the command to overwrite or replace:
$bq load LIKE.TG _project:LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _table --autodetect --replace
--source_format=CSV gs://LIKE.TG _gc/LIKE.TG .csv
Here’s the command to append data:
$bq load LIKE.TG _project:LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _table --autodetect --noreplace
--source_format=CSV gs://LIKE.TG _gc/LIKE.TG .csv
You should be careful with the append in terms of unique key constraints as BigQuery doesn’t enforce it on its tables.
Incremental load – Type 1/ Upsert
In this type of incremental load, a new record from the source is either inserted as a new record in the target table or replaces an existing record in the target table.
Let’s say the source (LIKE.TG .csv) looks like this:
And the target table (LIKE.TG _table) looks like this:
Post incremental load, LIKE.TG _table will look like this:
The way to do this would be to load the LIKE.TG .csv into a separate table (staging table) first, let’s call it, LIKE.TG _intermediate. This staging table is then compared with the target table to perform the upsert as follows:
INSERT LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _table (id, name, salary, date)
SELECT id, name, salary, date
FROM LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _intermediate
WHERE NOT id IN (SELECT id FROM LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _intermediate);
UPDATE LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _table h
SET h.name = i.name,
h.salary = i.salary,
h.date = i.date
FROM LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _intermediate i
WHERE h.id = i.id;
Incremental load – Type 2/ Append Only
In this type of incremental load, a new record from the source is always inserted into the target table if at least one of the fields has a different value from the target. This is quite useful to understand the history of data changes for a particular field and helps drive business decisions.
Let’s take the same example as before. The target table in this scenario would look like the following:
To write the code for this scenario, you first insert all the records from the source to the target table as below:
INSERT LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _table (id, name, salary, date)
SELECT id, name, salary, date
FROM LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _intermediate;
Next, you delete theduplicate records (all fields have the same value) using the window function like this:
DELETE FROM (SELECT id, name, salary, date, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY id, name, salary, date) rn
FROM LIKE.TG _dataset.LIKE.TG _table)
WHERE rn <> 1;
Hurray! You have successfully migrated your data from DynamoDB to BigQuery.
Limitations of Moving Data from DynamoDB to BigQuery using Custom Code Method
As you have seen now, Data Replication from DynamoDB to BigQuery is a lengthy and time-consuming process. Furthermore, you have to take care of the following situations:
The example discussed in this article is to demonstrate copying over a single file from DynamoDB to BigQuery. In reality, hundreds of tables would have to be synced periodically or close to real-time; to manage that and not be vulnerable to data loss and data inconsistencies is quite the task.
There are sometimes subtle, characteristic variations between services, especially when the vendors are different. It could happen in file Size Limits, Encoding, Date Format, etc. These things may go unnoticed while setting up the process and if not taken care of before kicking off Data Migration, it could lead to loss of data.
So, to overcome these limitations to migrate your data from DynamoDB to BigQuery, let’s discuss an easier alternative – LIKE.TG .
An easier approach to move data from DynamoDB to BigQuery using LIKE.TG
The tedious task of setting this up as well as the points of concern mentioned above does not make the ‘custom method’ endeavor a suggestible one. You can save a lot of time and effort by implementing an integration service like LIKE.TG and focus more on looking at the data and generating insights from it.Here is how you can migrate your data from DynamoDB to BigQuery using LIKE.TG :
Connect and configure your DynamoDB Data Source.
Select the Replication mode: (i) Full dump (ii) Incremental load for append-only data (iii) Incremental load for mutable data.
Configure your Google BigQuery Data Warehouse where you want to move data.
SIGN UP HERE FOR A 14-DAY FREE TRIAL!
Conclusion
In this article, you got a detailed understanding of how to export DynamoDB to BigQuery using Custom code. You also learned some of the limitations associated with this method. Hence, you were introduced to an easier alternative- LIKE.TG to migrate your data from DynamoDB to BigQuery seamlessly.
With LIKE.TG , you can move data in real-time from DynamoDb to BigQuery in a reliable, secure, and hassle-free fashion. In addition to this, LIKE.TG has 150+ native data source integrations that work out of the box. You could explore the integrations here.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO EXPLORE LIKE.TG
Before you go ahead and take a call on the right approach to move data from DynamoDB to BigQuery, you should try LIKE.TG for once.
SIGN UP to experience LIKE.TG ’s hassle-free Data Pipeline platform.
Share your experience of moving data from DynamoDB to BigQuery in the comments section below!
Amazon S3 to BigQuery: 2 Easy Methods
With the advent of modern-day cloud infrastructure, many business-critical applications like databases, ERPs, and Marketing applications have all moved to the cloud. With this, most of the business-critical data now resides in the cloud. Now that all the business data resides on the cloud, companies need a data warehouse that can seamlessly store the data from all the different cloud-based applications. This is where Cloud Data Warehouse comes into the picture.This post aims to help you understand what a cloud data warehouse is, its evolution, and its need. Here are the key things that this post covers:
What is a Cloud Data Warehouse?
A data warehouse is a repository of the current and historical information that has been collected. The data warehouse is an information system that forms the core of an organization’s business intelligence infrastructure. It is a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that allows for SQL-like queries to be run on the information it contains.
Unlike a database, a data warehouse is optimized to run analytical queries on large data sets. A database is more often used as a transaction processing system. You can read more about the need for a data warehouse here.
A Cloud Data Warehouse is a database that is delivered as a managed service in the public cloud and is optimized for analytics, scale, and usability. Cloud-based data warehouses allow businesses to focus on running their businesses rather than managing a server room, and they enable business intelligence teams to deliver faster and better insights due to improved access, scalability, and performance.
Key features of Cloud Data Warehouse
Some of the key features of a Data Warehouse in the Cloud are as follows:
Massive Parallel Processing (MPP): MPP architectures are used in cloud-based data warehouses that support big data projects to provide high-performance queries on large data volumes. MPP architectures are made up of multiple servers that run in parallel to distribute processing and input/output (I/O) loads.
Columnar data stores: MPP data warehouses are typically columnar stores, which are the most adaptable and cost-effective for analytics. Columnar databases store and process data in columns rather than rows, allowing aggregate queries, which are commonly used for reporting, to run much faster.
Simplify Data Analysis with LIKE.TG ’s No-code Data Pipeline
LIKE.TG Data, a No-code Data Pipeline helps to Load Data from any data source such as Databases, SaaS applications, Cloud Storage, SDKs, and Streaming Services and simplifies the ETL process.
