In March 2020 the United Kingdom entered a National Lockdown as a result of the Global Covid- 19 Pandemic, and since that point, the employment industry has not been the same due to the requirement for social distancing. According to Statista, in June 2021 44% of 30-39-year-olds were still working remotely and a lot of companies have taken advantage of this change. In this blog, we will discuss how best to manage a remote team, as well as how to help your employees adjust to these changes and how to monitor their workloads. Set Your Expectations from the Offset: The best place to start in terms of managing remote workers is to ensure that everyone has the same understanding of the company’s policy and what is expected of them when working from home. Whether it involves deadlines, how to adapt to using video calling platforms, or even how to structure their day, your employees need strong management guidelines in place to provide them with confidence to work from home and time to prepare for the significant change to the working environment. Due to working from home is such a change from the norm, there are bound to be questions from your employees and it is HR’s job to support them with any queries and worries they may have. Schedule Daily Check-Ins: Scheduling daily check-ins can be beneficial to both the employee and the employer with regards to working from home, but the usual email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams message will not suffice. Video calling has catapulted into success on the back of the global pandemic because it is as close as you can get to real-life interaction without physically interacting. Using a video call program to host check-ins with your employees can help maintain trustworthy and honest communication between the team. A 10-minute video call provides you with peace of mind because you can directly ask how your employee is keeping up with deadlines, what their progress is with a particular project, and even how they are coping working remotely. Resources: Ensuring your colleagues have the correct resources to adapt to working from home is an important part of managing a team remotely. It can be as simple as making sure they each have working headphones to use on their video call meetings to maintain employee engagement. This is important with regards to maintaining team morale and motivation because small barriers to working, such as not having the correct equipment, can cause unnecessary stress and hinder progress on a project. Ultimately you need to ensure that it is as easy as possible for your employees to do their jobs from home. Avoid Micromanaging: The best managers learn to allow their employees to find their best working style. When adapting to working from home, along with following your company policies, your employees do not want to feel like they are being monitored every 5 minutes because that would not be the case if they were in the office. Allowing flexibility in working style or even how an employer prefers to record their progress can help them to feel less micromanaged and more independent. For example, you could set a guideline in place that you want an email by the end of every week with progress, issues and plans for the following week from each of your employees. But, you could give them the choice whether they want to do that in smaller emails throughout the week, or one big email at the end of the week. As long as you get a record of their progress throughout their working hours, how and when they do that before the deadline does not really affect you, but gives them a little more flexibility. Common Issues With Remote Working: Working from home comes with a series of common issues that, if preempted, can be managed successfully: Technology issues are not being fixed very quickly Loneliness from lack of interaction with colleagues Misconstrued communication between the team Reduced team morale Work-life balance Working around children Wifi connection Structuring your day Distractions All of these common issues if not managed properly can have a significant impact on the productivity of your team members therefore it is important to prepare for these situations to arise to help them. How Employers Can Help Remote Working Employees One of the best ways to help your remote working employees is to create a welcoming, honest environment where they feel they can voice their concerns just as though they were working face to face. Being stuck in your home with your problems every day can have a significant effect on mental health and stress levels so if a remote employee feels as though they can talk to somebody in management this can help them offload any problems. Whether it's technical issues, struggling to meet deadlines, or even a decline in mental health, the first step to a solution is communicating it to the correct people, and without the strong foundations of a good colleague relationship, it will be very hard to solve these problems. How to Help Employees Adjust to Remote Working It is highly likely that at least someone in your team will not adapt well to working from home and you need to be prepared for this possibility. A good strategy for managing people in this scenario is to ask the employee to explain what their main issues are and ask them what they think would make it better. Put the ball in their court. This helps because it shows you are willing to listen to them individually and work with them to find a solution which in itself is already helping the employee because they feel less alone with their worries. For example, you may have an older employee who is struggling to adapt to the new video meeting technology and they are feeling worried about not being able to keep up with everyone. Without having a trusting relationship, they would not have opened up to you about this issue but now that you know, you could potentially offer them some training on how to use that particular program which consequently will make their experience working from home a little easier. How to Monitor Employees when Working from Home There are many ways to monitor your employees when working from home ranging from simple communication to more complex technology solutions. You may find it takes some trial and error to discover what method works for your specific industry and your team but here are some options: Track email activity: There is a variation of software available online which allows you to track the activity on your employees’ emails. Everything from how long it takes them to reply, to who they are emailing and even how many emails they send in one day, the email tracking software is available today can provide you a daily report on your employee's email activity. Implement self-reporting: If you fully trust your employees you can implement your own strategy as to how they record their progress to you. It can be as simple as an email each day, a video phone call, or even recording it on a group spreadsheet which is shared so that everyone knows what stage each individual is at. This makes it easier to manage time and identify who needs additional support as well as who is struggling with working from home. Use a Task Management app: Task management apps come in all different sizes and complexities but ultimately their goal is to manage, assign and monitor the progress of projects. They could be useful for monitoring the progress of employees working from home because you can set deadlines and time guidelines so that your employees can plan their days better. About Author: At Centric HR, we provide a range of services to businesses including, health and well-being initiatives, personal coaching, employee performance management software, and culture and values development. If you are struggling to manage your team through remote working and need some guidance get in touch with us today to learn more about our services.

Your employees are your greatest asset. They play a pivotal role in the success of your company. As with any other valuable asset, you should nurture and protect them. Bob Nelson, PhD, a motivational speaker and best-selling author once said, "Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways." This reciprocation includes higher productivity and greater loyalty. According to a survey from Great Place to Work, 63% of employees who were regularly recognized indicated they would be unlikely to leave their job. Recognition also increased productivity, employee engagement, and performance by 14%. Wondering where to start? Or what an effective employee recognition program would entail? Read on to find out more. Overview of Employee Recognition When employees do great work, they deserve to be appreciated for their efforts. Employee recognition is a way to acknowledge the exceptional work of members of your staff: Quality of work Initiative Attitude Personal growth Leadership skills Problem-solving Adaptability One way to do this is through an employee recognition program, a structured company initiative that rewards employees on their: Individual achievements Work anniversaries Milestones Contributions Performance achievements Your recognition program should align with your company's mission, vision, and values. This helps reinforce the company culture you've created. Based on your values, this may be a culture of excellence, success, honesty, and teamwork (see more about company culture software here). Your employees should have a clear idea of their individual goals and how this affects company goals, ideally starting at the time of onboarding. Periodic positive reinforcement and constructive feedback helps them strive toward attaining them, promoting a culture of success and continuous self-improvement. Benefits of Employee Recognition Employee recognition is a win-win situation for both employers and employees. For employees, it fosters pride in their work and gives them a reason to keep on putting forth their best. This increases their level of productivity and sense of loyalty. An employee who trusts their organization is more inclined to contribute to company goals. They look at it as a team effort. They know they have an employer that cares about their welfare as much as the bottom line. In fact, about 90% of employees who received recognition trusted their bosses more as a result, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), while only 48% of employees who didn't receive recognition trusted their leaders. The result? Companies with highly engaged workforces are 21% more profitable. Conversely, an employee that resigns because they're unhappy can cost you a lot. It costs just over $4,000 to hire a new employee and an additional $1,000 to onboard them. That's roughly $5,000 for every new employee you hire, according to the SHRM. Fortunately, recognition usually has a rippling effect: It encourages other employees to work together to achieve individual and company goals. Plus, rewarding employees is an effective way to increase productivity, especially if you’re working toward sales goals. Other benefits include: Increasing employee engagement Enhancing company culture Strengthening work relationships Boosting customer service Increasing profitability Increasing employee retention, particularly of top-talent Improving job satisfaction Reducing staff sick days Lowering stress levels at work Inspiring other companies Workmates Self-Guided Tour We’ll show you how Workmates can engage everyone in your organization, recognize their milestones, and drive productivity to new heights. Start Now How to Recognize Your Employees Traditionally, employee recognition is top-down. A manager or supervisor acknowledges the great performance of an employee. It can also involve staff recognition where a team lead recognizes the stellar performance of his/her team or workgroup. You can also expand this to include peer-to-peer recognition as well. This allows co-workers or teammates to recognize each other. Ideally, recognition should involve all the above. However, regardless of the type of recognition in the workplace and whether it’s private, public, or anonymous, it should have the following criteria: Ample resources committed Straightforward and easily understood by all involved Aligned with your company's mission, vision, and values Rewards commensurate with the achievements Take place soon after the employee attains the achievement Well-executed Continuously evaluated for relevance Clear communication of the program is also important. You should introduce new hires to your recognition program during employee onboarding. Managers can then reinforce the program's elements and clarify any uncertainty. Most importantly, an employee recognition program should never be static. It should evolve as both internal and external changes take place. Don't be afraid to get input. Employee surveys are a great way to do that. You can alter your program based on their feedback. For example, whether an employee prefers to be recognized privately or publicly. It’s also important to find out what type of work employees wish to be rewarded for. Do they want to be celebrated for doing a great job on a project or for achieving years of service to the company? If you’ve already implemented a rewards system into your company, see how your employees react when they are recognized. If there is a lukewarm reaction, then you’ll need to tailor your employee recognition program to achieve optimal benefits. Even simple acts of recognition can improve employee morale. This can include expressing heartfelt thanks or apologizing for any miscommunication. Non-work-related gestures also go a long way. Ask a new mother how she is coping with being away from her newborn. Find out how your new employee is adjusting after moving to a new city. Let them suggest ways that you can help with the transition. The key to successful employee recognition is to be authentic. Genuine appreciation efforts are more likely to be welcomed by your staff. All these gestures foster a caring work environment. It's one that any employee will enjoy being a part of. It will make them less likely to leave. “Our staff has praised the increased communication 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.” Christopher Baggott Chief Executive Officerator of Medlinks Cost Containment, Inc. and Medlinks Staffing, LLC. Learn More Examples of Employee Recognition Understanding what type of recognition employees want can be a challenge. After all, there’s no one right answer to this question. In general, there are several ways to show your appreciation. We’ve outlined a few of them below. Remember, the better you know your staff, the better chance you have of rewarding them. Bonuses: Monetary rewards can be a great incentive. However, you should tie them to specific performance measurements. Care Package: This can include gift certificates, snacks, games, and a handwritten note from you. It’s even better if the items reflect their personality and interests. Appreciation Days or Events: More formal programs can highlight an employee for a month or quarter. Public Acknowledgement: This can be as simple as a company- or department-wide email, or something more involved like a trophy, plaque, or digital photo display. However, be careful: Some members of staff shy away from public recognition, while others bask in it. Performance Feedback: Giving regular feedback on your employees’ performance helps to boost their confidence. You can deliver individual feedback on a one-to-one level or hold team meetings to offer performance feedback on team projects. Social Media Shout-Outs: Providing shout-outs on your social media platforms is a great way to recognize employees in a public manner. Rewards Platform: You could also create a rewards marketplace where top-performing employees can gain gift cards or subscriptions to magazines or media. Workmates has an integrated newsfeed where the kudo badges are shown and employees can exchange the points for rewards. Coworker Recognition Program: Implement a program that allows peer-to-peer recognition. The recognition doesn't even have to be work-related. It could be something a fellow employee did to get them through a difficult day. Extra Time Off: This could involve giving an employee the day off on their birthday or giving an extended paid holiday over Christmas and New Year. Alternatively, you could offer staff extra paid hours off for achieving specific milestones. Professional Development: Provide professional development, including workshops, training programs, free books and their own training courses. Small Gesture: Gift a bouquet of flowers, offer book tokens, send a thank you note/card, buy a box of chocolates or buy a gift card. Wellness Programs: Providing free gym time boosts employee wellness, as well as productivity levels. It’s a great way to lower stress and anxiety and promote a healthy work-life balance for your employees. Lunch or Dinner: Taking your employees out for lunch or dinner can create some memorable moments for your team. For shyer employees, a one-on-one lunch is a perfect way to say thank you. Make it about them by choosing a location they enjoy. Team Happy Hour: Going for team drinks at the end of the week is a popular way to show your appreciation. Offer to purchase the first round of drinks or plan drinks around a pub event, such as quiz night or karaoke. It’s a great bonding exercise! Team-Building Activity: Paintballing, kayaking, river rafting, rock climbing or other sports are events that show that you value your employees alongside wanting to build relationships between them. Virtual team-building activities are a good way to include and recognize remote employees. Outdoor Activity: Rewarding employees with outdoor activity provides a change of scenery from the four walls of the office and allows employees to engage with each other in another environment. Donating: Find out if an employee would appreciate you donating to a non-profit instead of any monetary reward. This will send the message that you're interested in the things they care about and show that you are willing to help make a difference. Try Workmates Interactive Demo Click through it yourself withinteractive demo. Try It Now Author Bio: Auria Heanley is co-founder of Oriel Partners, a boutique PA and administrative recruitment consultancy based in Central London. She is extremely passionate about providing the highest quality of service to both clients and candidates. Oriel Partners’ clients range from global multinationals to small boutique firms, all requiring the same personal service and high-caliber support

The interview process can be a stressful one, especially if you are applying to a big company known for its strict candidate requirements. Moreover, it could be stressful particularly for you because it’s your dream job or a company you’ve been dying to work for. In any case, you need to make sure that you leave a good impression even if you don’t get the job. One way to do this is by sending a thank-you letter after the interview. However, if you’ve never written one, there might be some things you will need to keep in mind. Why Is A Thank-You Letter Important? As mentioned above, a thank-you letter is primarily used to help you leave a good impression after the interview. However, its importance goes beyond that. A good thank-you letter can significantly increase your chances of getting selected for the position as long as you send the letter on time and word it to reflect your brightest side. In addition to that, some HRs and recruiters actually expect to receive a thank-you letter after conducting the interview with a candidate. Consequently, if they don’t receive one from you, they could interpret it as rudeness from your side. As such, it’s better to send a thank-you letter even if you don’t consider it to be something of much importance. What Should A Thank-You Letter Have? Compared to many other professional emails you are writing on a daily basis, a thank-you letter is a fairly simple one. Ramone Ferrell, an expert from the writing services reviews site Best Writers Online, puts it this way, “You only need to learn how to write a thank-you letter once. Then, you will only have to reiterate what you’ve written before every time you need to write it again.” The most common elements in a thank-you letter include: Address Line and Subject Line Personalized Greeting “Thank You” or Note of Appreciation Recap of Your Interview Note About Taking the Next Step Conclusion and Contact Info How to Make an Outline for A Thank You Letter? Sometime during the application/recruiting process, you probably had to send out many documents and emails for which you wrote outlines. The same thing can be done for a thank-you email to make it easier to organize it and write it. Here are some tips on how to write a good outline for your thank-you letter (and then write the letter itself): Get all the company and recruiter information beforehand. This is especially important if you are going to multiple interviews. Make notes of all the job positions, company names, recruiter names, and their contact information. This way, you won’t mess up the address line and the greeting at the start of the email. Use the subject line to say thank you. Specify that you are talking about the interview. Then, in your opening paragraph after the greeting, start with your appreciation and gratitude right away. For example, you can have a subject line that says, “Thank you for your time” and then an opening sentence that says, “Thank you for the opportunity and for taking the time to conduct the interview for [job position] with me today.” Recap the interview but focus on your qualifications and strengths. You want them to remember your brightest side to increase your chances of getting the job. Keep it concise and to the point. You can also remind them about a unique trait you used to make yourself stand out during the interview (e.g. humor, industry awards, recommendations from high-profile professionals). Show that you truly care about this position. Make a note about your eagerness to take the next step. Don’t forget to leave your contact information at the end so that they can get in touch with you. Which Mistakes Should You Avoid? Because thank-you letters are fairly simple, there is not much you could potentially mess up. However, there are still some mistakes you will want to avoid. Tamika Hughes, an expert from the custom writing reviews site, explains it this way, “You don’t want to sound too eager or even clingy. Remember that you want to show gratitude with this letter. Choose your words wisely and make sure it sounds professional.” What Happens After You Send the Letter? Thank-you letters are one-way letters (as in, you shouldn’t expect a reply to them). And while you can just sit and wait for the recruiter to contact you about the results of the interview, it’s a good idea to actually be the one to reach out. In other words, you should send a follow-up letter next. You can send a follow-up letter several times (up to three times, usually) if you don’t get a reply after the first time. Some recruiters are just too busy to reply to rejected candidates, so if you don’t hear from them, you likely didn’t get the job. But even if you didn’t get it, you still left a good impression with your thank-you letter and the follow-up letters you sent. Final Thoughts Author Bio: Frank Hamiltonhas been working asan editor atessay review serviceWriting Judge. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing, and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German, and English.

After many months of frustrating lockdown restrictions and corporate struggles, the world of employment remains in a peculiar state, but there are positive signs. Companies that managed to endure the difficult conditions are looking to reinvest in growth following promising vaccination efforts, and they can pick from a huge pool of strong candidates who were fired or furloughed due to circumstances beyond their control. Doesn’t this mean that employers hold the edge? Well, it isn’t quite that simple. Companies with money to invest are certainly in strong positions and have many options, but that doesn’t mean they can afford to get blasé about employee experience (which largely stems from how they treat their workers) — especially given that COVID-19 has changed the very nature of employment to a remarkable extent (more on this later). There’s a delicate balance to maintain. Indeed, one of the most important things for an ambitious company to prioritize in 2021 is employee retention: fighting the churn of sourcing and onboarding new talent by convincing the workers you already have to stick with you. The number of employees sticking with you for years is a crucial metric — and in this post, we’re going to explain why employee retention deserves such a prominent place on your list of priorities. Let’s begin. Remote working offers global opportunities Back when almost everyone had to travel to work every day, each professional had limited options for where they could work without needing to move. The same limitations affected employers, of course, but they could always find some eager beginners and train them up if necessary. When someone took a role, then, they were likely to cling to it as best they could, knowing that losing the job might leave them in dire straits. Today, though, so many companies have moved to remote working that employees have plenty of options to consider. If a business fails to keep its workers happy, they can source alternative work without needing to uproot their families or even leave their home offices. And then there’s the option of freelancing through online marketplaces, or even taking the entrepreneurial route. To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now. Download now Due to this, it’s a huge mistake to think that team members don’t have options. If they’re good employees, they’ll likely be able to find other companies offering flexible work who see their talents — so pull out all the stops to keep them working for you. And though it’s normal for your top talent to leave eventually, you should learn as much as you can from their exit interviews, and use that information to make subsequent hires more likely to stick around. People are increasingly prizing work/life balance It isn’t just a lack of decent pay that inspires an employee to look elsewhere. Perhaps more often at this point, it’s a lack of strong work/life balance. Experiencing the misery of isolation during the pandemic has shifted our priorities in profound ways. If you’re anything like most, you’ve learned how important it is to treat yourself well (taking care of yourself first — along with your loved ones, naturally— and putting employers second) and focus on more than just money. This means that you need to work harder to keep talented employees around. They won’t accept unreasonable overtime without accompanying pay, for instance, or even being needed to spend time in the office if it isn’t strictly necessary. Sticking to your old standards and hoping that things will go back to normal isn’t a winning tactic. Focus on achieving flexible conditions, being more considerate of concerns like mental health, and — most significantly — listening to your team (it’s among the simplest yet most potent employee retention strategies). How do your employees feel about your working conditions? Are you offering the kind of professional development they’re looking for? Invest in the perks they want, not those you think are the most valuable. A company that encourages employee contentment will always fare better than those that don’t. Onboarding at a distance is a substantial challenge The process of bringing in new hires has never been easy, exactly, but it used to be markedly easier than it is now. Having teams work in offices meant that fresh arrivals would have people around them at all times to give them useful advice and look after their best interests as they became accustomed to the pace of work. Now that so many people are working remotely, the onboarding process has changed into a trickier virtual arrangement. This isn’t to say that online onboarding is a terrible inconvenience, of course: with the right remote onboarding system in use, it’s perfectly possible to make a new hire feel welcome and get them up to top productivity reasonably quickly. But it’s still far from optimal, especially when you factor in the earlier point: someone dissatisfied with their experience has so many alternatives to consider. Once you get someone through the onboarding phase and past their probationary period, then, you’ll want to keep them around to minimize the effort you need to put into further onboarding. Additionally, the more long-serving employees you have, the simpler it will be to onboard the new hires you can’t avoid bringing in (as all experienced HR professionals will confirm, 100% employee retention rates are essentially impossible). Workplace culture takes time and effort to bed in Lastly, we need to consider something that more and more companies are investing in workplace culture. It’s partially an HR concern and partially a PR concern because it’s great for earning leads and attracting candidates if a company can boast of its wonderful culture. It’s far easier talked about than achieved, though — and it notably takes time to bed in. The longer someone stays with a company, the more integrated they become. Now envision a company that suffers a great deal of churn, with its most loyal employee only lasting a year before venturing to greener pastures. How good can that company’s culture be? The employees can’t be particularly close: it’s hard to build strong working relationships when you expect your colleagues to leave at any time (and you’re not sure when you’ll leave). It’s only by retaining your employees that you can build a strong culture: by the time a long-term employee leaves, they’ll have passed their expertise and attitude to their newer colleagues. Furthermore, your employees’ satisfaction levels will be greater if they can see that you’ll make a concerted effort to keep them around. In conclusion, then, it’s vital to focus on employee retention because today’s hires have more opportunities than ever before, have higher working standards, are harder to onboard, and won’t become culturally invested unless kept around. If you’re not already putting a lot of effort into keeping your employees content, rectify that mistake quickly. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

Working as a team is essential in any large or small business. You need your employees and colleagues to build trust, enjoy open and honest communication, and work together to achieve team goals. Without this, your business won’t be able to run properly and will have no chance of growing or improving. The secret to long-term success is largely about ensuring you're hiring the right people for the right job. However, this is not where building a successful business stops. You need to consider how that team works together. Sometimes, the perfect person for a position may not be the most experienced, or the one with the best qualifications. Instead, they might be the person who works better in a team. The Importance Of Team Cohesion In a nutshell, team cohesion is when a group of individuals works together for the common good. In a business context, this means completing projects or improving processes to boost the bottom line. In a perfect world, each team member will bring their individual skill set to the table, and those skill sets will work in harmony to reach the goal. Without a cohesive bond and working strategy within a company, the business will never operate as effectively or as efficiently as it could. Not only is this bad for your bottom line, but it’s also bad for your employees’ well-being. The figure for disengaged employees is usually around 70%, and that is not good for business. There are a lot of reasons for disengagement—stress in the workplace, bad fit for the job, low morale or motivation, poor management—but lack of team spirit is a big one. How To Build Team Cohesion Thankfully, there are plenty of things that you can do to improve this statistic in your business. It takes effort from both you as the leader and the team members themselves. However, if team leaders play an active role in building camaraderie and offering the right motivation, you can all improve team efficiency and still feel comfortable. 1. Define Your Company Values Even a startup or small business should have a mission statement and a set of company values. These are critical for steering your business in the direction you want to grow. And they will help you find the right people to build a successful team. With a fully established set of values, you can give your team a strong sense of what they are working towards. This immediately gives all team members a common thread that unites them. If you don’t already have a vision and mission statement, you can include your team in creating one or incorporate team collaboration software to improve your internal communication plan.This will help them build trust and give them an even greater sense of group cohesion. They become part of creating common goals and ways of thinking. 2. Establish The Rules All great teams need a clear set of rules to play by. If everyone knows the rules, then it makes it a lot easier to work together and feel comfortable. These rules should include exactly who is responsible for what element of a project or ongoing work. Clearly defined team goals are important too. This sets up clear expectations for commitments from each member of the team. It also gives everyone an understanding of their role within the group. It’s important to have accountability for everyone—from the leader of the team to the most junior staff member. Everyone will be able to see what they need to do and how that will impact what everyone else needs to do. Plus, you’re showing your team that you play an active role and are just as responsible if work is not completed on time. 3. Show Your Trust Trust is a critical part of teamwork and building camaraderie. If colleagues can’t trust each other to get work done on time or do not appreciate the work that each member does, they will not work well together. This all starts from the top. As the leader, you need to be sure that you are showing your team that you trust them and that they can trust you. Avoid micromanaging your team. Instead, build trust and create a culture of respect by showing that you believe in them and their abilities. 4. Establish Clear Lines Of Open Honest Communication Open and honest communication is another critical element of working towards team goals. The solution to improving company communication is that each member needs to feel comfortable enough to ask questions, give input, and share any grievances that arise. Plus, they need to feel that their voices will be heard and acknowledged. When establishing your rules for teamwork, include a section on how the team should communicate. Try to be as transparent as possible so that no one feels like information is being hidden, or that someone is being excluded from any processes. Play an active role in ensuring communication is clear, and that there are no gray areas at any stage. This creates a feeling of group cohesion, as everyone has a strong sense of belonging and inclusion. 5. Ensure You Have Safe Practices This comes down to accountability and open and honest communication once again. To build a successful team, you need each member to feel safe in their role and in their interactions with each other. When this happens, you have a great team that communicates and takes responsibility. However, without safe practices for teamwork, people will not allow themselves to build trust in their teammates or you. It might seem obvious, but always try to criticize people in private, and praise efforts in public. 6. Learn About Each Other Team-building activities may seem like a boring cliché, but it’s important in building camaraderie and getting people to work well together. You don’t need to go out into the wild and spend a week doing an adventure boot camp. Team-building activities can be as simple as going for lunch together once a weekso that you have some downtime together. This allows people to let their guards down and start talking to each other as friends, not as staff who need to always get a job done. 7. Celebrate Their Success Keeping your team motivated is a key ingredient to group cohesion. One of the best ways to do this is to celebrate their success in reaching those all-important team goals. Each time you finish a project, bring in donuts for the team and congratulate them all. At the end of the quarter or the year, celebrate your achievements in a way that suits your company. Whether this involves a shout-out on your company feed,a staff party, a group trip to a spa, or a shared experience everyone will enjoy, the aim is to ensure that every member of your team feels appreciated. If you celebrate their success together, it will give the team a sense of pride in their efforts, helping them to feel motivated to work harder together. You can also make a point of celebrating personal victories within your team. If someone has completed their studies, bought a house, or reached any other major milestone, use this as an opportunity to foster a strong sense of team spirit. To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now. Download now Taking The First Steps Towards Cohesion Building an engaged, motivated, and productive team isn't always easy, but it’s essential for any big or small business that wants to thrive in today’s marketplace. If you want to build a great team, it’s as easy as taking the first step. Play an active role in creating group cohesion and don't assume it will come naturally. It takes time, effort, and open and honest communication. Follow these seven tips to foster a spirit of togetherness that leads to a collaborative culture that breeds success. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

Hiring new staff is a labor-intensive and costly business. Once engaged after the onboarding process, new recruits need the investment of time for training and mentoring, plus inevitably a certain amount of making allowances for ‘rookie’ mistakes. Managers and colleagues asked to show them the ropes can find they have less time to complete their own tasks. It can take months before new recruits are fully up to speed in their role, invested in the company culture, and making a full contribution to productivity. On the flip side, established, time-served employees can be worth their weight in gold. They have invaluable experience and are intimate with key processes, understand the ‘quirks’ of their colleagues, and are often great team players. Should they resign, the loss of a key member of staff can hit a business very hard. While there is always an instance where someone needs to leave in order to pursue new challenges or opportunities that simply can’t be provided in their current organization, or for personal and domestic reasons, improving employee retention of talent is a key objective for most businesses. Many sectors including IT, construction, sales, and business development, marketing, and perhaps not surprisingly health and social care are all experiencing significant skills shortages so this really is not the time to let valuable team members step away in search of a better deal elsewhere. What helps employee retention? Establishing a good Employee Value Proposition (EVP) can help elevate a business to be one that everyone would like to work for. It’s essential that the EVP is communicated effectively – on the website and in recruitment ads for new employees, and through in-house communication channels for existing staff. It must be embedded within the company culture and be authentic, otherwise, people will quickly see through any empty promises and vote with their feet. These are some areas to consider: Flexibility Since the pandemic, employees who work remotely have proved that they can be just as productive, and in some cases more so, than staff based in the office. People are looking for more flexibility, not only around where they work but also, the hours they work. Organizations that can offer full flexibility are in demand. This needs to be more than simply allowing people to work from home on a set number of days each week, but allowing them to choose when and where they work for themselves, wherever the role permits. This requires an environment of trust whereby people are empowered to get their work done effectively without feeling micromanaged and a task, rather than a rule-based approach. The office may be the best place for collaboration and team-building, while the home may be better for focus and productivity. Employee-focused benefits One of the great lessons of lockdown, when the line between home and work lives was blurred like never before, was the growth in understanding that everyone is different, with often complicated lives. The best HR teams spent a lot of time listening to employees and conducting surveys to identify specific and general needs, in order to create a range of benefits that people actually want. Some, such as extended Maternity Leave, are only of interest to certain people while giving employees Friday afternoons off during the summer tends to be popular with everyone. Support Hybrid and remote work can increase productivity for many employees. Those who have a good working environment at home often find they can focus on their work without the myriad distractions of a busy office and can create more time for themselves. But they don’t do this in a vacuum, so regular check-ins, with line managers and teams, are essential to keep them engaged and feeling ‘part of it’, regardless of where they are. Making sure employees have the best technology solutions at hand is crucial. Automated processes, for example, can reduce laborious and repetitive form-filling, allowing employees to focus on more rewarding aspects of their role. Communication Avoiding disengaged employees when people are working remotely can be a challenge according toAlex Arundale, Chief People Officer,Advanced.Probably the most important thing that they are doing around employee retention strategies is creating a culture that resonates with their people and makes them want to be part of the business. They have regular Town Halls, lunchtime meeting forums and use internal channels to maintain open two-way communication so that everyone is included and has a voice. Video conferencing has transformed opportunities for meetings, but there is also a need for face-to-face interaction from time to time, fulfilling people’s social needs for human interaction and opportunities for more relaxed, non-work chat. Promote diversity and inclusion People like to see others who look like themselves in the workplace, and this is particularly true when looking at roles higher in the organization. It demonstrates that opportunities exist at all levels and that ambitions to rise through the ranks are very attainable. Consider producing a Diversity Pay Gap report, to provide useful data to guide understanding about how to work towards fair representation for all, informing policy-making and initiatives for change. Building a vision for a realistic and attractive future, in a supportive and caring environment, will greatly help you to retain employees. ESG matters for all Environmental, sustainable, and governance issues are increasingly important for customers who are often driven to choose one product or service over another because of the company’s ESG credentials. These issues matter to employees too and can be a key part of an organization’s employee value proposition (EVP), setting one employer above its competitors as an attractive place to work. Employees want to feel that they are making a difference to the world and society, as well as achieving personal goals, and they want to feel proud to belong to a socially and environmentally aware organization. Clear opportunities for employees A key driver in employee retention is providing a clear career path with the appropriate professional development and mentoring opportunities that enable people to achieve their personal objectives. Within this, it is essential that line managers are focused on motivating, supporting and empowering their teams so that each employee feels inspired to try for more. When an organization develops a culture of employee-focused decision making, it creates an environment that people want to be part of. Issues such as bullying and discrimination are much less likely to occur in places where diversity and inclusion are promoted as key company values, for example, and being fully heard makes people feel more involved and committed. Organizations that involve employees in what happens during their working day, value their input, and listen when things go wrong, are far more likely to be able to retain good people. These employees are the ones who ultimately help the business to deliver its objectives. People like to be part of a successful, widely-respected business that cares about and encourages employees – it’s a major reason to join an organization and an even greater reason to choose to stay. Understanding why employees leave Understanding why people leave is critical if further damage is to be avoided. There are a number of push and pull factors at play, with push factors representing the reasons to leave a job, while pull factors are the things that attract them to another. Here are some tips that will drive better insights into why people leave: Conduct exit interviews – it’s surprising how many organizations don’t bother with a formal conversation after someone has quit. To be effective, these should be carried out by an HR professional rather than a line manager, and an established environment of sharing openly. Otherwise, there is a danger that the leaver will not tell the truth, particularly if their manager is part of the problem. Make use of the face-to-face medium to ask follow-up questions and get right under the skin of any problems that are raised. Use exit forms – these have the advantage of being potentially less confrontational and may elicit the truth about a situation that the leaver would be less likely to feel comfortable talking about with another person. Online or paper forms can be anonymized and as such form the basis of user data. However, these types of employee feedback are limited to pre-set questions and cannot dive deeper into specific issues. They may also enable a ‘tick-box approach that doesn’t really provide anything of value for HR. Collect and use data – The data needs to be collated and analyzed to highlight trends. It may reveal, for example, that the high employee turnover is down to working for a particular manager; or that people with a common gender, racial or background don’t stay long; or there is an emerging trend for new mothers to leave as soon as they have completed their return to work period. This information is invaluable for shining a light on problems within the organization. Revisit policies and implement changes – Accurate data immediately empowers HR to take steps to halt the resignation trend. They may for example look at training and support for some managers, revisit diversity and inclusion policies and ensure they are implemented day-to-day or consider more flexible work arrangements that suit new parents. How Much Can Workmates Save You? Higher engagement More features Half the cost Learn More Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