LIKE.TG supports 150+ data sources and is a 3-step process by just selecting the data source, providing valid credentials, and choosing the destination. LIKE.TG loads the data onto the desired Data Warehouse, enriches the data, and transforms it into an analysis-ready form without writing a single line of code.
Its completely automated pipeline offers data to be delivered in real-time without any loss from source to destination. Its fault-tolerant and scalable architecture ensure that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss and supports different forms of data. The solutions provided are consistent and work with different Business Intelligence (BI) tools as well.
Get Started with LIKE.TG for free
Check out why LIKE.TG is the Best:
Secure: LIKE.TG has a fault-tolerant architecture that ensures that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss.
Schema Management: LIKE.TG takes away the tedious task of schema management automatically detects the schema of incoming data and maps it to the destination schema.
Minimal Learning: LIKE.TG , with its simple and interactive UI, is extremely simple for new customers to work on and perform operations.
LIKE.TG Is Built To Scale: As the number of sources and the volume of your data grows, LIKE.TG scales horizontally, handling millions of records per minute with very little latency.
Incremental Data Load: LIKE.TG allows the transfer of data that has been modified in real-time. This ensures efficient utilization of bandwidth on both ends.
Live Support: The LIKE.TG team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support calls.
Live Monitoring: LIKE.TG allows you to monitor the data flow and check where your data is at a particular point in time.
Sign up here for a 14-day Free Trial!
What are the capabilities of the Cloud Data Warehouse?
For all the Cloud based Data Warehouse services, the cloud vendor or data warehouse provider provides the following “out-of-the-box” capabilities.
Data storage and management: data is stored in a file system hosted in the cloud (i.e. S3).
Automatic Upgrades: There is no such thing as a “version” or a software upgrade.
Capacity management: Youcan easily expand (or contract) your data footprint.
Traditional Data Warehouse vs. Cloud Data Warehouse
Traditional Data Warehouse is also an on-premise Data Warehouse that is located or installed at the company’s office. Companies need to purchase hardware such as servers by themselves. The installation requires human resources and much time.
The organization requires a separate staff to manage and update the Traditional Data Warehouse. Scaling the Warehouse takes time as new hardware needs to be shipped to the destination and then installation.
Cloud Data Warehouse, as the name suggests is the Data Warehouse solution available on the cloud. Companies don’t have to own hardware and maintain it. All the updates, maintenance, and scalability of hardware are managed by 3rd party Cloud Data Warehouse Service providers such as Google BigQuery, Snowflake, etc.
Because of the availability of data on the cloud, companies can easily integrate Cloud Data Warehouses with other SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms and tools for Business Analytics.
What are the Benefits of a Cloud Data Warehouse?
Previously, if an organization needed data warehousing capabilities then that would require, firstly, either building and configuring an on-site server or renting servers off-site and, secondly, configuring the connections between relevant assets.
Either option requires a significant capital outlay. Cloud-based data warehouses minimize these issues.Cloud-based Data Warehousing services are offered at varying price points that are a fraction of what the previous options would cost in terms of capital, time, and stress.
Apart from ease of implementation, cloud-based data warehouse solutions also offered scalability. Previous iterations would require building capacity that took possible future growth into consideration.
With cloud-based data warehouses, that question is now redundant as your package can be easily scaled to your needs, no matter how they fluctuate over time (as long as it’s within the service’s limits).
What are the Top 5 Cloud Data Warehouse Services?
There are many cloud data warehouse solutions. According to IT Central Station, the top 5 cloud data warehouse providers are:
Google BigQuery
Snowflake
Amazon Redshift
Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse
What are the Challenges of a Cloud Data Warehouse?
Security is a concern for cloud-based data warehousing. This is specifically due to the fact that service providers have access to their customer’s data. While service agreements and public legislation around data privacy do exist, it must be borne in mind that it is possible that these entities could, accidentally or deliberately, alter or delete the data.
Another major security concern is the penetration of cloud systems by hackers who are constantly searching for and exploiting vulnerabilities in these systems in order to gain access to users’ personal data and data belonging to large corporations.
Providers take maximum precautions in protecting users’ data. To this end, users are also offered choices in how their data is stored, such as having it encrypted in order to prevent unauthorized access.
Given the large variety of applications, businesses use today, loading all this data present in different formats into a data warehouse is a huge task for engineers. However, fully-managed data integration platforms like LIKE.TG Data (Features and 14-day free trial) help easily mitigate this problem by providing an easy, point-and-click platform to load data to the warehouse.
How to Choose the Right Cloud Data Warehouse
Making the right choice necessitates a deeper understanding of how these data warehouses operate based on features such as:
Architecture: elasticity, support for technology, isolation, and security
Scalability: scale efficiency, elastic scale, query, and user concurrency.
Performance: Query, indexing, data type, and storage optimization
Use Cases: Reporting, dashboards, ad hoc, operations, and customer-facing analytics
Cost: Administration, vendor pricing, infrastructure resources
You should also evaluate each cloud data warehouse in terms of the use cases it must support. Here are a few examples:
Reporting by analysts against historical data.
Analyst-created dashboards based on historical or real-time data.
Ad hoc Analytics within dashboards or other tools for interactive analysis on the fly.
High-performance analytics for very large or complex queries involving massive data sets.
Using semi-structured or unstructured data for Big Data Analytics.
Data processing is performed as part of a data pipeline in order to deliver data downstream.
Leveraging the concept of Machine Learning to train models against data in data lakes or warehouses.
Much larger groups of employees require operational analytics to help them make better, faster decisions on their own.
Customer-facing analytics are delivered to customers as (paid) service-service analytics.
Cloud Data Warehouse Automation – What you Need to Know
To accelerate the availability of analytics-ready data, some modern data integration platforms automate the entire data warehouse lifecycle. A model-driven approach will also assist your data engineers in designing, deploying, managing, and cataloging purpose-built cloud data warehouses more quickly than traditional solutions.
The 3 key productivity drivers of an agile data warehouse are as follows:
Ingestion and updating of data in real-time: A simple and universal solution for continuously and in real-time ingesting your enterprise data into popular cloud-based data warehouses.
Workflow automation: A model-driven approach to constantly improving data warehouse operations.
Trusted, enterprise-ready data: To securely share your data marts, use a smart, enterprise-scale data catalog.
FAQ about Cloud Data Warehouse
1) What is the Data Warehouse lifecycle?