At some point, every company will see employees feeling the effects of burnout. It could be due to excess stress, a heavy workload, or problems at home. Whatever the source, it’s an issue that needs to be handled by HR professionals quickly and efficiently. Employees work their best when they are happy and motivated, and for your business to succeed long term, your company culture needs to reinforce these attributes by preventing burnout. The best way to keep the work environment positive and employees excited to return to their jobs each day is by focusing on benefits, mental health, and supportive guidance. Signs of Burnout Before you can change your company culture to eliminate burnout, you need to understand what it is and how to identify when it happens. Essentially, burnout is when an employee is overwhelmed or stressed to the point that exhaustion affects their work and their personal life. Burnout must be handled immediatelybecause if left unassisted, your company can suffer. What’s more, it can lead the employee to darker places, including feelings of depression and even suicidal ideation. To reach struggling employees before it’s too late, HR must educate all managers on the signs of burnout so they can identify the problem immediately and take action. The signs of burnout are numerous, but they may include frequent headaches, a loss of appetite or change in eating habits, physical fatigue, and a lack of motivation. Though you may not be able to see all of these ailments directly, managers should be aware of when these issues affect the work of their employees while on the job. Often, someone who is exhausted and over-stressed will take more sick days or you may see a decline in their daily workflow. Before giving a warning or bad review, managers need to have a conversation with the team member and determine if burnout is impacting their work. From there, the manager should refer the employee to HR. It’s important that employees have a direct route to ask for help when they need it without having to jump through numerous hoops. That’s why managers and HR should have an open-door policy where employees can come in at any time and express their concerns. In addition to in-person visits, employees should also have an easy way to email or even contact management anonymously if necessary. The worker should feel confident that their concerns will be heard and HR will take immediate action. Modify Your Benefits Package It’s important that you be able to identify specific employees who may be experiencing burnout, but it’s also crucial you adjust your company culture so that all employees feel happy and satisfied while at work. One way you can do this is by modifying the benefits you provide and offering a healthier work-life balance. At a minimum, consider allowing more sick, personal, or mental health days during the year. Studies show that 24% of employees believe this would help their work performance, and it gives them a nice breather so they can return to work refreshed and ready to go. On top of time off, allowing flexible work hours for employees who are overwhelmed with work and home issues is key. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees still have children who are staying home to attend school remotely. For them, it can be very difficult to get their kids ready for school and accomplish their work tasks at the same time. If your workflow allows it, consider creating a flex schedule where the employee could start later in the day or work a split shift where they can work in the morning, leave for a set number of hours, and then return to finish the job. And if you aren’t already offering a remote work option, you really should be! Burnout doesn’t happen only because employees are physically exhausted. It can also be due to a lack of motivation to complete their work duties because they don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. To keep employees engaged, your company policy should also dictate a clear path to promotion for workers who wish to take their skills to the next level. An understanding of promotional policies should be introduced during the employee’s initial orientation, where they can clearly see the positions they can aspire to as they learn new skills. If this is done, the only way that an employee will feel burnout is if the path of promotion is not delivered as promised. Human resources must never let that happen. Mental Health The human resources team needs to have policies and action plans in place for employees who are dealing with mental health issues that can result in or include burnout. For a worker to perform to your expectations, they must feel like they’re appreciated as people and that their efforts are really helping the good of the company. To accomplish this, managers should reward good performers with an encouraging email or a special award like a gift card or extra day off. When employees feel valued, the sky's the limit to what they can do. You might see that this motivation actually increases productivity. Employees may also experience burnout if they feel like they’re just cogs in the machine and that their contributions are not meaningful. To assist in this regard, HR should host team activities that get everyone at the company involved to remind them that we are all in this together. Such activities could include a day at a museum or park or it could be a more meaningful activity, like a walk for charity. Even allowing teams to take breaks together could be what you need to encourage that togetherness that employees crave. Human resources can also offer guidance and help to those who are dealing with more severe mental health issues or heavy stress. That could be offering free trips to wellness retreats in the area. Your benefits package should also include a mental health component, where employees have access to therapists and counselors at a discounted rate. As you can see, there are many ways that your organization can identify and defeat employee burnout as it develops. By employing the strategies above, you will have a happier workforce whose effectiveness will bring your company to the next level. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

Recruiting trends change over time. The expectations of the companies, HR recruiters, and candidates are changing, meaning one needs to adapt as soon as possible. The game is abofut which recruiter can act fast and get the star candidate for their company. Now, the traditional recruitment methods are the ones that are getting outdated, and recruiters are trying new hiring trends from chatbots to the use of AI, the possibilities are endless. The recruiters are tired of handling a lot of paperwork (because of the resumes). The future of recruitment looks bright and way seamless. And the trends it has in store will help recruiters to make a decision. Recruitment trends apt for future One thing you will notice with the trends is that technology will play a vital role in recruitment. As most of the workforce will work from home and the reliance on virtual technology will be huge. Here are the future trends of recruitment: Does Your Work Style Align With Your Zodiac Sign? Take our workplace Zodiac quiz to find out! ♉♊♌♍♐ Start the Quiz #1. Predictive analysis Predictive analysis allows the companies to assess, anticipate and know the candidate behaviors on actual data. Most companies have an enormous amount of data on their employees. They can correlate these dimensions to determine the profile of the candidate. It is how predictive analysis can help a company to find its star candidate. Some more reasons making predictive analysis a trend to look out for future: Hiring that is more targeted and faster The use of predictive analytics in the recruitment process allows the recruiter to identify the best-fit candidates. Recruiters can now cut through the clutter quickly, recognize the "high potentials", and connect with the best candidates before the competition can engage them. Sourcing that is smart and effective For recruiters, sourcing is a pain point that can take a long time. HR departments can use predictive analytics to improve their hiring strategies by eliminating ineffective or inefficient sources. The same models can also be used to assess job boards, third-party recruiting firms, and in-house recruiters, among other sources. Improved candidate experience Because candidate evaluation is objective rather than subjective, it is more transparent. Because it is free of unconscious bias, the algorithm is entirely devoted to diversity and inclusion. Because candidates are informed early where they stand, the candidate experience is smoother and more enjoyable. Finally, all job candidates want to know that they are moving into a job and culture that is a good fit for them; the data gives them that information, allowing them to make the best career decision possible. #2. Gamification in recruitment The following characteristics of gamification in HR are game algorithm, structure, and feasibility to keep employees actively engaged within their company. Gamification isn't just about games; it can also include tests, assignments, puzzle-solving, and a variety of other activities that are carried out creatively through the use of digital media. The recruiters tend to know more about the candidate at both personal and professional levels. Gamification gets integrated into the conventional hiring processes. Gamification has its advantages as it appeals to the tech-savvy generation, obtains real insights into candidates, and helps to build awareness. #3. Chatbots - future of recruitment The job of a recruiter is tough, they have applicants, filtering them out is a time-consuming process. It is the reason why the cost of hiring a candidate is increasing day by day. The solution is implementing chatbots. It allows us to automate and simplify the HR process. Here are some reasons how it is effective for both the candidates and employers: Improves the candidate experience. The interview chatbots help the candidates to fill the form while applying for the interview. There are many instances when the job seeker leaves the job application midway because of the length or complexity. With the presence of chatbots, the candidates can look up if they are stuck at any point. Chatbots accelerate the hiring process. The traditional hiring process takes longer than gets reduced to weeks by using chatbots. It saves the precious time of the recruiter. #4. AI/VR taking recruitment to the next level Artificial intelligence is reforming the recruitment industry. More and more companies are discovering the power of AI as it can make the recruitment process efficient. The recruitment process will look different in the future when implementing AI/VR trends. How AI helps in video interviewing? Video interviewing is quickly becoming a popular form of communication. Pre-recorded screening questions, as well as live one-on-one or panel interviews, are conducted using interviewing platforms. Cost savings get realized, and time-to-hire gets reduced. It is more than just convenient for everyone involved. Rather than waiting for a department head to return to your time zone, businesses use video to conduct interviews from any location at any time. AI has the potential to take video interviewing to the next level. Candidate personality traits get assessed in new versions. AI can help recruitment operations assess confidence, skill, and focus by examine facial expressions, gestures, and even voice. VR for recruiting Previously thought to be limited to gaming applications, virtual reality has made its way into the business world. Virtual reality is now getting used to training employees on everything from safety and procedures to soft skills. It's a great way to get employees ready for the challenges they'll face. VR could be a tool for attracting talent for recruiters. You can give job seekers a virtual tour of your facility by using virtual reality headsets. #5. Rise of social recruiting Recruiting with LinkedIn is now a thing of the past. Recruiters are broadening their scope and working on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms. It helps find high-quality candidates and tries to appeal to and market to them. While phone and email remain the most effective recruiting tools, younger generations are increasingly turning to social media. Instagram's popularity as a recruiting tool continues to rise, with 37% of recruiters using it today, up from 18% in 2017. #6. Expansive hiring criteria It is important more than ever to assess the relevant skills to hire a better candidate. One can do with psychometric tests and with the focus on soft skills that the candidates will bring to the company. The soft-skills are necessary for a candidate and in the future, they will play an important role and will be non-negotiable. E-commerce outsourcing companiesare smart enough to not only hire candidates based on the industry standards. They are looking for candidates who not only possess knowledge of e-commerce capabilities but are also eager to learn and grow with the company. Here are some of the soft skills that employers are looking for in a candidate: Communication Adaptability Critical observation Problem-solving Teamwork #7. Candidate experience is going to be key The candidate’s experience of the organization starts from the interview process only. So, the companies focus more on the seamless process of interview process. It means the recruiter needs to provide the necessary feedback even if they got selected or not. It shows the candidate that the E-commerce company is going the extra mile. A negative interaction can have a lasting impression on your company when a candidate spreads the word online. It is likely to grow in trend, especially when geographically present candidates explore positions in your company. Summary Businesses are finding ways to adapt as the world gets shaped by ever-changing global events. HR is also changing the way people work. Recruitment is changing at breakneck speed, from hiring someone virtually to broadening your view of your potential labor pool. Rather than taking center stage, these five trends show technology playing a supporting role behind the scenes. Recruiters' tools are becoming more sophisticated, but the end goal remains the same: to attract the best candidates for the job. Author Bio: Ginni Agarwal is a Talent Acquisition Expert at Upright Human Capital with extensive experience in Tech and Non-tech hiring. She loves blogging, writing articles about Talent Acquisition, and Human resources. She has been associated with the Talent Industry for a while. She enjoys sharing her experience with others.

Many people have already been working from home long before COVID-19 came along and wreaked havoc on the world. It just so happened that their numbers grew exponentially the moment health authorities declared a global pandemic. Previously seen as an incentive, remote work has since become a necessity for both employees and employers. Working from home has its fair share of benefits. For employees, remote work gives them an opportunity to achieve a better work-life balance, among other things. For employers, having staff work from home means reduced costs for their business. However, remote work comes with its own set of challenges. For example, those who work from home can’t have face-to-face interactions with colleagues. That could hamper communications and eventually impact the work that they do. Employers are also concerned about productivity, which is only fair since their staff would be in a workplace full of distractions, especially for those with kids running around the house. Then again, there are plenty of paid and free tools that remote teams can use to stay productive when working from home. Let’s take a look at some of them. 1. Google Workspace First introduced as Google Apps, then rebranded as G Suite in 2016, Google Workspace is made up of some of the most useful team collaboration tools available today. The Google Docs suite alone provides plenty of value, with Google Docs and Google Sheets making it easier for everyone on the team to create, share, and edit documents and worksheets. Just like the free version of Microsoft Teams, the free version of Google Meet also provides your team with a video conferencing platform that supports up to 100 participants per meeting, with a longer time limit of 60 minutes. Then there’s Google Calendar, which allows you to schedule meetings and events at the drop of a hat. You can also use Calendar to remind everyone about upcoming deadlines and activities. While Google Workspace is generally available for free for anyone with a Google Account, businesses have the option to go for a paid subscription, which should give them access to more features like unlimited Google Drive storage. 2. Zoom Every work-from-home team needs a reliable communication platform to make sure everyone’s on the same page at all times. While there are myriad apps that offer video chat in real-time, it was Zoom that broke out during the COVID-19 pandemic, with its daily meeting participants growing 30-fold. Then again, it’s not surprising Zoom became the go-to team communication platform not only for those who work from home but for just about everyone. Aside from its top-notch messaging and video calling features and screen sharing and integration capabilities, Zoom has an interface that’s quite simple and intuitive. Also, it doesn’t hurt that free users get to enjoy 40-minute conference calls with up to 100 attendees. However, getting a Zoom Pro license is the best option for remote working teams so they can access features like longer to unlimited team meetings depending on your plan, more participants, social media streaming, and unlimited cloud storage. 3. Hubstaff While employers do benefit from having entire teams working from home, concerns about their productivity remain. After all, working with no supervisory presence does tempt people to slack off and allow themselves to be distracted by all the goings-on at home. If you’re an employer or a project manager, and you want everyone to keep their eye on the ball even when they’re working from home, then have them use Hubstaff, a project management tool that tracks the hours of every individual on the team. On top of timekeeping, Hubstaff also takes screenshots of employees’ screens at random, all to ensure that they’re actually working during their shift and not playing games or spending the day on social media. Hubstaff also comes in handy when you’re assigning and monitoring tasks, creating checklists, and setting due dates. 4. Excel Templates From time to time, the members of your team will need to perform tasks like creating budgets, aggregating data, or building tables and charts. While there is no shortage of apps and software that can help them do all of the above, there’s no simpler way to go about them than making use of free downloadable Excel templates. Would you want all team members to write down their work goals and all their tactics for achieving them? They can always download an action plan template to help them do that. There is also a wide variety of budget spreadsheets available online for tracking a project’s expenses. And when it’s time to send in reports, ready-to-use Excel templates can be quite useful, especially if you need to create charts and graphs to show the results of everyone’s efforts. There’s an Excel template for just about any purpose, from simple checklists to ones loaded with preset functions and formulas that help you crunch numbers and analyze data. Or, you can build one yourself if you can’t find one to your liking. Either way, you’ll have a tool that will help make life a bit easier for you, regardless of whether you’re a remote worker or not. 5. TeamViewer If you’re working on-site, any problem with your computer software and hardware can be readily remedied by the in-house computer technician or IT specialist. Remote workers don’t have that luxury. However, as long as they have a good remote desktop tool like TeamViewer installed on their home computers, addressing your IT problems should be easy enough. With TeamViewer, your team’s IT person should have no problem remotely troubleshooting issues such as malfunctioning email software, folder and file sharing difficulties, or possible hacking issues. As long as you have a fast and stable Internet connection, TeamViewer can help your tech specialists troubleshoot your computer, wherever in the world you may be. Apart from remote access, those who work from home can also make good use of TeamViewer’s other features such as transferring files and sharing presentations. Some even use TeamViewer to conduct online training courses. The tools listed above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to productivity apps or software for remote workers, but they’re a good place to start. Your team will likely discover more productivity and project management tools along the way and will make their jobs easier, which is always a great thing for employees and employers alike. Author Bio: Anthony Stevens is the Content Specialist for Excel Templates, a resource for free Excel templates including calendars and charts. When not writing, he spends time building furniture and running with his dog.

As job openings hit record highs and businesses struggle to find workers, retaining top talent is more important than ever. However, many employers are relying on old, ineffective methods for attracting and keeping staff. It’s going to take more than free lunches and knickknacks to ensure today’s workers are loyal and productive. Nearly half of U.S. employees are ready to leave their current job due to a lack of recognition and engagement, according to a survey from Achievers. Meanwhile, 69% cite acknowledgment and rewards as top factors that would motivate them to stay at their current company. A few brands have gone above and beyond when it comes to thanking team members. These businesses set the highest standards for employee appreciation and inspire those looking to follow in their footsteps. 1. Disney Disney has more than 100 employee awards that include pay raises, plaques, trophies, and public recognition. However, Disney also offers something called Magic Backstage Sweepstakes for employees who work harder. This program allows managers to nominate workers who go the extra mile and enter them into a drawing to win a night in Cinderella’s castle, a free Disney vacation, or another prize of similar value. Rewarding hard-working employees with free admission and plaques isn’t expensive for Disney. However, they hold a lot of value for those who put in the time and effort to earn them. Plus, they incentivize other cast members and staff to exemplify company values and provide guests with a magical experience, which will inevitably attract more visitors to the park 2. Zappos Many employers undervalue peer-to-peer recognition, choosing to focus on the manager-subordinate relationship instead. However, feedback exchange among co-workers is one of the best ways to boost overall recognition and create a more positive, inclusive, and empathetic company culture. Zappos has already figured this out and now offers a program that allows team members to give each other $50 for a job well done. Human resource departments can take a hint from Zappos and easily implement similar peer-to-peer recognition programs within their own companies by creating a virtual or physical space in which employees can give and receive feedback or encouragement. 3. GE Healthcare Poor management and subsequent organizational shifts make employees feel undervalued and insignificant. Some may even fear for their job security if the business changes hands. However, companies that truly value their teams will use this transitional time to embed recognition in company culture. For instance, when GE HealthCare restructured its manufacturing site, employers prioritized continuous internal communication to streamline the process. As a result, the team created ongoing employee forums where staff can provide feedback and valuable input. In recognizing their ideas, GE gave workers a sense of security and value even after such a major shift. 4. Globalization Partners Public recognition capitalizes on peoples’ innate tendency to improve their behavior. Because most employees want to be perceived in a positive light, they'll often work harder when they know a public "thank you" is on the line—regardless of whether a trophy or plaque accompanies it. Globalization Partners, a company specializing in international talent acquisition, often uses its blog to post press releases about employees’ success. For instance, one January article covering an employee promotion is available for both clients and staff to read. 5. Apple A work-life balance is key for employees and employers. In fact, those who successfully establish a good balance are twice as happy and more likely to be loyal and productive than those who struggle to maintain balance, according to statistics compiled from ReHack. Companies that value a healthy workplace often have flexible time-off policies. For instance, Apple often surprises its employees with extra time off or paid leave during the holiday season. The tech giant also customizes this reward to recognize international employees who celebrate different holidays than those in the U.S. 6. Netflix The U.S. is one of the only industrialized, modernized countries that does not mandate paid parental leave. Instead, many new mothers and fathers must take unpaid time off from work unless their employer offers an extended program. Netflix is different. The tech giant provides a full year of paid family leave to adoptive and birth parents of any gender. This kind of recognition has the potential to retain more employees and attract swathes of applicants. Thus, adding paid parental leave to an employee benefits package might be an effective way to grow teams fast. 7. Deloitte A survey conducted by The Harris Poll revealed that a third of those who quit their jobs lacked career growth and development. However, most companies report offering career development tools. A lack of recognition might be to blame for this obvious disconnect. Maybe these companies provide the means but not the guidance and mentorship employees need to succeed. In this case, creating a more comprehensive learning program is necessary to recognize and meet staff needs. Among the major companies leading the way is Deloitte. The tax consulting firm provides a wide array of growth opportunities in the form of full leadership programs. Career sponsorship and mentoring are also available as Deloitte recognizes them as critical keys to success. Workmates Self-Guided Tour We’ll show you how Workmates can engage everyone in your organization, transform your culture, and drive productivity to new heights. Start Now 8. E.On Sometimes, a simple thank you is all the recognition employees need to boost productivity and maintain motivation. For instance, German utility company E.On implements a recognition program that encourages managers and employees to send thank you cards to one another. The notes can be physical or digital as long as they’re personal and genuine. In the months after initiating this program, E.On’s staff motivation score increased 8%, and the number of employees who felt valued shot up 13%, according to Employee Benefits. Other companies would do well to follow suit: According to Blackhawk Network, 33% of staff prefer recognition in the form of personalized cards or emails, but only 25% actually receive them. 9. General Motors Companies with a global workforce and a solid recognition program need a cohesive platform to engage employees effectively. This allows staff to log in with personalized credentials, view everyone's achievements, and contribute to each others’ success at the company. General Motors recently switched to such a platform and had a stunning 97% activation rate, according to Achievers. Now, 70% of employees are active in the program, and most receive about one recognition per month. 10. Meijer Like General Motors, Meijer, a chain of grocery stores, recently turned to an online recognition platform to engage employees, build a strong company culture, and minimize turnover. As part of this initiative, it created the app Meijer Wire, a mobile-friendly solution that facilitates recognition, features articles about team members, and provides company news. An app might be too much for small businesses. However, a mobile employee recognition solution may be the best way to connect and express appreciation for large companies with dispersed locations. Try Workmates Interactive Demo Click through it yourself withinteractive demo. Try It Now About Author: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

Keeping candidates engaged throughout the hiring process is much more challenging than attracting their initial applications. Job seekers are encouraged to cast a wide net by applying to every job they can, making it vital to keep their attention focused on your company. Keeping candidates engaged means improving your communication with candidates and understanding how they respond to recruiters. Respond Faster Candidates are used to not hearing back from companies that are not interested. As a result, they will move on to pursuing other applications quickly if you don’t respond within a few days, assuming they will not get a response from you. If they wait longer than a few days to reply to their messages, many candidates will have started to progress applications at other companies. Send Updates Keeping candidates engaged is not just about responding to their messages faster, but also contacting them in a more proactive way. Don’t leave candidates to ask for updates about their application or more information about the role they are applying for. Particularly during a lengthy recruitment period, many companies not only recruit using SMS, but send out regular messages to candidates to keep them interested in the company and to let them know they are still in the running for the job. Besides informing candidates about updates to their application or texting interview reminders, these messages can give more insight into your company or their role. Provide More Information Giving candidates more information about the company and the application process is critical to maintaining their engagement. Every company follows a different recruitment process and unless you explain yours, candidates won’t know what to expect. At every stage of the recruitment process, make sure candidates know: What is happening to their application? What is going to happen at the next stage? When should they expect the next update from you? Ensuring that every message you send answers these three questions reduces the amount that candidates need to follow up with you to get key information, making the recruitment process smoother for you and your job candidates. This can all be done manually, or you can utilize email software to handle the burden automatically. It also enables candidates to prepare the documents they will need, or prepare their notes for an upcoming interview. As a result, they can invest their time and energy into learning more about your business instead of searching for other roles to apply to. Give Clear Job Descriptions Vague job descriptions packed full of industry buzzwords turn away talented potential employees, and can also lead to less engagement from the candidates they do manage to attract. This is because they give a bad first impression to candidates, suggesting a lack of effort or worse, suggesting that the position is being offered by someone who doesn’t understand or value the role. Providing a clear assessment of what you need from a candidate is especially important when hiring as a start-up, as roles are more likely to cover multiple responsibilities that don’t fit neatly into one skill set. As a result, top talent will avoid these job postings, instead favoring companies that have a clearer picture of what they need and why. For those that do apply it is hard to get passionate about a potential job, they know little about it, so your company might be a fallback option rather than their first choice. Build a Relationship While learning more about your company and their prospective role in it will be a primary focus for many candidates, your work environment and team culture are equally important in keeping candidates engaged. Besides updates about their application, invite candidates to join a newsletter that gives insights into your workplace culture, for example by introducing company events and fundraisers, highlighting recent employee achievements, or even starting the onboarding process by introducing them to the team. This is a great opportunity to show candidates that your company has created a friendly and supportive environment where they can participate socially as well as progress in their careers. If you’re hiring remote employees, you can also consider using webinar software to effectively scale your recruiting process and connect with top performers through video meetings, no matter where they are based. Avoid Red Flags Most job candidates have seen enough job advertisements to know and avoid the red flags, such as a vague job description. They will continue to be on the lookout for signs that they should avoid an employer throughout the recruitment process, and you might inadvertently be giving out one of these signals. Here are a few examples: High Turnover Rates Candidates know that unless you are expanding your team, they are replacing someone. An offhand comment that suggests you are always hiring or frequently replacing staff can make a candidate start to wonder why you might have trouble retaining long-term employees. Poor Work-Life Balance Think twice before promoting a ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude or seasonal celebrations in the office. Candidates can interpret this as suggesting that an employer expects work to come before employees' personal lives, or that they can expect to frequently spend holidays at work. Ghosting Unsuccessful Candidates When you fill a position, there will probably be plenty of talented candidates that you didn’t take one, but would still make a great fit for your company in another position or if another vacancy opens up. Don’t burn your bridges with them by not bothering to let them know they haven’t got the job. Ghosting candidates is rude and leaves them with a poor impression of your company, and so less likely to apply again in the future or recommend your job to an acquaintance. Not sure if your recruitment messages are giving off red flags to your candidates? Job-seeking forums, subreddits, and other discussion boards are great places to learn what not to do by reading through people’s experiences. Conclusion Job candidates will reciprocate the amount of effort you put into them. Taking a helpful and proactive approach to providing both updates about their application and insights into your company culture not only keeps candidates engaged with the job you are offering, but also acts as a first impression of how you value your staff and potential employees. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

It’s quite difficult for a human resource manager to perform their duties effectively to a business if they don’t have a clear understanding of the qualities that successful human resource managers should have. Human resource managers greatly determine the success or failure of a business with its recruiting strategy. They are responsible for interviewing candidates, hiring and encouraging staff to ensure that they are always performing at their peak. If they make the wrong hiring decisions or fail to motivate employees, the business will ultimately fail. If you are a human resources manager, here are eight essential qualities that you need to have to succeed. Let’s get started! 1. Knowledge and experience in human resource To become a successful HR manager, you need to have a strong educational foundation and a clear understanding of the functions of a human resource manager. Apart from having the educational qualifications, you have to do your research on dissertation practices to know the latest trends and ethics in your profession. This requires discipline and dedication. With knowledge and experience, you’ll easily handle HR tasks and challenges that arise in your organization. 2. Excellent presentation skills A person with excellent presentation and management skills can easily grab their audience’s attention, keep them engaged and share their message effectively and positively. Effective presenters are usually engaging and lively. Strong communication skills are essential to a human resource specialist because they need to train new employees and ensure that important information has been passed to all levels of management within the organization. 3. Ability to work on manage tasks On a normal workday, a human resource manager has to deal with a wide variety of issues ranging from employee complaints, recruitment, and onboarding to work-life balance. Human resource managers have to solve hundreds of problems in a day to ensure that the organization achieves its objectives easily and quickly. Since employee and business needs are always shifting, it’s the work of a human resource specialist to ensure that these needs are being fulfilled so that everything runs smoothly. The ability to manage tasks effectively, improve problem-solving skills, and stay on top of things in the workplace is the mark of a high achiever. 4. Dealing with gray There are a lot of issues that HR professionals deal with and end up in the gray area. This includes cases of discrimination, or harassment to name a few. You’ll be required to make informed decisions all the time based on the facts that you have. Remember, you are dealing with human beings; not machines. Therefore, you need to know when you should share confidential information or seek help from experts, other human resources professionals, or lawyers for effective conflict management. 5. Ethics The HR department tends to be the conscious of most organizations. You need to have a strong sense of ethics when following the policies of the organization and keeping confidential information. To do your job effectively, you need to earn the trust of your managers and employers. Honesty and discretion are essential to any human resource manager who wants to be successful. 6. Excellent communication skills One of the skills that a good HR manager needs to have is the ability to communicate with both employees and employers. Both oral and written communication skills have to be concise, clear, and effective to all employees at different levels. Effective oral communication also includes negotiation. In an organization, conflicts are bound to arise. Between management and coworkers or two employees. Good human resource managers will help in resolving conflicts through effective communication and finding a middle ground. 7. Ability to lead Human resource specialists and not business partners but leaders in an organization. You need to know what the organization is doing and how the current policies affect employees in the workplace. Being a leader revolves around having a clear direction of where you are going, listening to others actively, ensuring that people who need help get it, and resolving problems effectively. Remember, all employees in the organization look up to you. Therefore, it’s of utmost importance that you develop your leadership skills. 8. Motivator In most instances, a highly productive and performing workforce is usually a motivated one. You need to know what motivates your employees and what doesn’t. Motivation does not revolve around offering incentives alone. It’s all about creating sustainability to improve the quality of work and strengthen employees’ belief in the cause of the organization. Managers or supervisors need to be motivated first so that they can motivate the workers under them. Motivating your employees is not a one-time thing. You need to do it as much as you can to boost productivity, performance, and self-esteem. Conclusion As a human resource manager, you’ll have to deal with problems that arise with management and employees every day. You need to develop all the qualities that we’ve discussed here to ensure that the organization achieves its objectives and mission. Author Bio: Aziz Nicleson is a journalist and essay writer with 4 years’ experience working in London magazine “Shopbuy”, dissertation help service, and Easy Essay. He is a professional mini-tennis player and he has written a novel “His heart”.