The Data Warehouse lifecycle encompasses all phases of developing and operating a data warehouse, including:
Discovery: Understanding business requirements and the data sources required to meet those requirements.
Design: Designing and testing the data warehouse model iteratively
Development: Writing or generating the schema and code required to build and load the data warehouse.
Deployment: Putting the data warehouse into production so that business analysts can access the information.
Operation: Monitoring and managing the data warehouse’s operations and performance.
Enhancement: Changes are made to support changing business and technology needs.
2) What is Data Warehouse automation?
Historically, data warehouses were designed, developed, deployed, operated, and revised manually by teams of developers. The average data warehouse project, from requirements gathering to product availability, could take years to complete, with a high risk of failure.
Data warehouse automation makes use of metadata, data warehousing methodologies, pattern detection, and other technologies to provide developers with templates and wizards that auto-generate designs and coding that was previously done by hand. Automation automates the data warehouse lifecycle’s repetitive, time-consuming, and manual design, development, deployment, and operational tasks. IT teams can deliver and manage more data warehouse projects than ever before, much faster, with less project risk, and at a lower cost by automating up to 80% of the lifecycle.
Conclusion
This article provided a comprehensive guide on a Cloud Data Warehouse. It also explained the benefits and needs of a Cloud Data Warehouse in detail. It also lists the top Cloud Data Warehouse Services in the market today.
With the complexity involves in Manual Integration, businesses are leaning more towards Automated and Continuous Integration. This is not only hassle-free but also easy to operate and does not require any technical proficiency. In such a case, LIKE.TG Data is the right choice for you! It will help simplify your Data Analysis seamlessly.
Visit our Website to Explore LIKE.TG
Want to take LIKE.TG for a spin? Sign Up for a 14-day free trial and experience the feature-rich LIKE.TG suite firsthand.
Share your experience of understanding Cloud Data Warehouses in the comments section below!
Cloud Data Warehouse: A Comprehensive Guide
With the advent of modern-day cloud infrastructure, many business-critical applications like databases, ERPs, and Marketing applications have all moved to the cloud. With this, most of the business-critical data now resides in the cloud. Now that all the business data resides on the cloud, companies need a data warehouse that can seamlessly store the data from all the different cloud-based applications. This is where Cloud Data Warehouse comes into the picture.This post aims to help you understand what a cloud data warehouse is, its evolution, and its need. Here are the key things that this post covers:
What is a Cloud Data Warehouse?
A data warehouse is a repository of the current and historical information that has been collected. The data warehouse is an information system that forms the core of an organization’s business intelligence infrastructure. It is a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that allows for SQL-like queries to be run on the information it contains.
Unlike a database, a data warehouse is optimized to run analytical queries on large data sets. A database is more often used as a transaction processing system. You can read more about the need for a data warehouse here.
A Cloud Data Warehouse is a database that is delivered as a managed service in the public cloud and is optimized for analytics, scale, and usability. Cloud-based data warehouses allow businesses to focus on running their businesses rather than managing a server room, and they enable business intelligence teams to deliver faster and better insights due to improved access, scalability, and performance.
Key features of Cloud Data Warehouse
Some of the key features of a Data Warehouse in the Cloud are as follows:
Massive Parallel Processing (MPP): MPP architectures are used in cloud-based data warehouses that support big data projects to provide high-performance queries on large data volumes. MPP architectures are made up of multiple servers that run in parallel to distribute processing and input/output (I/O) loads.
Columnar data stores: MPP data warehouses are typically columnar stores, which are the most adaptable and cost-effective for analytics. Columnar databases store and process data in columns rather than rows, allowing aggregate queries, which are commonly used for reporting, to run much faster.
Simplify Data Analysis with LIKE.TG ’s No-code Data Pipeline
LIKE.TG Data, a No-code Data Pipeline helps to Load Data from any data source such as Databases, SaaS applications, Cloud Storage, SDKs, and Streaming Services and simplifies the ETL process.
LIKE.TG supports 150+ data sources and is a 3-step process by just selecting the data source, providing valid credentials, and choosing the destination. LIKE.TG loads the data onto the desired Data Warehouse, enriches the data, and transforms it into an analysis-ready form without writing a single line of code.
Its completely automated pipeline offers data to be delivered in real-time without any loss from source to destination. Its fault-tolerant and scalable architecture ensure that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss and supports different forms of data. The solutions provided are consistent and work with different Business Intelligence (BI) tools as well.
Get Started with LIKE.TG for free
Check out why LIKE.TG is the Best:
Secure: LIKE.TG has a fault-tolerant architecture that ensures that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss.
Schema Management: LIKE.TG takes away the tedious task of schema management automatically detects the schema of incoming data and maps it to the destination schema.
Minimal Learning: LIKE.TG , with its simple and interactive UI, is extremely simple for new customers to work on and perform operations.
LIKE.TG Is Built To Scale: As the number of sources and the volume of your data grows, LIKE.TG scales horizontally, handling millions of records per minute with very little latency.
Incremental Data Load: LIKE.TG allows the transfer of data that has been modified in real-time. This ensures efficient utilization of bandwidth on both ends.
Live Support: The LIKE.TG team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support calls.
Live Monitoring: LIKE.TG allows you to monitor the data flow and check where your data is at a particular point in time.
Sign up here for a 14-day Free Trial!
What are the capabilities of the Cloud Data Warehouse?
For all the Cloud based Data Warehouse services, the cloud vendor or data warehouse provider provides the following “out-of-the-box” capabilities.
Data storage and management: data is stored in a file system hosted in the cloud (i.e. S3).
Automatic Upgrades: There is no such thing as a “version” or a software upgrade.
Capacity management: Youcan easily expand (or contract) your data footprint.
Traditional Data Warehouse vs. Cloud Data Warehouse
Traditional Data Warehouse is also an on-premise Data Warehouse that is located or installed at the company’s office. Companies need to purchase hardware such as servers by themselves. The installation requires human resources and much time.
The organization requires a separate staff to manage and update the Traditional Data Warehouse. Scaling the Warehouse takes time as new hardware needs to be shipped to the destination and then installation.
Cloud Data Warehouse, as the name suggests is the Data Warehouse solution available on the cloud. Companies don’t have to own hardware and maintain it. All the updates, maintenance, and scalability of hardware are managed by 3rd party Cloud Data Warehouse Service providers such as Google BigQuery, Snowflake, etc.
Because of the availability of data on the cloud, companies can easily integrate Cloud Data Warehouses with other SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms and tools for Business Analytics.
What are the Benefits of a Cloud Data Warehouse?
Previously, if an organization needed data warehousing capabilities then that would require, firstly, either building and configuring an on-site server or renting servers off-site and, secondly, configuring the connections between relevant assets.
Either option requires a significant capital outlay. Cloud-based data warehouses minimize these issues.Cloud-based Data Warehousing services are offered at varying price points that are a fraction of what the previous options would cost in terms of capital, time, and stress.
Apart from ease of implementation, cloud-based data warehouse solutions also offered scalability. Previous iterations would require building capacity that took possible future growth into consideration.
With cloud-based data warehouses, that question is now redundant as your package can be easily scaled to your needs, no matter how they fluctuate over time (as long as it’s within the service’s limits).
What are the Top 5 Cloud Data Warehouse Services?
There are many cloud data warehouse solutions. According to IT Central Station, the top 5 cloud data warehouse providers are:
Google BigQuery
Snowflake
Amazon Redshift
Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse
What are the Challenges of a Cloud Data Warehouse?
Security is a concern for cloud-based data warehousing. This is specifically due to the fact that service providers have access to their customer’s data. While service agreements and public legislation around data privacy do exist, it must be borne in mind that it is possible that these entities could, accidentally or deliberately, alter or delete the data.
Another major security concern is the penetration of cloud systems by hackers who are constantly searching for and exploiting vulnerabilities in these systems in order to gain access to users’ personal data and data belonging to large corporations.
Providers take maximum precautions in protecting users’ data. To this end, users are also offered choices in how their data is stored, such as having it encrypted in order to prevent unauthorized access.
Given the large variety of applications, businesses use today, loading all this data present in different formats into a data warehouse is a huge task for engineers. However, fully-managed data integration platforms like LIKE.TG Data (Features and 14-day free trial) help easily mitigate this problem by providing an easy, point-and-click platform to load data to the warehouse.
How to Choose the Right Cloud Data Warehouse
Making the right choice necessitates a deeper understanding of how these data warehouses operate based on features such as:
Architecture: elasticity, support for technology, isolation, and security
Scalability: scale efficiency, elastic scale, query, and user concurrency.
Performance: Query, indexing, data type, and storage optimization
Use Cases: Reporting, dashboards, ad hoc, operations, and customer-facing analytics
Cost: Administration, vendor pricing, infrastructure resources
You should also evaluate each cloud data warehouse in terms of the use cases it must support. Here are a few examples:
Reporting by analysts against historical data.
Analyst-created dashboards based on historical or real-time data.
Ad hoc Analytics within dashboards or other tools for interactive analysis on the fly.
High-performance analytics for very large or complex queries involving massive data sets.
Using semi-structured or unstructured data for Big Data Analytics.
Data processing is performed as part of a data pipeline in order to deliver data downstream.
Leveraging the concept of Machine Learning to train models against data in data lakes or warehouses.
Much larger groups of employees require operational analytics to help them make better, faster decisions on their own.
Customer-facing analytics are delivered to customers as (paid) service-service analytics.
Cloud Data Warehouse Automation – What you Need to Know
To accelerate the availability of analytics-ready data, some modern data integration platforms automate the entire data warehouse lifecycle. A model-driven approach will also assist your data engineers in designing, deploying, managing, and cataloging purpose-built cloud data warehouses more quickly than traditional solutions.
The 3 key productivity drivers of an agile data warehouse are as follows:
Ingestion and updating of data in real-time: A simple and universal solution for continuously and in real-time ingesting your enterprise data into popular cloud-based data warehouses.
Workflow automation: A model-driven approach to constantly improving data warehouse operations.
Trusted, enterprise-ready data: To securely share your data marts, use a smart, enterprise-scale data catalog.
FAQ about Cloud Data Warehouse
1) What is the Data Warehouse lifecycle?
The Data Warehouse lifecycle encompasses all phases of developing and operating a data warehouse, including:
Discovery: Understanding business requirements and the data sources required to meet those requirements.
Design: Designing and testing the data warehouse model iteratively
Development: Writing or generating the schema and code required to build and load the data warehouse.
Deployment: Putting the data warehouse into production so that business analysts can access the information.
Operation: Monitoring and managing the data warehouse’s operations and performance.
Enhancement: Changes are made to support changing business and technology needs.
2) What is Data Warehouse automation?
Historically, data warehouses were designed, developed, deployed, operated, and revised manually by teams of developers. The average data warehouse project, from requirements gathering to product availability, could take years to complete, with a high risk of failure.
Data warehouse automation makes use of metadata, data warehousing methodologies, pattern detection, and other technologies to provide developers with templates and wizards that auto-generate designs and coding that was previously done by hand. Automation automates the data warehouse lifecycle’s repetitive, time-consuming, and manual design, development, deployment, and operational tasks. IT teams can deliver and manage more data warehouse projects than ever before, much faster, with less project risk, and at a lower cost by automating up to 80% of the lifecycle.
Conclusion
This article provided a comprehensive guide on a Cloud Data Warehouse. It also explained the benefits and needs of a Cloud Data Warehouse in detail. It also lists the top Cloud Data Warehouse Services in the market today.
With the complexity involves in Manual Integration, businesses are leaning more towards Automated and Continuous Integration. This is not only hassle-free but also easy to operate and does not require any technical proficiency. In such a case, LIKE.TG Data is the right choice for you! It will help simplify your Data Analysis seamlessly.
Visit our Website to Explore LIKE.TG
Want to take LIKE.TG for a spin? Sign Up for a 14-day free trial and experience the feature-rich LIKE.TG suite firsthand.
Share your experience of understanding Cloud Data Warehouses in the comments section below!
Google Analytics to BigQuery ETL: 3 Easy Methods
Do you rely heavily on GA4 data for analyzing the metrics of your website engagement? If yes, then you would face problems while collecting all the GA4 data and performing advanced analytics on it. If you want to gain business-critical insights from your GA4 data, then you can’t simply manipulate it. You need to have access to all your marketing and website data in a centralized repository
This article throws light on two methods for implementing GA4 BigQuery Integration. However, to increase your time to value you can definitely go through the simple two-step process for replicating data from GA4 to BigQuery.
What is BigQuery?
Google Cloud Platform provides BigQuery, Google’s enterprise data warehouse that makes large-scale data analysis accessible to everyone. It is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that supports querying using ANSI SQL. It’s a fully managed and serverless data warehouse that empowers you to focus on analytics instead of managing infrastructure.