It’s your first day at your new job and you’re feeling nervous. Will the company match your expectations? Will you get along with your coworkers and supervisors? Will you be able to find the balance between work and your personal life? All of these questions are bound to plague anyone as they start a new job. You remember how stressful it was to start at your new job. So, you must know how anyone else you hire is feeling. That’s why companies must make the employee experience as enjoyable as possible. Every interaction and every phase counts as part of the employee experience, and the more positive these experiences are, the more likely it is that you will build a strong team of employees. Finding and hiring employees is the easy part. Maintaining them and fostering close relationships is the true challenge. Why do HR managers need to focus on employee experience? You might be wondering why all of this matters anyway. After all, isn’t the main purpose of a company to make a profit? The short answer is no. If your business slogan has something to do with making sure that everyone feels welcome and included, but you don’t do anything about this for your employees, it’s completely useless. Your employees make up your organization, and their success equals your success. Your employees should be more important to the company than the clients. People spend the majority of their lives at work. If you have a full-time job, you’re spending somewhere around 40 hours per week working. Therefore, it’s important to make sure that the environment your employees are working in is one that they enjoy. No one wants to show up to work miserable every day, nor does anyone want to spend their entire working lives waiting for the weekend. Surely, there is nothing you can do about people wishing they could be sipping mimosas on the beach instead, but you can make sure that your employees are not miserable when they come to work every day. In addition, focusing on improving the employee experience is only going to benefit your company. That includes the company’s profits, too. For example, if employees are happier when they come to work, they are more likely to be productive. Your MVP strategy and outcomes will improve, too. Their positive mood is going to rub off on others, who will also feel more motivated to work and do their best. If there is positive company culture, that will be reflected in the quality of your employee’s work. Also, there will be lower turnover rates, which also have a major impact on the company’s success and profit. If a company has a high turnover rate, that could end up costing the company way more. In short, improving the employee experience and giving them the morale they need to perform their best will only enhance the overall success of the company. HR managers are among the first people that new employees will meet at the company. If employees get a positive impression of the HR manager, that will only have a positive impact on that employee’s mood, morale, and performance. When you consider all the impact this will have on employee engagement and team satisfaction, you will realize how important it is to make sure that the employee experience is as positive as possible. Major elements of employee experience The employee experience will begin right with the first LinkedIn lead generation until the day the employee resigns from their position. In short, the employee experience is the entire length of time from when the employee first finds out about the company until the day they leave. Considering how much of our lives are spent at work, companies need to make sure that this experience is as positive as possible. Let’s look at some of the biggest elements of the employee experience. Recruitment. One of the biggest ways in which companies recruit employees is through LinkedIn marketing. LinkedIn has grown vastly as a networking site where companies can advertise and search for new employees. In addition, you can make use of your company’s other social media platforms. For example, you can also check out Instagram followers' demographics to see the kind of people who are following your page and who will be most interested in working with you. Work environment. Everyone seeks to work for a company that has a positive working environment. As we have reiterated several times, people spend the majority of their lives at work. If the work environment is negative, that is going to have an impact on your employees’ moods, not to mention their productivity. So, everyone needs to understand their role in contributing to the work environment and making sure that the environment is as positive as possible. You may want to consider conducting employee surveys (anonymously) to get a better idea of how your employees feel about the company and where they think the company can improve. If your employees don’t feel happy working in this environment, the company’s leadership needs to do everything they can to change that. Moreover, consider getting the right tools and platforms that will help your employees work more productively. If, for example, your company has a customer support center, you can acquire software like Talkdesk or look for Talkdesk alternatives. The better the working environment, the better the employee’s experience will be. Benefits. Benefits remain one of the most important criteria that people have when they apply for new jobs. If people have great benefits, they will naturally have a better employee experience. Unexpected events may take place, such as a death in the family, illness, or problems at home. Therefore, companies must take all of this into consideration when they compile a package for their employees. If the company offers great benefits, employees will naturally have a better experience. Technology. Technology also plays a major role. The Internet has drastically changed how people communicate with one another. Many companies now provide their employees with the option to work remotely. Employees will want to have all the latest software to ensure that their workday is as efficient as possible. Moreover, companies have presented new tools and platforms such as image editors, email signature generators, task management software, etc. These come in handy for remote work and help make it more manageable. The better the technology, the easier it will be for them to do their jobs. For example, you can use Google Trends API to determine what trends are taking place online, which will help you optimize your work more efficiently. You can also use tools such as Google Drive and Microsoft Teams depending on the job. In short, focus on the different technologies that you provide, which will enhance employees’ experiences. Also, it may be worth considering providing employees with computers and phones depending on the kind of job they have. Many elements contribute to the employee’s experience. Essentially, everything that employees will encounter throughout the workday can make their experience better or worse. If you have great technology, for example, employees will be able to do their jobs quicker and easier. This is important to consider when you are hiring new employees and focusing on expanding. The 4 Phases of Employee Experience and How to Make it Great! ClearCompany estimated that as many as 66% of employees will try to look for a new job within only six months. Although some employees will inevitably end up leaving the company quickly, the company needs to do everything possible to hold onto its employees. The main way to do that is to improve the employees’ experience. No one’s experience when they join a new company is going to be the same. It won’t even be the same for two people in the same position. However, when companies track the experiences and changes their employees go through, it is important to consider the phases of the employee experience and how to make them better. Now, let’s take a look at the four main phases and what they consist of. 1. Onboarding and welcoming new hires Onboarding is one of the key parts of the employee experience. It’s said that first impressions matter the most, and that is certainly the case here. Around 30% of employees will leave their jobs doing the onboarding process. It is through onboarding that new hires grow accustomed to the company and learn more about how to do their job. This is also when new hires will build relationships with those around them and start to understand how they can truly contribute to the company’s success. According to Peakon, the Onboarding process will generally take between 0-3 months depending on the individual company and the new hire’s performance. Some companies may make use of a coaching platform to assist employees in the onboarding process. As part of the process of welcoming new employees, another important step is building an online community. Many employees will end up communicating with one another online, especially through platforms such as Facebook groups, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. This online community needs to be especially welcoming toward new hires so that they feel that they are truly members of the team. Here are some more important tips for making the onboarding phase more efficient. Be transparent about everything: Sometimes, employers might feel tempted to conceal some of the flaws within the company. However, you need to be transparent with your new hires about everything. For example, they need to be aware of the benefits they are eligible for, the time off they will get, and issues that they might face within the company. If you show your new hires that you are honest, this will leave a lasting impression on them. A lack of transparency is one of the biggest reasons for Kickstarter's failures. They need to be able to trust you, and providing employees with the necessary transparency will put you on the right path. Engage with your new hires even before they officially start: Generally, the time between when the new employee signs their contract and when they officially start is around two to three weeks. However, you want to make sure that you maintain engagement. You may want to reach out to the new hires and see if they have any questions or issues. Make sure to present them with all the tools and technology they’ll use for their role. For example, introduce your new sales team to your platform for management, or if you cooperate with influencers, show your new marketing employee how to use influencer platforms effectively. In addition, it is always a great idea to provide the new hires with an itinerary of what they should expect during their first week. It is also worth considering making a welcome video that you send out to all new hires. Meet with the new hires on Day 1: It’s the big day! Now, you will want to do everything to make sure that you meet with all the new hires one-on-one to make sure that they know who you are and that you’re there for them. Having a personal meeting will help your new hires to have a stronger connection instead of feeling overwhelmed with all the events and training they will have to participate in over the coming weeks. Also, you will want to present the new hires with information that will help them to learn more about the company, such as the company’s mission and history. Organize team-building events: It is equally important for new hires to get to know the other members of the team, including other newbies and those who have been with the company for a long time. This can include team lunches or icebreaker activities (these aren’t everyone’s favorite, but they do help the team members get to know each other more effectively). There should also be meetings with different teams across the company and announcements that will welcome all the new hires. Show that you are available to answer questions: If you’re the owner or supervisor, you always want your employees to feel as though they have a connection to you. This means that you should reach out to them and show real-time support if they have questions or need assistance with anything. It can be daunting to them at first, but when they realize that you are truly there for them and want to see them succeed, this will enable them to have a better relationship with you and perform better on the job. Use the right technology: With the onboarding process, you will also want to make sure that you have implemented the right technology to help the process become more streamlined. For example, when you are signing contracts, tax documents, etc., it will be more effective to have document signing software implemented to make sure that your employees have an easier time, especially if they are working remotely. To summarize, onboarding is all about fostering and developing relationships with the new hires. You want to make sure that they feel welcome and that they are part of the new team! There are plenty of activities that will enable this to happen, so it is important to evaluate this with HR depending on your company’s values and mission. The onboarding process is what will make or break your employees’ opinion of the company, and it will dictate how long the employee will end up staying with you. 2. Development and retention (engage, perform, develop) The third phase of the employee experience is known as development and retention. This is the phase employees are in after they’ve been a part of the company for two years or so. This is the more experienced phase of the cycle, and it remains until the employee decides that they want to move on from the company. In this phase, employees want to advance in their careers and are looking to advance even further. They have enough knowledge and skills to become some of the highest-ranking members of the company. Considering all of the knowledge and skills that employees have acquired to reach this phase, they must be provided with enough opportunities for growth and improvement. This is something you’re likely to do as part of your customer retention strategy as well. Otherwise, the employees are more likely to seek these opportunities elsewhere. Here are some of the most important factors to consider in this stage. Not everyone has the same goals. Not everyone in your company is going to want to move up to the same position. Not everyone wants to become a manager, not everyone wants to become a team lead, and not everyone wants to train new employees, for example. Therefore it is important to consider the fact that each individual in the company is going to have different dreams and goals. So, when you consider development, understand that each person is going to have a different journey within the company. One person may move in a completely different direction than the other, even if both of these people have been hired together for the same position. Be sure to find ways to track the changes made within the company. Tracking any new changes that take place within the company will only help you get a better idea of how effective those changes were. When you hire new employees, you can also track their performance and see how the company has changed ever since hiring them. In any case, to make the engagement and performance part of the development process even better, you should make it a point to understand how the new changes have impacted your company. Make time for learning. Even though the stage of the employee experience involves people who have had a lot more time within the company, they are not going to know everything. Your company is going to constantly change and evolve, and your employees need to be prepared for this. Moreover, if you have senior employees, make sure they are properly introduced to the new technology and software you implement. Simple tasks like using Google products (docs, sheets, etc) or using a website ranking checker need to be learned by everyone. So, make sure that your employees have enough time to learn, and make sure that they can enhance their skills no matter what stage of the employee experience they are in. Invest in your company’s management. Having proper management is what’s going to make or break your employees’ experience. For example, if you have poor managers, it is going to be much more difficult to retain employees. Do you want to make sure that all of the leaders and managers within your company have the skills necessary to promote engagement from employees? Moreover, whether you’re a clothing business or a digital marketing agency, this investment can include tools such as training and proper hiring. Understand that everyone will have a different development plan. Once again, the experience that each individual has within the company is going to be different. So, for this, you can create an individual development plan that will consider the goals of each employee and outline the skills they need to have that will help them achieve their short and long-term goals. There is quite a lot that goes into this stage. This is the stage which employees will likely spend the longest amount of time (at least, that should be the company’s goal). It is important to focus on maintaining behaviors and high satisfaction rates to ensure that the employees will constantly develop and stay with the company for as long as possible. 3. Separation All good things come to an end eventually. The same goes for your job. As much as you love your employees, they will not stay with the company forever. Some of them may want a change, others may retire, and others may have found more suitable opportunities elsewhere. This is a normal part of the employee experience and one that every company needs to make room for. This part of the process is referred to as separation, and it takes place approximately 0-3 months before the employee leaves the company. Sometimes, this happens due to nothing you’ve done, but instead, it can be a decision that was made solely by the employees. Here are some factors and important points to consider about the separation process. Phases of the process: Different companies are going to have different rules about when people will give notice of resignation. However, this is often referred to as “giving in two weeks” because the most common practice is for employees to inform the company of their decision to leave two weeks in advance. Regardless, it is generally a good idea for employees to try to inform the company earlier for the company to start the recruitment process. As soon as the employee gives the company notice of their resignation and request for payment, the HR department and the employee’s manager must handle all the tasks properly, including paperwork and freezing finances. In addition, the employee’s manager must have a plan drawn out that will explain all the different tasks that must take place during separation. Generally, the length of time that this process will take depends on the employee's level within the organization. If the employee has an entry-level position, it will be easier for the company to find a replacement and to go through the separation process. But if the employee is a higher-up or a supervisor, it can take up to 2 to 3 months. Who participates? Aside from the employees themselves, several different people will play a part in the separation process. These include the employee’s manager, the HR manager, and the separation team. The employee’s manager and the HR manager must work together to hand over the work and other tasks. The separation team’s task involves dealing with the employee’s benefits and finances. Finally, the HR manager has the task of interviewing the employee to find out the reasons why they are leaving. In essence, this entire process involves many people, and companies need to establish a clear process for separation. Make it a point to understand why people are leaving the company. This is, perhaps, the most important part of the separation process. It costs companies a significant amount of money to hire new employees and to go through the separation process in general. In addition to that, companies must handle high turnover rates and find out why employees are not satisfied. Of course, as we mentioned, sometimes the reason why employees are leaving the company has nothing to do with the company itself. Everyone wants to grow and advance in their career, and sometimes that is not possible within the current company. This is natural, and something that each company should take into consideration. However, it is also likely that the reason why the employee wants to leave the company is something that the company has done, such as not providing them with enough sick days, not giving them maternity leave, or poor treatment from the managers. That is why it is important to understand why employees are leaving so that you can fix problems as they arise without letting them get worse. And, if the employee leaving expresses dissatisfaction with the company, chances are that many of the other employees feel the same way. Ways to understand why people are leaving. Nowadays, there is a lot of software that will enable you to get a better idea of why employees are leaving the company. Exit Survey: This is, perhaps, the most popular method. An exit survey consists of questions that companies will ask the employee before they resign. The survey will consist of questions such as why the employee started searching for another job, why they are leaving, and if there is anything the current company could have done better. You can also make use of tools such as customer feedback software to understand how clients are feeling. In essence, the company needs to obtain feedback from employees through the use of such surveys. Exit Interview: This has the same premise as an exit survey, only it is conducted in person. The interview will generally take place between the employee and the HR manager. The questions will mostly be the same as those asked during an exit survey. It is important to understand that each person leaving your company deserves to have this interview. The separation process is a sad but important part of the employee experience. It takes a lot of work and tends to involve many people. However, the most important part of this phase is to understand why the employee is leaving and if there is anything the company could have done that would have changed their experience. 4. Employee data protection As you hire new employees, you will need to ask for and retain personal information like Social Security Number, medical records, bank account information, etc. During their employment, they will communicate with company partners for product roadmaps or new distribution methods. These processes require information and data exchange. To create an excellent employee experience in your company, you need to secure employee data, especially when it comes to personal and financial information. Keep records secure Start by implementing control over data by securely keeping all records. For example, paperwork and documentation need to be stored in a safe location that’s under control. For this reason, Microsoft has launched the NTFS system for storing and organizing data more efficiently. As you set up and analyze NTFS permissions, you can give access to records to certain people in your company. When it comes to electronic information, consider encryption, use passwords, and secure servers. In addition to this, you also need to keep the means and technologies under maintenance to ensure your employee data doesn’t get any virus threats. Train on cybersecurity In this age of digital innovations and technology, company staff must be aware of things such as cyberattacks. Especially when it comes to new employees, they want to get things done well and show great performance which is why they are a great target for hackers. Therefore, it is essential to integrate comprehensive cybersecurity training into the onboarding process to protect both the employees and the organization. If, for example, an employee gives out financial information via email without realizing that it’s phishing, attackers can easily access both their and company data. This is why it’s important to keep email records safe and prevent hackers from getting access to your employee data. Encourage strong passwords Since you’re welcoming new employees, you will need to provide accounts like email, company file access accounts, or maybe even LinkedIn. Most of the time, employees tend to choose passwords that are easy to remember, so that they won’t have to struggle with them. However, hackers and the bad guys on the Internet can easily ‘guess’ those credentials and get access to employee and company data. So, require your staff to set strong password credentials and change them periodically to avoid cyber attacks and ensure the data privacy of your employees. Implement proper access control Technology has developed so well that companies can now implement access control methods like biometric readers, key cards, and more to protect data. If your employee data is stored physically, you can assign specific employees and define who can get access to that area. Moreover, access control implementation helps determine who can enter and exit your company building, and access certain rooms, or employee data. If you choose to skip employee data protection, you not only create a bad experience for new workers but also damage your company’s reputation. Moreover, if you don’t prevent employee data theft on time, your company will face costs like regulation, litigation, and more. Tips for creating a great company culture No one wants to work for a company where the employers are rude and everyone seems to be in a bad mood all the time. That’s where the importance of company culture comes into play. Although it might seem like an impossible task to create a great company culture, especially in the beginning, it’s certainly feasible. But it all comes down to the attitudes of the managers. And when you create that company culture, you’ll notice a dramatic shift in productivity, morale, and engagement. Here are some of the best tips for fostering a company culture that people will fight to work in. Actively care for the wellness of your employees One of the most common complaints people have about their employers is that the employers treat them like robots. So, in short, it’s important to make sure that you recognize your employees are human. They have personal lives outside of work, and sometimes circumstances arise that will prevent your employees from performing their absolute best. Making sure that your employees get the proper rest, time off, and support will help them feel more confident and appreciated at the company. Part of caring for their wellness also refers to offering benefits, too. Use the right tools Using the right tools can drastically improve your company’s culture. Tools generally refer to the technology that is used to make the entire workday smoother. Finding the right tech products to help enhance the productivity and efficiency of your company should be one of your biggest priorities. Time management tools are among the most important considering that everyone needs to be able to allocate time efficiently. Building a strong online community also plays a huge role. Employees will often communicate with their supervisors and coworkers online, so tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams are crucial. Also, you will want to include some sort of meeting notes to make everything easier to understand. Or, you can encourage your employees to go with email signature management and customize the signature so others can understand their position. Make sure your employees feel recognized and appreciated As we’ve already established, your employees are your company’s biggest asset. Make sure they know this! No matter how small, make sure your employees know that you appreciate and value them. Even if it’s something like bringing in coffee to work on Fridays, or sharing their success through Instagram hashtags on your company page. This will certainly boost morale and make your employees happier to work for you. Listen to your employees Your employees are the ones who run the company, essentially. So, they are the first to see if there is a problem or somewhere the company can improve. You can also use technology such as employee testimonials to find out more about where the company is lacking and what it can improve upon Conclusion The employee experience is, arguably, one of the most important parts of your company. People are going to find out how you treat your employees and if word gets out that the employee experience is overall rather negative, that is going to have an impact on your company. As you outline your company, one of the first factors to consider is what you will do to make your employees have the best experience. Your company may hire thousands of employees during your tenure, but each of those employees is going to remember your company. Following this advice is going to make sure that those memories are positive ones. Author Bio: Anthony Stevens is the Content Specialist for Excel Templates, a resource for free Excel templates including calendars and charts. When not writing, he spends time building furniture and running with his dog.