Advantages of Connecting Google Analytics 4 to BigQuery
1. Raw, Unsampled Data for Better Analysis
Exporting data to BigQuery allows you to access raw, unsampled data and perform more precise and detailed analysis than the aggregated data available directly in GA4.
2. Extended Retention Period
With bigQuery, you can store your GA4 data for as long as you need, beyond the default retention periods in GA4. This extended retention allows you to conduct historical analysis and identify long-term trends, providing security and ease with your data storage.
3. Joins with Other Data Sources
In BigQuery, you can join GA4 data with data from other sources, such as your CRM, sales databases, or third-party APIs. This capability facilitates comprehensive, cross-platform analysis, giving you a more insightful and knowledgeable view of your business performance.
4. Advanced Visualization
BigQuery integrates seamlessly with visualization tools like Google Data Studio, Tableau, and Looker. These tools allow you to create sophisticated dashboards and reports, enabling more profound insights and informed decision-making.
5. GA4 BigQuery Export is free
Google offers free exports of GA4 data to BigQuery, making it an economical choice for businesses to leverage advanced analytics capabilities without incurring additional costs.
Integrate Google Analytics to BigQueryGet a DemoTry itIntegrate Google Ads to RedshiftGet a DemoTry itIntegrate Salesforce to PostgreSQLGet a DemoTry it
Methods to connect Google Analytics 4 to BigQuery?
Using LIKE.TG Data to Set up GA4 BigQuery Integration
LIKE.TG Datahelps you directly transfer data from GA4 and150+ other sourcesto a Data Warehouse such as Google BigQuery, or a destination of your choice in a completely hassle-free automated manner.
LIKE.TG is fully managed and completely automates the process of not only loading data from your desired source but also enriching the data and transforming it into an analysis-ready form without having to write a single line of code.
Using Google Cloud Platform API to Implement GA4 BigQuery Integration
The APIs will allow you to do the integration of data by configuring a connection between GA4 and your other data system.
It allows data streaming in real-time. But, as the process is highly complex and time consuming, it consumes a lot of bandwidth.
Using CSV files
This method uses the native capability of GA4 to export file into CSV and then move to BigQuery.
For one time migration, and small data volume which doesn’t require any modification, this is a highly recommended method.
Watch our latest on-demand webinar for a hands-on to the Google Analytics 4 + BigQuery export. LIKE.TG plateform can help how to use querie from basic to complex, explore new event tables and updated schema, and Explore ways to discover and extract the metrics necessary for driving your business forward.
How to Set up GA4 BigQuery Integration Using Three Methods?
Method 1: Using LIKE.TG Data to Set up GA4 BigQuery Integration
Method 2: Using Google Cloud Platform to Implement GA4 BigQuery Integration
Method 3: Using CSV files
Method 1: Using LIKE.TG Data to Set up GA4 BigQuery Integration
LIKE.TG takes care of all your data preprocessing to set up GA4 BigQuery Integration and lets you focus on key business activities and draw a much more powerful insight on how to generate more leads, retain customers, and take your business to new heights of profitability.
It provides a consistent reliable solution to manage data in real-time and always has analysis-ready data in your desired destination.
LIKE.TG Data focuses on two simple steps to connect GA4 BigQuery Integration:
Step 1: Configure Google Analytics 4 as a Source
Step 2: Integrate Data into Google BigQuery
Step 1: Configure GA4 as a Source
ClickPIPELINESin theNavigation Bar.
Click+ CREATEin thePipelines List View.
In theSelect Source Typepage, selectGoogle Analytics 4as the Source.
In theConfigure your Google Analytics 4 Accountpage, do one of the following:
Select a previously configured account and clickCONTINUE.
Click+ ADD GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4 ACCOUNTand perform the following steps to configure an account:
Select your linked Google account.
ClickAllowto grant LIKE.TG access to your analytics data.
In theConfigure your Google Analytics 4 Sourcepage, specify the following:
Step 2: Integrate Data into Google BigQuery
ClickDESTINATIONSin theNavigation Bar.
Click+ CREATEin theDestinations List View.
InAdd Destinationpage selectGoogleBigQueryas the Destination type.
In theConfigure your GoogleBigQuery Warehousepage, specify the following details:
As can be seen, you are simply required to enter the corresponding credentials to implement this fully automated data pipeline without using any code.
Method 2: Using Google Cloud Platform to Implement GA4 BigQuery Integration
The steps to set up GA4 Bigquery Integration are as follows:
Step 1: Create a Project in Google BigQuery
Step 2: Enable GA4 BigQuery Linking
Step 3: Enable Google Cloud API
Step 4: Add a Service account
Step 5: Use Google BigQuery with GA4 data
Step 1: Create a Project in Google BigQuery
Log in to your Google BigQuery account.
On the menu bar, click on the arrow beside the name of the project getting displayed.
A pop-up window will appear with a list of existing BigQuery projects. In the top-left section of the pop-up window, click on the “New Project” option.
The New Project window appears. Now, you can set the name and the location of the project.
Then click on the “Create” button and the project will be created.
Step 2: Enable GA4 BigQuery Linking
Log in to your Google Analytics account. For further information about Google Analytics.
Click on Google Analytics 4 Admin option, found in the bottom-left corner of the window.
Now, after going to the GA4 Admin panel, click on “BigQuery Linking”.
BigQuery Linking window appears. Now, click on the “Link” button beside the search bar.
“Create a link with BigQuery” window appears. Now, click on the learn more link.
In the next window, scroll down and copy the Service Account Id of the service account given in point 5 of step 1 ([email protected]).
Now, go back to the “Create a link with BigQuery” window. Then click on the “Choose a BigQuery project” option.
Then select the name of the BigQuery project that you want to link with Google Analytics 4.
Now, select the Data Location from the drop-down menu.
Click on the “Next” button.
Now, select the type of Data streams. If you have a mobile app and want to export the user ids to Google BigQuery, you may additionally choose “Include advertising Identifiers for mobile app streams.”
Select the frequency of data movement accordingly i.e, either Daily (once a day) or Streaming (continuous export).
Now, click on the “Next” button and then review your choices and click on the “Submit” button.
Now, the link for the GA4 BigQuery is created.
Until now, just the GA4 BigQuery linking is accomplished. But they are still not connected. So, you need to create an API.
Step 3: Enable Google Cloud API
Go to the Google Cloud Console.
Then in the left navigation pane, go to API Services and select “Library”.
The API Library page appears.
Now, if you have not selected the project, then click on the current project name at the top. A separate window with the list of projects appears. Select the project you want to link.
Now, in the search bar, search for BigQuery API and click on it.
Now, make sure the BigQuery API is enabled and click on the “Manage” button.
Step 4: Add a Service Account
From the sidebar menu, select “Credentials”.
Go to “Create Credentials” and then select the “Service account” option.
In the Service account name, type [email protected], i.e., the Id already copied in step 2. Then in the Service account ID, write the ID where you want to give access to that account and click on “Create”.
Now, grant the editor access to the Service account. And then click on “Continue” and select “Done”.
Step 5: Use Google BigQuery with GA4 Data
After all the procedures, wait for 24 hours for the data set to export to your BigQuery project.
You’ll find 2 tables with each dataset. One for continuous export of raw events throughout the day and another for full daily export of events.
Now, you can run SQL queries on the tables according to your requirements.
Reasons for linking failures
Linking to BigQuery can fail for either of the following two reasons:
Your organization’s policy prohibits export to the United States. Choose a different location if you’ve chosen the United States as the location of your data.
Modify your organization’s policy if your organization policy prohibits service accounts from the domain you want to export data from.
Reasons for export failures
There are several reasons due to which your GA4 BigQuery Schema Export may fail, such as:
Method 3: Using CSV Files
This method for integration is useful for one time migrations. Suppose, you have your 100 customer’s data in a google sheet. You don’t have to build data pipelines to move that to BigQuery. CSV is the best option there.
The steps to connect are:
Log in to your report in Google Analytics, and load the report you want to move to BigQuery.
Click on the Share button at the top-right corner of the screen.
Select download file and choose CSV as the file format.
After downloading the file, you can import or Loading CSV data from Cloud Storage the file into BigQuery using one of the available methods.
Types of GA4 BigQuery exports
Streaming Export
This export refers to ingesting real-time data to BigQuery for analysis within a few minutes. This is a viable option for businesses that rely on real-time data analysis for their business decisions or require up-to-the-minute data, such as real-time reporting, monitoring user behavior as it happens, and quickly identifying and responding to emerging trends.
Daily Export
This export refers to exporting a complete data set and transferring it to BigQuery in 24-hour cycles. This method is cost-effective and sufficient for most reporting and analysis needs that do not require real-time data. It allows for comprehensive daily analysis without the higher costs associated with continuous data transfer.
GA4 BigQuery Export Schema
BigQuery provides a schema format for all the data exported from GA4 to BigQuery. When the data is exported from GA4 to BigQuery, a dataset prefixed by ‘analytics_’ is automatically created in BigQuery.
Each day, a new table containing the previous day’s data is created within this dataset. These tables are named events_YYYYMMDD, followed by the date they represent.
For example, the table for October 15th 2023, would be named events_20231015.
Those who have activated the Streaming export feature will notice an additional table labeled events_intraday _YYYYMMDD. This table is updated in near real-time and replaced daily with a new one.
In the BigQuery interface, these individual tables are displayed collectively under a single name, simplifying the visual representation.
Which of these methods allows you to load GA4 historical data to BigQuery?
You can use LIKE.TG ’s automated data pipeline platform or Google Analytics API to connect to BigQuery.
You can get into the user level detail with GA API. But, it requires more steps to extract and load the data. As LIKE.TG ’s pipelines are automated, the effort and time will be much lesser.
It also gives you the flexibility to decide the period of historic load based on your use case. And, moving the historical data is free of cost.
Which Google Analytics properties data can you export to BigQuery?
A property in Google Analytics implies a website, blog, or application having a distinct tracking ID. In your GA account. You can decide the number of properties based on your use case..
Using the above methods, you can export the details of these properties to your BigQuery.
While configuring your source using LIKE.TG Data, you will have the option to select your property.
After you’ve exported Google Analytics data to BigQuery, what can you achieve with the data?
By migrating your data from GA4 to BigQuery, you will be able to help your business stakeholders find the answers to these questions:
Which Demographic contributes to the highest fraction of users of a particular Product Feature?
How are Paid Sessions and Goal Conversion Rate varying with Marketing Spend and Cash in-flow?
How to identify your most valuable customer segments?
Why should you enable the BigQuery linking for GA4?
There are several reasons to allow BigQuery linking for GA4, such as:
To store your data in BigQuery (Google Cloud) and/or send it to your data warehouse in other clouds like Azure or Snowflake
To join and enrich your data with other marketing or contextual data
To visualize your data in tools like Tableau or PowerBI
To perform advanced analysis
To use your data as input for (machine learning) models
Additional Resources on GA4 to Bigquery
Explore more on Bigquery to Bigquery Migration
Export Google Analytics Data
Key Takeaways
This article has discussed 3 methods for setting up GA4 BigQuery Integration.
If you can take all the responsibility for implementing this integration, you can continue with the manual method.
However, if you want a more seamless integration that is fully automated and completely managed, you should definitely give LIKE.TG a try.
FAQ on Integrate Data from GA4 to BigQuery
Is BigQuery free with GA4?
Everyone who owns a GA4 property i.e. Premium or Standard has access to BigQuery. So, unlike earlier versions of Google Analytics, with GA4, users don’t need to pay an extra fee to connect their GA4 property to their BigQuery project.
How to query GA4 data in BigQuery?
1. After setting up GA4 BigQuery integration, you can easily query your raw events data in BigQuery. You need to go to Google Data Studio and select BigQuery.2. You can see the list of all the Google Cloud Projects to which you have access. From there you can navigate to the tables and columns.3. For queries, click on SQL Workspace, and type your queries to filter and display the GA4 data according to your requirements.
What is the export limit for GA4 BigQuery?
1. GA4 BigQuery supports a free tier and a paid tier plan for its users, and the export limit for each of them varies based on the type of export the user performs. For example, if the user has selected a free tier plan, his export limit for daily export data would be 1 million daily events.2. If the user belongs to the paid tier plan, then he will not have any export limit on his data. However, charges would be applied based on storage and query usage. The streaming export feature is available only in the paid tier plan.
How to backfill data from GA4 to BigQuery?
1. Set up GA4 and BigQuery Integration2. Export Historical data3. Use GA4 API and export the data to a CSV or JSON file.4. Import data to BigQuery.
Oracle to BigQuery: 2 Easy Methods
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In a time where data is being termed the new oil, businesses need to have a data management system that suits their needs perfectly and positions them to be able to take full advantage of the benefits of being data-driven. Data is being generated at rapid rates and businesses need database systems that can scale up and scale down effortlessly without any extra computational cost.