According toGallup, employee turnover is costing businesses a whopping one trillion dollars on an annual basis. That’s not all, though. Additional insight from Gallup reveals the work and efforts that businesses have to employ to replace workers is extremely costly. This is a cost you want to avoid when possible. As it turns out, one of the best ways to avoid employee turnover is by having a good onboarding strategy. The right employee onboarding strategy helps you find the right people to work for you; it also helps you retain these employees, saving yourself time and money.Organization onboards are also something to keep in mind as well. Like many things in business, putting together a good onboarding strategy and onboarding program takes time and effort. However, the return on investment (ROI) is undeniable. Understanding what the ROI of a good onboarding strategy entails is critical for the long-term success of your company.All employees, HR professionals, and others in similar positions should understand this. 7 Examples of ROI from a Good Onboarding Strategy In far too many cases, there are businesses that rush through the hiring process; this is especially common when time is of the essence and the demand for new staff is high. However, in the long run, this decision lacks the ROI innately attached to a good onboarding strategy. It also prevents new hires from having a positive onboarding experience. 1. Greater Worker Productivity and Engagement A good onboarding strategy involves training, integration into the company’s workplace, and direct interaction. This process ultimately allows the people working for your business to truly become acclimated. As a business owner, this can only benefit you. When employees learn about the business and get properly integrated, they’re in the best position to work well for you. In turn, this work leads to more productivity and overall engagement. The value that truly great employees bring to a company cannot be overstated. The right and effective onboarding strategy give employees an idea of the environment, expectations, and tasks associated with their work. As worker productivity and engagement grow, your business can subsequently follow suit. 2. Better Interactions with Customers Customers can make or break your business. Furthermore, if your business involves your customers interacting with your employees, you want the latter to be as prepared as possible. Employees who are well-equipped to deal with customers are another major ROI from a good onboarding strategy. This is where the training part of onboarding makes a huge difference. An untrained worker may become a deer in the headlights when interacting with customers; however, a trained worker will know how to assist customers and make their experience with the business as pleasant as possible. Customers leave reviews online; they can also give word of mouth to others in their communities regarding your company. As a business owner, you want feedback from customers to be positive. This task becomes immensely easier with properly trained staff working for you. 3. Weeding Out the Bad Apples Believe it or not, weeding out the bad apples during onboarding is important. It’s a major ROI because it can save you long-term headaches. For starters, your company’s onboarding process will show whether or not a new hire is cut out for the job. If they are not, knowing sooner rather than later is best. As a business owner, this puts you in the best position to cut your losses. Furthermore, weeding out bad apples during onboarding softens the blow of turnover. Without a good onboarding strategy, the wrong person could be with your company for months, rather than weeks. 4. Greater Loyalty Among Staff Every business wants good, qualified employees. However, when it comes to truly getting an ROI from onboarding, this is merely a baseline. Of course, qualified staffers who are good at the job are important; however, the true ROI comes when your staff is truly loyal to your company. This automatically helps you increase retention rates. Harvard Business Reviewlikewise notes the benefits of loyalty amongst your staff. Loyal employees generally stay with the company. They also positively contribute to the overall reputation of your business; this is always a huge deal, especially when it comes to customers and partners. 5. A Leg Up Against Competitors The world of business is innately competitive. If turnover is something your competitors are struggling with, this is all the more reason to have a good onboarding strategy. As the world of business gets more complex and integrated with technology, staying a few steps ahead of the competition can never hurt. Proper onboarding gives you a leg up against competitors in several ways. For starters, it saves you the time, monetary, and emotional costs of turnover. Secondly, employee retention sends a message that employees enjoy working for you. It’s a very well-established fact that employees who love the work they do are likelier to stay with the company longer. When running a company, sometimes a huge ROI simply involves avoiding the traps your competitors have fallen into. In many cases, this means making sure your employees’ experience with the company pays off, as competitors struggle to retain workers. The right onboarding strategy can determine not just the quality of your business, but also its longevity. This is something to keep in mind not just during the onboarding process; it’s also worth remembering when determining what your onboarding process will entail. 6. Less Stress as a Business Owner To a particular degree, there are certain stressors associated with running and owning a business; however, cutting back on these stressors is important. Too much stress can adversely impact your work and the ability to keep things running properly. When onboarding is done properly, it gives business owners peace of mind. As a new employee goes through the onboarding process, you’ll be able to see them learning the necessary details, procedures, etc. to properly do their job.Ultimately, you want a new employee to become a good employee. Observing the onboarding process also gives you insight into how your new hires deal with pressure, challenges, etc. All of that makes a huge difference; it can certainly let you know whether or not these new employees are a good fit. Having the peace of mind in knowing that your business is in good hands makes all the difference in the world. This is a great ROI because it allows you to direct your energy towards other aspects of the company that may require attention. 7. Attracting New Workers As your business grows and expands, the time could come when it’s time to make new hires. With that said, you want to attract the best of the best people to work for you. When it comes to the people working for you, quality always trumps quantity. Not only do you want to attract new workers; you also want the workers who are right for you. Some potential new hires may inquire about the nature of your onboarding process. Many workers want to know they’ll be given the proper training and tools necessary to succeed in what is their full-time job. By having a good onboarding strategy, you can show prospects they’ll have the necessary guidance and feedback if hired. Conclusion As you might have inferred from the seven ROIs listed above, a good onboarding strategy is quite crucial. This is true whether you’ve been in business for 12 months or 12 years. Depending on the particulars of your business, the various aspects of your onboarding process may vary. As you set up and implement your onboarding process, keeping the ROIs mentioned above in mind is always a good idea. However, here’s the bottom line: the right onboarding strategy can only add value and benefits to your company. Before making any (new) hires, making certain that you have the best onboarding process in place is worth it. With the best onboarding process in place, your business will be in the best position to grow, expand, and stay ahead of the competition. Author Bio: Raya is the CEO and co-founder ofezClocker, a time tracking, and scheduling software for small businesses. She is passionate about customers and building products that change the way people run their businesses. She is also a big supporter of the startup community and helping people achieve their dreams

Whether you like it or not, digital transformation is going to play a part in your business. By now, most organizations know that if they can’t build a digital strategy then there is a chance they will be left behind in more ways than one. One of the keys to running a successful business is involving the right people. That means your employees. In 2020, a number of businesses were pushed from gently transitioning to digital, to having to very quickly become a fully digital operation. While not easy, this can only be a good thing for most businesses. In this guide, we explore the advantages of digital transformation for employee experience, one of the key foundations of taking your organization firmly into the future. What does digital transformation mean? In general, digital transformation is about adopting the digital across all areas of business. This can refer to the services or operations within the business. It’s not just the job of the IT employees in a business to create a robust ‘digital’ strategy and incorporate the 21st century across the whole organization. This is about cultural change within a business strategy, not just having better access to servers, for instance. As an employee, the majority of the working day probably incorporates plenty of areas of digital connectivity. From the way you receive your paycheck to the way, you ask your boss a question and other manual processes. In 2021, more of the day-to-day activities are carried out online. This has undeniably been accelerated by the pandemic, but these changes were in the pipeline long before. Let's explore some of the areas that impact your employees daily and key benefits. Improves Communication and Interaction In the modern age, people are used to being well-connected via email, social networks, and other digital platforms, especially during remote working. CRMs and project management software are a big part of this successful digital transformation in the workplace, and they’re just some of the ways that you can keep your employees connected and improves internal communication strategy. In the workforce, the fact that we can all connect digitally makes it so much faster to speak to the right person when you work from home or set up a meeting with a lot of employees to make sure you interact and communicate the messages you need to. To learn even more about improving the employee experience and increasing your competitive advantage while providing a fast return on investment, download our ebook now. Download now Helps Employees to Understand Important Goals Having digital platforms to work from also allows employees to understand their goals, both individually and as a company. Project management tools online should be based around systems to get things done, and it should be easy to visualize what you are working towards. Milestone and goal-based systems mean that employees can clearly see where they are going, both individually and as a team. This makes employees far more effective and focused, but it can also do a fantastic job of keeping people on the right track. As an employee, you want to have clear goals set out for you. Digital systems make this far more simple. The world of management has definitely changed, but digital tools help people to understand the KPIs of any business and of individuals and improve user experience. It’s a way to track employees, motivate them, and use a statistical approach to the growth and success of a business. Supports a Two-Way Feedback Culture Communication is key. This is true within virtually any business, and a two-way feedback culture is essential in the modern age. Employees don’t want to feel like they are not heard, or that they are just another cog in the machine. Instead, using feedback systems and project management solutions that incorporate all employees means that everyone can have their say. This also means that there is less room for bullying and a lack of respect in the workplace, which directly brings to increased productivity. There is more evidence and more of an opportunity to discuss things as a whole team. Improves Onboarding and Upskilling It’s amazing how few businesses actually have a good system for onboarding and upskilling their employees. In 2021, implementing digital management systems has made this so much simpler. While some jobs will always need some in-person training, the fact that employees can access courses and a knowledge base online should be the best thing for all parties. Upskilling your employees is not just about the success of a business, either, it is about keeping people happy. Employees often want to improve, grow, and find new opportunities within an organization. To be able to do all of this internally is an advantage for many businesses. Supports a Sense of Belonging Most of us know that the world of work has changed an incredible amount, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be inclusive. With companies moving away from the traditional office setup, there won’t be as many conversations around the office water cooler, instead, there can be new ways to collaborate, share the company culture, and generally involve all employees. Company culture can still spread and keep everyone happy and working effectively online, but it does take effort to cultivate. A lot of companies are introducing social events online, or new ways to keep employees engaged with one another rather than being isolated if they are spending less time together. Helps Leaders to Recognise and Reward Employees Quite simply, it is easier to track what everyone is doing in an individual way if you are using digital technology. There are many benefits to using this to your advantage and make your employees feel appreciated. Some companies are introducing leaderboards to congratulate people, or a spotlight feature to follow certain teams or workforces and the vital work they are doing to motivate and improve employee productivity. By tracking statistics you can also introduce a lot of methods to reward employees, too. Most improved or best-performing employees can be given bonuses or highlighted for their performance. This is a way to show that you appreciate it and to motivate employees, who know that the hard work and hours they put in for a company can be rewarded. There is a fine line here, and you need to avoid ‘shaming’ employees who may not be performing as well. It’s best to take an approach that keeps all employees in the loop and provides rewards based on their performance. Similarly, you can reward effort as opposed to just rewarding performance. It could be the case that some employees are working incredibly hard without stats to back it up, so try to track this wherever possible. Conclusion The benefits of digital transformation probably incorporate pretty much every part of your business processes starting from the bottom line. It isn’t just about changing the processes, it is about finding weak points in your employee experience and using digital tools to address them. There are so many ways in which small gestures and organizational changes can make all the difference in the future of your company, including improved customer experience. The likelihood is that digital transformation is upon your business whether you like it or not. Creating a strategy and embracing what is to come is the ideal way to get ahead of it, and to create a place people want to work. Company culture is not necessarily created in the office anymore, so you need to turn the digital space for your company into a way for people to mix and feel like they are truly included and are all pushing in the same direction. Author Bio: Meggie Nelson is an HR Manager at AMGtime and a passionate freelance writer with an ongoing curiosity to learn new things. She is deeply convinced that valuable experience sharing is key to business success. Meggie believes in a win-win formula and utilizes it on a daily basis in staff management.

Employee engagement and job satisfaction might seem very similar terms, but they are really very different. If you’re able to understand what that difference is, it will have a significant impact on your business. You might not realize, but voluntary turnover can cost a company billions in terms of lost productivity and the cost of rehiring and retraining. Things have been a little different over the last couple of years, thanks to COVID, but previous to that, a staggering 27% of US workers left their jobs voluntarily in 2018. According to the 2019 Retention Report, if the trend continues, this figure could hit 35% in a couple of years. However, there’s one very effective way to change this trend, and that’s by addressing the issue of employee engagement and job satisfaction. Understanding the difference between job satisfaction vs. employee engagement will help you keep your workforce happy, motivated, and much less likely to quit. What Is Employee Satisfaction? Employee satisfaction, or job satisfaction, is when an employee enjoys the work that they do. There are various things an employee can use to measure their happiness, such as pay, hours, and flexibility. Employee satisfaction is generally enough to keep a person in a job for many years. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll reach their full potential and help your business grow. What Is Employee Engagement? Employee engagement is more about how involved and connected an employee feels in their job. How engaged an employee feels depends on several factors, such as motivation, interest, purpose, personal investment, and passion. If a person doesn’t feel engaged in their role, they might feel their job has no connection with the success of the business. Over time, this could mean they look for a more meaningful job. What are the Principal Drivers of Employee Engagement? Gallup’s Engagement Measurement Model categorizes the drivers into four distinct categories. Entitlements For your employees to feel engaged, they have to know what you expect of them and what their responsibilities are. You also need to provide them with everything they need to enable them to do their job well. They also need to be able to perform their role easily. If this means relying on technology, it will be beneficial if it’s more than a decade old. Contributions An engaged employee is one who feels they are contributing to your business, in a measurable way, every day. They will know this is so if superiors in the company congratulate them on a job well done. Bosses should also show they care about their employees’ well-being, both at work and when they are away from the office. Managers should also understand that the workforce will want to progress through the company and be interested in helping employees achieve their professional goals. Community An engaged employee is someone who enjoys working with their colleagues. They will also feel like they have a voice in the company. People listen to what they have to say and respond accordingly. Engaged employees believe that what they do is invaluable, and if they stopped doing it or were less productive, everyone would notice. Growth For an employee to feel engaged, they must be given adequate opportunities for personal development at work. This could take the form of training, promotion, more responsibility, or the opportunity to attend trade shows, symposiums, or conferences, outside of work. There are a few more factors that are worthy of mention. A Culture of Diversity Diverse work culture is essential if you want to ensure maximum engagement for your employees. The company should be open to new ideas, wherever they might come from, be proactive when it comes to preventing bias, and ensure equal opportunities are available for all. Internal Communication Communication has a huge role to play in employee engagement. This is particularly relevant if the workforce is distributed over a vast area. Your employees need to be able to connect in real-time, receive regular company updates, and resolve issues. All of these will ensure a more engagement-friendly workplace. Inspirational Leadership Company leaders should lead by example and be inspirational in what they do. After all, employee engagement is led from the top. Above all, company leaders should: Regularly interact with their workforce Share ideas Collaborate with employees Ask for contributions before making decisions The same goes for creative project managers and product owners. By sharing ideas interacting with your coworkers, you make them feel they have a part to play in the growth of the company, and it will keep them engaged. Creating videos for internal comms is a great way to unify your brand and company messaging. Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction The factors that affect job satisfaction are very different. They tend to be monetary and associated factors that determine how satisfied an employee is with their job. The factors include the following. Compensation Compensation is possibly the biggest driver when it comes to job satisfaction. Two elements are most important. Firstly, the pay scale must be comparable and competitively positioned against similar companies in the area. Secondly, it should allow employees to maintain an above-average standard of living and quality of life. Benefits Next to good pay, a comprehensive benefits package can also be a big driver. Such a package might include things that take care of physical and mental well-being, family coverage, financial wellness, and childcare. There are several other more innovative benefits you might want to consider, such as an in-house gym and unlimited paid time off. Working with a PEO company can help you optimize employee benefits to keep your employees satisfied. Work-life Balance According to a survey undertaken by Mavenlink, 62% of workers feel work/life balance is most important for a company culture that fosters success. What does this mean exactly? Here are a few things that can ensure a positive work-life balance: Flexibility to work from home Shorter commutes to work Mandatory vacation days Paid leaves Recognition A common factor for all employees is recognition of the contribution they make to the company. There are many ways you can do this, for example: Annual reviews Appraisals Acknowledgment of achievements All of these things would allow employees to spend more time in personal pursuits or with family. The result would be an improvement in the quality of life. How Employee Engagement Differs From Job Satisfaction Fact: 67% of job seekers focus on the diversity highlighted in any job posting. An employee can be satisfied at work without feeling engaged because engagement is much more than being well paid and able to clock off at a reasonable time. Such factors just lead to job satisfaction, which is enough to retain most employees more often than not. However, only focusing on job satisfaction is not enough to ensure productivity. Whereas focusing on employee engagement will promote increased productivity. If any employee is engaged, they will be deeply involved and invested in their work. However, achieving engagement requires something more than what’s needed to drive satisfaction. Although, employee satisfaction is a good foundation on which to grow employee engagement and one in which it can thrive. If you can genuinely engage your employees, you can expect higher staff retention, customer satisfaction, productivity, quality, and innovation. Engaged employees also require less training time, have fewer accidents, and need to take less time off because of illness. Image source Conclusion If you want to take your company to the next level, exploring how you can improve employee engagement is critical. Invest in engagement, and it’ll go a long way toward strengthening your company’s foundation. At the end of the day, it also means you’ll have a happier workforce which equals a healthier bottom line. Author Bio: Maria Mladenovska is a content manager at ThriveMyWay.com - a one-stop resource for learning how to make money online on your own terms. She's an advocate of living life with passion, authenticity, and purpose. Maria believes in seizing every opportunity because nothing is impossible when you believe in yourself! You can connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