Enterprises are exhausting a huge chunk of their data budgets in just maintaining their present physical database systems instead of directing the said budget towards gaining tangible insights from their data.
This scenario is far from ideal and is the reason why moving your Oracle data to a cloud-based Data Warehouse like Google BigQuery is no longer a want but a need.
This post provides a step-by-step walkthrough on how to migrate data from Oracle to BigQuery.
Introduction to Oracle
Oracle database is a relational database system that helps businesses store and retrieve data.
Oracle DB(as it’s fondly called) provides a perfect combination of high-level technology and integrated business solutions which is a non-negotiable requisite for businesses that store and access huge amounts of data. This makes it one of the world’s trusted database management systems.
Introduction to Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery is a cloud-based serverless Data Warehouse for processing a large amount of data at a rapid rate. It is called serverless as it automatically scales when running, depending on the data volume and query complexity.
Hence, there is no need to spend a huge part of your database budget on in-site infrastructure and database administrators.
BigQuery is a standout performer when it comes to analysis and data warehousing.
It provides its customers with the freedom and flexibility to create a plan of action that epitomizes their entire business structure.
Performing ETL from Oracle to BigQuery
There are majorly two ways of migrating data from Oracle to BigQuery. The two ways are:
Method 1: Using Custom ETL Scripts to Connect Oracle to BigQuery
This method involves a 5-step process of utilizing Custom ETL Scripts to establish a connection from Oracle to BigQuery in a seamless fashion. There are considerable upsides to this method and a few limitations as well.
Method 2: Using LIKE.TG to Connect Oracle to BigQuery
LIKE.TG streamlines the process of connecting Oracle to BigQuery, enabling seamless data transfer and transformation between the two platforms. This ensures efficient data migration, accurate analytics, and comprehensive insights by leveraging BigQuery’s advanced analytics capabilities.
Get Started with LIKE.TG for Free
In this post, we will cover the second method (Custom Code) in detail. Toward the end of the post, you can also find a quick comparison of both data migration methods so that you can evaluate your requirements and choose wisely.
Methods to Connect Oracle to BigQuery
Here are the methods you can use to set up Oracle to BigQuery migration in a seamless fashion:
Method 1: Using Custom ETL Scripts to Connect Oracle to BigQuery
The steps involved in migrating data from Oracle DB to BigQuery are as follows:
Step 1: Export Data from Oracle DB to CSV Format
Step 2: Extract Data from Oracle DB
Step 3: Upload to Google Cloud Storage
Step 4: Upload to BigQuery from GCS
Step 5: Update the Target Table in BigQuery
Let’s take a step-by-step look at each of the steps mentioned above.
Step 1: Export Data from Oracle DB to CSV Format
BigQuery does not support the binary format produced by Oracle DB. Hence we will have to export our data to a CSV(comma-separated value) file.
Oracle SQL Developer is the preferred tool to carry out this task. It is a free, integrated development environment. This tool makes it exceptionally simple to develop and manage Oracle databases both on-premise and on the cloud. It is a migration tool for moving your database to and from Oracle. Oracle SQL Developer can be downloaded for free from here.
Open the Oracle SQL Developer tool, and right-click the table name in the object tree view.
Click on Export.
Select CSV, and the export data window will pop up.
Select the format tab and select the format as CSV.
Enter the preferred file name and location.
Select the columns tab and verify the columns you wish to export.
Select the Where tab and add any criteria you wish to use to filter the data.
Click on apply.
Step 2: Extract Data from Oracle DB
The COPY_FILE procedure in the DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER package is used to copy a file to a local file system. The following example copies a CSV file named client.csv from the /usr/admin/source directory to the /usr/admin/destination directory as client_copy.csv on a local file system.
The SQL command CREATE DIRECTORY is used to create a directory object for the object you want to create the CSV file. For instance, if you want to create a directory object called source for the /usr/admin/source directory on your computer system, execute the following code block
CREATE DIRECTORY source AS '/usr/admin/source';
Use the SQL command CREATE DIRECTORY to create a directory object for the directory into which you want to copy the CSV file. An illustration is given below
CREATE DIRECTORY dest_dir AS '/usr/admin/destination';
Where dest_dir is the destination directory
Grant required access to the user who is going to run the COPY_FILE procedure. An illustration is given below:
GRANT EXECUTE ON DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER TO admin;
GRANT READ ON DIRECTORY source TO admin;
GRANT WRITE ON DIRECTORY client TO admin;
Connect as an admin user and provide the required password when required:
CONNECT admin
Execute the COPY_FILE procedure to copy the file:
BEGIN
DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER.COPY_FILE(
source_directory_object => 'source',
source_file_name => 'client.csv',
destination_directory_object => 'dest_dir',
destination_file_name => 'client_copy.csv');
END;
Step 3: Upload to Google Cloud Storage
Once the data has been extracted from Oracle DB the next step is to upload it to GCS. There are multiple ways this can be achieved. The various methods are explained below.
Using Gsutil
GCP has built Gsutil to assist in handling objects and buckets in GCS. It provides an easy and unique way to load a file from your local machine to GCS.
To copy a file to GCS:
gsutil cp client_copy.csv gs://my-bucket/path/to/folder/
To copy an entire folder to GCS:
gsutil dest_dir -r dir gs://my-bucket/path/to/parent/
Using Web console
An alternative means to upload the data from your local machine to GCS is using the web console. To use the web console alternative follow the steps laid out below.
Login to the GCP using the link. You ought to have a working Google account to make use of GCP. Click on the hamburger menu which produces a drop-down menu. Hit on storage and navigate to the browser on the left tab.
Create a new bucket to which you will migrate your data. Make sure the name you choose is globally unique.
Click on the bucket you created and select Upload files. This action takes you to your local directory where you choose the file you want to upload.
The data upload process starts immediately and a progress bar is shown. Wait for completion, after completion the file will be seen in the bucket.
Step 4: Upload to BigQuery from GCS
To upload to BigQuery you make use of either the web console UI or the command line. Let us look at a brief on both methods.
First, let’s let look into uploading the data using the web console UI.
The first step is to go to the BigQuery console under the hamburger menu.
Create a dataset and fill out the drop-down form.
Click and select the data set created by you. An icon showing ‘create table’ will appear below the query editor. Select it.
Fill in the drop-down list and create the table. To finish uploading the table, the schema has to be specified. This will be done using the command-line tool. When using the command line interacting with GCS is a lot easier and straightforward.