HR is where you win and lose employee loyalty and engagement. People want to work for organizations that take their experience seriously and respond to their needs as employees. HR has grown in importance over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to play an important role in company growth moving forward. To leverage all a human resources department has to offer, below are 7 simple HR additions you can make that will improve employee experience today. 1. Easy Payment By this point, most companies are already using easy payment methods like direct debit to make sure employees are paid on time and with little to no hassle. You should be able to deposit your employees' pay directly to their bank accounts without any intermediaries and associated fees. Companies that are still handing out physical cheques are way behind the times, and you are obligating your employee to make a special trip to the bank to cash it. Direct debit is also nice because it can be set up to happen automatically, which means neither payroll nor the employee has to worry about it. 2. Make Use of Journey Mapping An employee journey map depicts the numerous stages that an employee goes through during their employment with a company. It allows you to identify pain points and important moments when employee input and action are required to bridge the gap between the existing and intended states. In short, a journey map allows companies and employees to manage career trajectories in ways that make sense for both parties. Employee journey maps that work the best always start with clearly defined outcomes and strong communication and joint planning with the company. Even if you do annual employee engagement surveys, each employee is at a different stage in their career, and it's tough to know how personal experiences affect key employee experience outcomes such as engagement and motivation. Set up a journey map on the employee's first day and maintain it throughout the tenure of their employment. This way, there will always be something to work towards 3. Standardized Onboarding Many businesses lack a new employee orientation programme, let alone a good standardized onboarding experience, despite the fact that it is vital to employee success. According to the Harvard Business Review, 33% of new hires look for a new job during their first six months of employment, which can be attributed in part to the quality of the onboarding experience. The answer to this problem is to create a measurable programme with defined objectives that are tailored to specific employees. Your sales reps should have a different onboarding experience than customer service reps while still maintaining a degree of standardization focused on providing an introduction to company culture, key people, etcetera To learn even more about improving the employee experience and increasing your competitive advantage while providing a fast return on investment, download our ebook now. Download now 4. Actually, Use Employee Feedback Many companies use employee engagement and feedback surveys to figure out where their employees are at, but not all of them act on the information. At the end of the day, a lot of these procedures are just lip service. Employees may experience a loss of trust as a result of this. Employees are more inclined to express their thoughts and interact if they believe they are being heard, but they may refrain from providing feedback if they believe they will not be heard. Following a survey, employees should be informed about the action plan being developed, and a person, or perhaps even committee, assigned to implementing the changes. 5. Take Benefits Surveys Many employees would prefer additional perks to a raise, demonstrating the importance of delivering relevant employee benefits in your talent retention and recruiting efforts. Employee benefit surveys can help you figure out which benefits your employees value the most. They seek to understand the value placed on certain perks, how they compare to those offered by other employers, and any future benefits that employees would want to see. PTO, health insurance, parental leave, retirement, stock options, free lunches, and other benefits are examples. These simple conversations could mean the difference between losing and retaining a high performer. 6. Use Stay Interviews Exit interviews are beneficial, but they do not help you retain an employee who is ready to depart. Stay interviews are one-on-one meetings between a manager and an employee that allow businesses to understand what matters to their employees and anticipate retention concerns. They should be an open forum for employees to express themselves and gain insight into their experiences. The goal is to uncover their reasons for sticking with the company and then working toward goals that keep them motivated by analyzing what works and what doesn't. This method also improves internal talent pipelines and provides valuable insight into areas where the organization can improve. 7. Don't Forget About Manager Training Personal relationships, particularly those between employees and their supervisors, are one of the most important aspects of employee experience. When managers don't know how to encourage or interact with their employees, employees feel less connected to the company and its objectives, which is not only bad for productivity but could lead to the employee looking for another job. Managers should be instructed in essential skills such as time management, diplomacy, delegation, goal setting, and delivering feedback and praise. Conclusion Improving employee experience starts in your human resources department. This is where employees are first introduced to company culture, it is where employee experience is monitored, managed, and fostered, and HR professionals exert an outsized influence on how an employee perceives his or her employer. Building a great HR team and processes takes some groundwork, but once it is up and running, you should have a finely tuned employee satisfaction-generating machine that is attentive to employee needs and goes out of its way to ensure employee retention. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

If you look at any successful businessman, whether a space entrepreneur or a stationery seller, you’ll likely discover that they have a resilient personality. Resilience plays a pivotal role in any leader’s career path. In this day and age, a lot of organizations value proactive employers. Every business is built around the idea of knowing and preparing for the future. When coronavirus hit us all, the world found itself in an unpredictable predicament. Employees and executives were searching for answers everywhere. Fortunately, even in a scary pandemic, there are things that leaders can do to move their organization in the right direction. The ever-shifting corporate landscape is tied to resilience at work - it helps leaders make better decisions that will steer an organization in the right direction. Resilience is a personality trait and skill that is crucial for a leader to develop, so how can you, as a leader, become more resilient in the workplace? First things first, let’s look at some popular misconceptions. Myths to dispel The truth is that there are many myths in the building resilience book, and it’s important to dispel these before we continue. A major fallacy exists in the way that people perceive resilience. Although it is indeed a trait, it is more useful to think of it as a skill. If you’re thinking that you can only be born with resilience, meaning that it’s not able to be acquired by anybody, this is the core of the fallacy. Like any other skill, you can flex your resilience training muscles over time to become stronger and a better leader. People also misinterpret resilience as overconfidence or arrogance. While it is true that resilient leaders seem self-reliant, tough, and unaffected by anxiety, what you see isn’t always what is true. Every individual, even the most resilient leader, needs help and learns from their mistakes. While there is no one size that fits all way of becoming more resilient, there are key things that you can do. Building resilience training spans five unique areas: physical aspects, professionalism, social aspects, psychology, and finance. As a leader, when you’re building resilience at work, you need to address each area. 1. Professionalism Let’s kick off the first of our five resilience factors by focusing on who a leader really is. In the workplace, building resilience in adults needs to start at the top and trickle its way down. Leaders are employees who need to take an active part in pursuing new opportunities for their company. There needs to be a certain level of innovation so that you can see an idea through to execution. Leaders ought to be adding attention to their surroundings, including what their employers are saying and doing, in order to grow their organization. As a leader, it’s imperative that you monitor both your teammates and also your own performance. You can give constructive feedback and receive it. By doing this, you will be able to collaborate effectively whilst also keeping boundaries in place to promote a healthy work-life balance. To learn even more about improving the employee experience and increasing your competitive advantage while providing a fast return on investment, download our ebook now. Download now 2. Physical resilience This time, many more people are working from home. This creates a lot of temptations that are unhelpful in the workplace, so it is important to emphasize the need for physical resilience. As a leader, adopt new habits and encourage your co-workers to adopt them too. Things such as regular exercise, meditation, breathing exercises, and a healthy diet are both great to adopt and fun to discuss with fellow employees. While, of course, you as a leader don’t want to overstep anyone’s boundaries, there is no harm in encouraging others to make better choices. Leaders can make an effort to reward employees that participate in better habits and personal development. As an example, you could provide employees with workout apps classes to help physical well-being and mental health. Those that participate could be rewarded within the organization. Any employee needs to feel like they have a comfortable work environment to operate in. People need to have boundaries that will allow them to shift focus from their work to their personal life with ease. 3. Psychological factors Recent times have been hard for the world of resilience psychology with the COVID-19 pandemic, but not all hope is lost. Try building resilience activities that focus on managing stress and anxiety. Employees need to be able to stay on top of things and manage their mental health. Check-in with your team and ask each member where they are investing their energy. People like to feel cared about and listened to, so exercise active listening skills within the workplace and your team. Every employee needs boundaries, and you as a leader can encourage employees to better their mental health, offering incentives much as we discussed above. 4. Social aspects Although the recent Coronavirus pandemic has encouraged us to socially distance, there are ways that leaders can engage with employees and have meaningful social interactions. You and your team members needn’t feel alone! Build up social resilience in yourself and others. There are numerous things that you can do as a leader. Why not schedule lunch meetings or hangouts during the day? Some companies like to replicate ordinary aspects of corporate life via meeting services such as Zoom, for instance, scheduling in “Weekly Water Cooler” chats. Showing an interest in individuals and reminding them that they are much more than simple employees, will help everyone feel more motivated to work and perform. 5. Finance Unfortunately, numerous employees have had to take on shorter work hours with cuts to their salaries. A lot of people have even been furloughed for months at a time, with no clear indication that their job will remain in the future. It has been a time of great uncertainty for all employees, but leaders need to be resilient. Companies need to help all of their staff by offering financial and budgeting resources that will assist them during their current hardships. You, as a leader, need to develop a tougher skin and do some clever calculations to ensure that your company’s finances won’t plummet during a time where many businesses are crumbling. One of the best things to do in building resilience is to think outside the box and come up with ideas for new revenue streams within your company. Are there opportunities that the coronavirus pandemic is, in fact, creating for your business? Perhaps there are gaps in the market that you can now fill? By exercising your creative problem-solving skills, you could save your job and other people’s. Resilience is key to success We hope to have demonstrated that you as a leader can grow stronger than ever before, even in spite of global hardships. The workplace is the perfect environment to build character and become the leader you’ve always wanted to be. Take note of any aspect of resilience theory that we’ve discussed, and try to apply these simple ideas today. What do you do to build resilience in the workplace? Do you watch videos? Do you have a go at building resilience worksheets? We’d love to hear what you’ve tried so far and how it’s gone. Tell us about your experiences in the comments section below. Author Bio: Emily Moore is an English programming teacher with a passion for space and blogging. She believes that current exploration should be focused on preserving our planet’s resources. With satellites circling the orbit, it is easier to get relevant data on any environmental changes. This, in turn, should help people quickly address any challenges.

You might begin by giving each team member personalized presents. Or if you don't have an idea for personalized gifts, you can give employees certificates or gift cards. You can also give mugs with each employee's name or photo, or some kind of merit award with their name on it. If you want something original, you can order a short poem from the essay writing website about each employee. Here are some more ideas to think about: Clothing with the company logo design; Bags with the company logo; Fun items to complement the workplace; Sweets; These were ideas for raising the team and corporate spirit. And what can you give an employee when there is a really good reason or a special day? Improving employee experience doesn'tneed to be difficult - or expensive! Learn how What are unforgettable appreciation gifts for employees? When you want to show your team members how much you appreciate their efforts, you'll want to choose gifts that are appropriate. Generic business presents are OK, but personalized corporategifts are preferable. Get to know the team member you want to give a present to and learn what they like. Then, based on their preferences, you may select an appreciation present that they will like. This may be a wine box, a gift card to their favorite merchant, or even personalized company stuff. Employee presents might be useful at work or at home for your employees. Something to keep their workplace organized, for example, or a technology gadget to boost their efficiency. The goal is to come up with something unique, practical, and appealing to your team. And, of course, that expresses gratitude for all of your efforts. Here's a list of 5 ideas for employee appreciation presents that you can give. Basket of Gourmet Foods. Choose from a wide range of delicious gift baskets based on the preferences and interests of the employee you're gifting it to. Cookies, dried fruits, sweets, chocolate bars, cheeses, non-alcoholic drinks, wine, and other gourmet delights are included in some of the baskets. Spa Relaxing Gift. Your staff will be grateful that you purchased a gift of relaxation for them. Bath foam, body sponge, bath bomb, aroma wax candle, scented sea salt for the bath, and mini matches are included in this spa day box set. After a long day at the office, it's the ideal way to spend the evening or weekend. Box for culinary masterpieces. Perhaps you work as a restaurant manager or know someone who enjoys cooking at home. The culinary box can contain organic extra virgin olive oil, sauces, garlic rosemary sea salt, Italian blend herbs, mustard, a book of recipes, a set of culinary accessories, professional apron. Vase with Small Bouquet. There are many different flowers to choose from, so find out which one they prefer. You can send a simple bouquet or decorate the office with a variety of stunning plants and bright flowers. Gift card. Perhaps you're stumped as to what to get your favorite staff as a present. Allow them to choose whatever they want with this employee appreciation gift idea. There are also eCards that employees can take and spend immediately, without going anywhere. Conclusion It doesn't matter if you run a big company or a small one; showing your employees that you care is essential. These employee appreciation ideas are just a few of the many options available to you. Employee appreciation should not be limited to one day a year, but rather should be integrated into your company's culture and organizational structure. Author Bio: Helen Wilson is a professional content writer. Her main spheres of specialization are Productivity and HR. She also studies topics about psychology and health.

Do you know the phrase “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”? If you’re in the HR world, chances are that it’s been quoted to you at least once - and it didn’t come out of nowhere. Regardless of how many plans you make or how much strategizing you do, your company culture can change everything about your organization. It will set the tone of your business above and beyond any strategic plan you try to implement. We talked to the VP of Human Resources at Tailor Brands, Yael Sapir-Zehavi, who shared a few tips on how she built a strong company culture at Tailor Brands - and how you can do the same. Let’s dive in! Establish Values to Live By Your company values are the foundation of your culture. Full stop. A clear set of values will help your employees understand what you stand for, and how they fit into that big picture in their day to day. “This is where the top-down aspects of creating company culture come into play,” said Sapir-Zehavi. “Our values aren’t what we want to be - they’re not a compass - but the way we do things. It was really important for us to have multiple examples so that we could easily share our culture with new hires. With clearly defined values, we have the ability to say, ‘This is how we do things at Tailor Brands, this is our DNA.’” At Tailor Brands, she went on to say, all of the values are really about making room for the people who work there: Start with trust (autonomy) Try, fail, repeat Make something beautiful Powered by results Once you establish your own values, they need to infuse everything you do within your organization from the bottom up - starting with the language that you use. Implement a Clear Company Language It may sound a bit obvious, but what differentiates humans from animals is the fact that we can speak with one another - and the language you use will define the reality of your company. That’s because language is the ability to put symbols on words and to communicate through those symbols. Both you and your team members can use the word “autonomy”, for example, and the fact that you both know what it is allows you to be able to expand on the idea. “If you have an organizational language that’s easy for you to use, then you’ll be able to implement the organizational culture that you want to promote. For example, while we do have a hierarchical structure [at Tailor Brands], our culture isn’t hierarchical at all. You’ll rarely find someone using the word ‘employees’ - we’re all ‘team members’ here, and everyone is an equal part of the team,” said Yael. “That’s one of the reasons establishing our values was an important part of building our culture,” she continued. “In meetings, it’s normal to hear things like ‘okay, try, fail, repeat; worse comes to worst, we won’t use it’ or, ‘You know what? Start with trust, go ahead and let’s see how it goes.’ We bring our values into our day-to-day conversation, our everyday language.” Creating this shared language ultimately helps foster the kind of environment you want to promote within your company. Walk the Talk ...but actually. Everyone says the same thing, that it’s super important to put your words (or values) into action, but what does that look like in practice? Yael addressed a few ways to walk the talk in three key areas: Your office design, the structure of your business, and the degree to which you let your team make their own choices. Let your office reflect your culture How you build and design your office is a great way to infuse the culture that you want to implement. “Our CEO has a desk in the open space, right next to our team,” Sapir-Zehavi emphasized. “He doesn’t have a big office with his door closed, and neither does HR, Finance, any of the upper management; all of the management sits within the larger team.” This is another way to reinforce the non-hierarchical culture at Tailor Brands. And, for companies that are still working over Zoom, office structure is especially important. “We believe that one of the things that help people have conversations via Zoom is the fact that everyone is equal. If you’re not at the office and you’re on a call with six people who are all sitting together in a room, you’re missing the small nuances of conversation. If someone tells a joke, the people in the room laugh, and you didn’t hear it - you’ll feel like an outsider. “ These seemingly small things can create such a big impact on the sense of an employee’s belonging in your company - which translates into how engaged they are. So what are some possible solutions? “We make sure that if we have big conversations over Zoom, no more than two or three people are in the same room so that people who are working from home don’t feel like outsiders. We’ll never have five people together in a meeting with one person on the outside if we can avoid it.” Yael went on to say that, as Tailor Brands is expanding and looking for a new office that can accommodate the growing team, it’s important to them to find a solution that supports a hybrid workspace. “We want to keep the open space concept, but we do need to consider a space that includes a lot of little ‘breakout’ rooms that will let people join larger Zoom conversations - without making those who are joining from home feel excluded.” Create an organizational structure that supports your values The structural way in which your team works is just as important to building the type of culture you want. For example, if you want employees to understand your KPIs, to know what they’re trying to accomplish, and that what they do has an impact on the company’s overall end goals, you have to have an organizational structure that allows them to do that. “We work in pods - small autonomous groups that mirror a business unit - on an aspect of the product, with everything you need in order to reach your goal. Pods make it easy to obtain an internal locus of control and create a sense of responsibility in each team member, making everyone feel like they’re essential to the team,” said Yael. Whether you work in pods or sprints, encourage Summer Fridays or a three-day work week, make sure that the organizational structure you implement reflects your values in some way. This could also include things like: Establishing clear KPIs for each team member at the beginning of every project Have regular team meetings in which you review and analyze results, both at the company level and the team level Quarterly presentations from each Team Lead Monthly offsites for strategic planning And, last but not least: Give your employees freedom of choice Once you have the foundation of what you believe in as a company, reflect it in any way you can! If making your employees feel seen is a priority for you, don’t make decisions for your team that they can make for themselves. This doesn’t have to (only) apply to important company decisions; for example, if you offer meal cards, why not let your team decide individually if they want to use Uber-Eats or DoorDash (or whichever meal cards are popular in your area)? Giving your employees the freedom to choose will empower them to make decisions in other areas, make them feel seen by your company, and give them the feeling that they have a seat at the table. Start Creating the Culture You Believe in Building a company culture isn’t a lofty goal; it’s a sensible process that’s not just top-down or bottom-up, but an integrative approach. So, start by defining what your values are and being explicit about them. Don’t just use them as a guide, but as a blueprint for how you do things in your company. “When you clarify what your values are, it helps people understand the rules of the game,” Sapir-Zehavi emphasized. Then, make sure those rules are consistent! Use language that helps people internalize these values, build an organizational culture that lets the team express themselves within it, and design your office as a place where you can share these values and evoke them. Follow these steps, and you’ll be able to set the tone for your company that both employees and management will connect to. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time! You can connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