To access the command line, when on the GCS home page click on the Activate cloud shell icon shown below.
The syntax of the bq command line is shown below:
bq --location=[LOCATION] load --source_format=[FORMAT] [DATASET].[TABLE] [PATH_TO_SOURCE] [SCHEMA]
[LOCATION] is an optional parameter that represents your Location.
[FORMAT] is to be set to CSV.
[DATASET] represents an existing dataset.
[TABLE] is the table name into which you're loading data.
[PATH_TO_SOURCE] is a fully-qualified Cloud Storage URI.
[SCHEMA] is a valid schema. The schema must be a local JSON file or inline.
Note: Instead of using supplying a schema definition, there is an autodetect flag that can be used.
You can specify your scheme using the bq command line. An illustration is shown below using a JSON file
bq --location=US load --source_format=CSV your_dataset.your_table gs://your_bucket/your_data.csv ./your_schema.json
The schema can also be auto-detected. An example is shown below:
bq --location=US load --autodetect --source_format=CSV your_dataset.your_table gs://mybucket/data.csv
BigQuery command-line interface offers us 3 options to write to an existing table. This method will be used to copy data to the table we created above.
The options are:
a) Overwrite the table
bq --location=US load --autodetect --replace --source_format=CSV your_dataset_name.your_table_name gs://bucket_name/path/to/file/file_name.csv
b) Append the table
bq --location=US load --autodetect --noreplace --source_format=CSV your_dataset_name.your_table_name gs://bucket_name/path/to/file/file_name.csv ./schema_file.json
c) Add a new field to the target table. In this code, the schema will be given an extra field.
bq --location=asia-northeast1 load --noreplace --schema_update_option=ALLOW_FIELD_ADDITION --source_format=CSV your_dataset.your_table gs://mybucket/your_data.csv ./your_schema.json
Step 5: Update the Target Table in BigQuery
The data that was joined in the steps above have not been fully updated to the target table.
The data is stored in an intermediate data table, this is because GCS is a staging area for BigQuery upload. Hence, the data is stored in an intermediate table before being uploaded to BigQuery:
There are two ways of updating the final table as explained below.
Update the rows in the final table and insert new rows from the intermediate table.
UPDATE final_table t SET t.value = s.value FROM intermediate_data_table s WHERE t.id = s.id; INSERT final_table (id, value) SELECT id, value FROM intermediate_data_table WHERE NOT id IN (SELECT id FROM final_table);
Delete all the rows from the final table which are in the intermediate table.
DELETE final_table f WHERE f.id IN (SELECT id from intermediate_data_table); INSERT data_setname.final_table(id, value) SELECT id, value FROM data_set_name.intermediate_data_table;
Download the Cheatsheet on How to Set Up High-performance ETL to BigQuery
Learn the best practices and considerations for setting up high-performance ETL to BigQuery
Limitations of Using Custom ETL Scripts to Connect Oracle to BigQuery
Writing custom code would add value only if you are looking to move data once from Oracle to BigQuery.
When a use case that needs data to be synced on an ongoing basis or in real-time from Oracle into BigQuery arises, you would have to move it in an incremental format. This process is called Change Data Capture. The custom code method mentioned above fails here. You would have to write additional lines of code to achieve this.
When you build custom SQL scripts to extract a subset of the data set in Oracle DB, there is a chance that the script breaks as the source schema keeps changing or evolving.
Often, there arises a need to transform the data (Eg: hide Personally Identifiable Information) before loading it into BigQuery. Achieving this would need you to add additional time and resources to the process.
In a nutshell, ETL scripts are fragile with a high propensity to break. This makes the entire process error-prone and becomes a huge hindrance in the path of making accurate, reliable data available in BigQuery.
Method 2: Using LIKE.TG to Connect Oracle to BigQuery
Integrate your Data Seamlessly
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Using a fully managed No-Code Data Pipeline platform likeLIKE.TG can help you replicate data from Oracle to BigQuery in minutes. LIKE.TG completely automates the process of not only loading data from Oracle but also enriching the data and transforming it into an analysis-ready form without having to write a single line of code.
Its fault-tolerant architecture ensures that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss. Here are the steps to replicate data from Oracle to BigQuery using LIKE.TG :
Step 1: Connect to your Oracle database by providing the Pipeline Name, Database Host, Database Port, Database User, Database Password, and Service Name.
Step 2: Configure Oracle to BigQuery Warehouse migration by providing the Destination Name, Project ID, GCS Bucket, Dataset ID, Enabling Stream Inserts, and Sanitize Table/Column Names.
Migrate data from Oracle to BigQueryGet a DemoTry itMigrate data from Oracle to SnowflakeGet a DemoTry itMigrate data from Amazon S3 to BigQueryGet a DemoTry it
Here are more reasons to love LIKE.TG :
Secure: LIKE.TG has a fault-tolerant architecture that ensures that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss.
Auto Schema Mapping: LIKE.TG takes away the tedious task of schema management automatically detects the schema of incoming data and maps it to the destination schema.
Minimal Learning: LIKE.TG , with its simple and interactive UI, is extremely simple for new customers to work on and perform operations.
LIKE.TG is Built to Scale: As the number of sources and the volume of your data grows, LIKE.TG scales horizontally, handling millions of records per minute with very little latency.
Incremental Data Load: LIKE.TG allows the transfer of data that has been modified in real-time. This ensures efficient utilization of bandwidth on both ends.
Live Support: The LIKE.TG team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support call
Live Monitoring: LIKE.TG allows you to monitor the data flow and check where your data is at a particular point in time.
Conclusion
This blog talks about the two methods you can use to connect Oracle to BigQuery in a seamless fashion. If you rarely need to transfer your data from Oracle to BigQuery, then the first manual Method will work fine. Whereas, if you require Real-Time Data Replication and looking for an Automated Data Pipeline Solution, then LIKE.TG is the right choice for you!
Connect Oracle to Bigquery without writing any code
With LIKE.TG , you can achieve simple and efficient data migration from Oracle to BigQuery in minutes. LIKE.TG can help you replicate Data from Oracle and 150+ data sources(including 50+ Free Sources) to BigQuery or a destination of your choice and visualize it in a BI tool. This makes LIKE.TG the right partner to be by your side as your business scales.
Want to take LIKE.TG for a spin? Sign up for a 14-day free trial and experience the feature-rich LIKE.TG suite firsthand.
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
Click through our interactive demo to see how LIKE.TG makes onboarding easy.
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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.