It is a basic human need to be in a healthy, safe, and comfortable environment. People spend a decent amount of their time at work, sometimes more than they spend at their own homes, so having a workplace that is positive and safe is important to keep employees healthy, engaged, and productive. This is not only good for your employees, but it’s also good for your company. Unhappy employees cost U.S. companies an estimated $550 billion annually. Here are some ways you can create a better workplace atmosphere. 1. Provide proper onboarding and training Not providing new hires with a proper onboarding experience can have an immediate effect on their morale, confidence, productivity, and the way they view your business. First impressions are important when meeting new people, and they are just as important for new employees when entering a workplace. Here are some strategies you can use to improve the onboarding process. Make sure your new hires are properly introduced to their team and to the company's culture. Provide them with ongoing, individualized training with adequate time to learn and practice their skills. Set expectations and goals specifically for your new hire’s role, with clearly defined success metrics and milestones, and communicate with them about opportunities for growth. Make sure their workspace and technology is functioning, clean, and ready for them to get started. If you are onboarding for a remote team, these onboarding tips can help make the process run smoothly. 2. Be committed as a leader As a leader, you set the tone for the workplace. People want to be proud of not only where they work but also who they work for. Being committed to your team and to their personal and professional development can have a huge effect on your team's wellbeing, increasing productivity and reducing employee turnover. To learn even more about improving the employee experience and increasing your competitive advantage while providing a fast return on investment, download our ebook now. Download now 3. Develop a safe environment Working in an unsafe environment can have a huge impact on employees' mental and physical wellbeing. It can cause them to have increased levels of stress inside and outside of work, lowered productivity and engagement, increased chances of workplace errors or accidents, and increased absenteeism and turnover. Here are some signs and behaviors that may be present in an unsafe work environment. Sexual Harassment Sexual harassment can take the form of repeatedly asking for dates after the person has said no, sexually explicit talk, unwanted physical touch, aggressive staring or leering, and even requests for sexual favors. This study found that up to 38% of women experience sexual harassment in the workplace. Make sure you keep up with sexual harassment training requirements based on your state to help prevent and deal with these situations as they arise. Racial Harassment Racial harassment may be difficult to identify in the workplace. It can take the form of mocking a fellow team member's accent, using racial slurs or generalizations and telling derogatory jokes. If someone on your team is experiencing this type of treatment, they may be hesitant to bring it up for fear of it affecting their reputation, job security, or even their personal safety. Incorporating an anonymous system for whistleblowing can be a useful tool for your team to bring up concerns so these issues can be dealt with immediately to prevent legal repercussions. Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity Harassment Sexual orientation or gender identity harassment involves offensive, derogatory, or demeaning comments based on a team member’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including a team member’s transgender status. Team members refusing to use the correct pronouns for their fellow team members or using a name that was assigned at birth and they no longer use are included as harassment and should not be tolerated. Personal Harassment Personal harassment is a type of harassment that is not part of a protected class, like gender, religion, or race. It is a type of bullying that can most likely be found in toxic work environments. Here are some ways it can be presented: Verbal harassment includes gossip, mockery, offensive jokes, or insults. Intimidation tactics in the form of threats, invasion of privacy, social exclusion, and spying. Work-related practices like giving wrongful blame, sabotaging or interfering with projects, or stealing and taking credit for ideas. Rationalizing or defending bullying, making excuses for acting inappropriately, and blaming the victim for being mistreated. Personal harassment is often psychological or verbal and not physical, making it harder for others to notice or to act. It is important to listen to team members bringing up concerns on how they or a fellow team member are being treated and to learn tips on how to manage and resolve conflict in the workplace. Disability harassment is when a team member is treated poorly or unfairly in the workplace due to a physical or mental disability. This can include team members using slurs, making inappropriate comments or jokes, and excluding them from work-related functions. In a study by the EEOC, 32.2% of workplace discrimination cases filed in 2018 were for disability harassment, which is only a tenth of a percent behind sexual harassment cases. 4. Hold everyone accountable It is important that your team knows what is expected of them with their performance and behavior. Without clearly set boundaries and objectives, you can’t expect them to give the results you need. Newly hired employees should be given a grace period, but after that time ends, they should be held fully accountable for their performance. Your team should all be treated as equals and given an equal amount of work. If you notice an employee not meeting expectations in their competency or behavior, try not to shift their workload onto a better-performing employee. This can put your top performers at an increased risk of burnout, while the underperforming employees’ growth will remain stagnant. 5. Let everyone have a voice Checking in with your team regularly is important to gather feedback and see where things might need some tweaking in your company. Both one-on-one and group meetings can be useful tools in keeping communication going. Act on the feedback you get and keep your team involved in the process, and when an idea is utilized let the whole team know who came up with the idea. When members of your team have ideas that are not utilized, open up a conversation with the team member and let them know that you value their input and walk them through why their idea was not chosen, but still encourage them to share their ideas next time. 6. Trust your team As a leader, your leadership style greatly affects your workplace environment. Leaders who micromanage create a hostile, unsafe work environment that lowers morale, increases stress, reduces productivity, and leads to poor employee retention. As a leader, you should provide support and guidance, and create a healthy space for your team to freely think act, and perform their best without fear of their actions being perceived as the wrong move. Your team was chosen for a reason, so let them show you what they are capable of and offer guidance when it is truly needed. Your team works hard. It is important to show your appreciation and say thank you for a job well done in a fair and equal way by avoiding these mistakes when recognizing your team. This will help keep your team motivated and productive, boost their morale, and provide them with a sense of security. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

The holiday season is almost upon us. This is the time of year when employees' minds are elsewhere and they lose motivation. After a long year of hard work, people are eager to take a break and spend quality time with family and friends. However, having unmotivated employees is not beneficial for the business, and as a manager, it is important to consider the best interests of not only your employees but also the company. Luckily, there are plenty of ways in which you can support and encourage your employees during the lead-up to the festive season. Below are ways that you can do to engage your employees during this season: 1. Encourage Employees to Take Time Off This tip seems counterintuitive because you want employees to continue working despite the distractions that the holiday season provides. However, working harder doesn’t equate to better performance. In fact, putting in more work than necessary results in employee burnout. Oftentimes a decrease in productivity is caused by fatigue. Therefore, instead of pushing employees to keep going over the festive period, encourage them to take a well-deserved break. Many employees feel as though management won’t support them if they submit a leave request form, so push through instead of asking for it. However, taking leave is incredibly beneficial for employees, and therefore the business as well. It is important to encourage a healthy work-life balance and to show employees they are valued as humans and not just as a number. At the same time, as a manager, it is essential that holiday leave is managed correctly. Ensure that all leave is submitted by a certain date and that the business can still function efficiently whilst people are off. 2. Acknowledge What Was Accomplished Over the Past Year Whilst people work to earn money, many people also find pleasure in their jobs and get satisfaction out of doing it well. As a result of this, employees want to feel valued and appreciated for their efforts. One of the best ways to do this is by acknowledging their accomplishments over the past year. There are multiple ways to show your appreciation to employees. One of them is by giving monetary rewards or bonuses to employees that have exceeded their goals. However, you don't have to reward employees with cash just to show your appreciation. Other options include a team dinner, team retreats, and verbally congratulating employees on what they have achieved. By verbally telling each of your employees how much you appreciate the work they put out and showing how much it impacted the bottom line, you increase employee engagement and morale in the company. According to a Great Place to Work Institute survey, 37% of employees consider recognition as one of the "most important drivers of great work." Since employees have proof that their work matters, you also inspire them to produce better work moving forward, knowing that it serves a purpose in the organization. As a result, this promotes a work culture of purpose-driven employees who take pride in the work they do in your organization. This kind of work environment also helps improve employee retention rates because nobody is willing to part from a company that acknowledges the value they provide. 3. Arrange Fun Activities or Parties While business is mostly about the bottom line, you should also allow time for fun and games. Arranging parties and activities leading up to the holiday break allows you to break the invisible barriers that exist between teams and departments in your organization. Employees within the same department stick together, which is understandable to a degree. However, engaging employees in your entire company to socialize together regardless of which teams they belong to should help create a festive atmosphere during the holidays and moving forward. Activities and parties also build camaraderie among employees which ultimately leads to higher levels of motivation. Events can range from something simple such as a team dinner to bigger events like parties. Themed parties are a great way to incorporate the festive spirit and allow employees to relax and enjoy themselves. Regardless of the type of event, it is also a good idea to include games and activities. Secret Santa, quizzes, and presentations are all good options. 4. Start Planning for the Year Ahead Although focusing on the holidays and having fun helps with motivation, it is also good practice to remind your employees that work will resume in the New Year. Interestingly, planning for the year ahead is a great source of motivation for your team. Planning is not always reserved for the end of the year; in most businesses management works on quarterly reviews and plans to go over how the past three months have been and what the focus is for the coming months. This allows businesses to assess what has been successful and what needs to be adjusted. Quarterly plans are even more important as the year comes to a close as businesses will want to hit the ground running in January. Planning can also be used as a tool to help with employee motivation by allowing employees to get involved and share their thoughts on what they believe would be beneficial in the coming year. Knowing there are goals and a plan in place for after the holidays often improves motivation because employees know there will be a new challenge after their time off. The end of the year is also a good time to consider employee development. Spend time chatting to your team to find out what drives them and how you can support them moving forward. By finding out their career goals and objectives, you can offer them developmental programs such as special projects, one-on-one coaching and mentoring, and other activities that will help unlock their potential of becoming future leaders in your organization. 5. Offer Stress-Free Services and Programs at Work Let’s face it: all this preparation for fun activities is just as taxing even if it’s done in the spirit of the holidays. The simple truth is that although the festive season is fun, it can also be exhausting. Many people find the holiday season incredibly stressful, and some employees may not feel refreshed even after some time off. To counter this, extra steps can be taken to provide employees with resources to help them deal with stress in productive ways. Some examples could include sharing wellness tips or doing breathing exercises in team meetings. Finally, you can offer corporate health programs to people in your company looking to get in better physical and mental health. These programs will invite fitness instructors and meditation specialists over to hold regular sessions after work for employees interested in getting to better shape. Conclusion The chaotic winter months can make people lose sight of your company goals to help you finish the year strong. And you definitely can’t achieve this if you don’t get your employees involved and motivated to do the remaining work at hand. However, just as important as producing work during the festive season, it is crucial to make your employees feel valued and appreciated in your organization. Therefore, instead of finding more ways to get them to hand over more deliverables at the end of the year, the tips above allow you to give them the credit they deserve after doing an excellent job for your company. Therefore, by following the ways to keep employees engaged and motivated during the holidays, you can boost employee morale and promote a stronger culture, both of which are important to business success. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

HR is becoming more complex all the time. For a start, it’s more hybrid, with gig employees making up a larger percentage of the workforce. In the near future, demand for gig workers is expected to rise from 77% to 94% for support services, and 63% to 94% for corporate staff. It doesn’t help that “job for life” is no longer part of the lexicon, so there is also a lot more movement into, out of, and within the enterprise. Today’s employees are looking for new challenges, positive corporate culture, and opportunities to advance their professional horizons and discover their personal talents and capabilities, and you need to meet these expectations if you hope to retain them. Close to three-quarters of workers are more likely to remain at a company that offers skill-building opportunities. On top of all that, the impact of the pandemic, plus the existing drive towards digital transformation, has made change management more pressing, more challenging, and more frequent, further complicating the picture. HR managers today need to gather employees’ data so as to keep track of all the capabilities of each individual, in order to know how best to support them, what to offer them, and how to put those skills to best use. But at the same time, you need to keep track of the makeup of your teams and the organization as a larger whole, so you can respond to changes in your industry and be ready to mitigate risks and seize opportunities. It’s not really possible to handle this without the help of new technology, but is tech all you need? Manual Performance Reviews Are No Longer Sufficient Performance reviews are crucial for encouraging employees and enabling employee growth. Ideally, they should be ongoing, constantly updating a representation of each employee’s strengths and weaknesses, but that’s a high bar to clear — unless you have tech to help you. Traditional performance reviews involve lots of emails and spreadsheets. You have to dog people to complete their forms, and it’s easy for information to get isolated. But HR platforms have user-friendly interfaces to make it easy for people to carry out continuous performance assessments without friction. That said, delivering the results of a performance review requires tact, sympathy, and compassion, capabilities that machines don’t possess. You need a living, breathing, and well-trained human who can convey the results in a way that the employee is able to hear and take in, so your employees get built up, not torn down. Mental Health and Employee Wellbeing Demand Tech and Human Synergy There’s no denying that a good HR manager has to be a people person, someone who can spot the employee who seems down, sluggish, or unmotivated. It takes a face-to-face conversation for an HR manager to check if an employee is waving or drowning. But remote work made that tough to achieve, and many organizations still haven’t returned to the office. Increased awareness around mental health challenges has raised the bar for managers to detect them and offer support, at just the same time as anxiety, bereavement, and long covid caused by the pandemic has raised the incidence of mental health issues. At this point, HR managers can’t do it alone. They need help from mental health apps, which can both provide regular support for those who need it, and identify those employees who need more than app-based guided meditations. Personalized Interactions At Scale Are a Step Beyond Human Capabilities It’s challenging for HR teams in a large enterprise to offer personalized training sessions and project opportunities, or suggest a new internal role, to the right employee at the right time. Many share these openings on a central forum and simply trust that employees will see them, but most notices go unseen. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-driven HR tools can help. They analyze employees and constantly update their assessment of individual skills and skills gaps, interests, and intra-team dynamics to create a multi-faceted understanding of each employee and push relevant opportunities in their direction. Some also use augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) to create immersive, personalized training experiences. While these tools are invaluable, an enterprise still needs the holistic opinion of a human HR manager, both as part of and to confirm the data that a talent management platform might draw on. Technology Fatigue is Real Both employees and HR managers risk experiencing tech fatigue. Overloading employees with tech tools intended to improve their working environment, wellbeing, and employee experience can often end up backfiring. Likewise, HR managers with too many tech platforms can easily miss the wood for the trees, and fail to notice serious issues developing within the workforce. However, HR managers who have too big a workload can face burnout, especially when many are managing hybrid teams and dealing with the ongoing fallout of the pandemic. The right way to use tech is to automate tedious HR tasks and lighten the burden on HR teams, so managers can spend more time on the human interactions and assessments that AI can’t (yet?) take over. Successful HR Management Is All About Balance Tech is a vital way to augment the abilities of your HR team and help them do their jobs more effectively, but like in every sphere of the world of work, HR teams need to use human and machine capabilities in a balanced way. By applying AI and ML to automate time-consuming tasks, streamline performance reviews, support employee mental health needs, and improve talent management, HR managers can improve HR processes across the board. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

An effective employee communication portal for your company is of timeless importance. Today, innovative technologies like the employee intranet empower employees to work more productively and make fewer mistakes. Still, it’s important to set up your employee intranet correctly. Keep reading for 13 steps to follow when setting up your employee intranet. 1. Plan for Change There are many available employee intranet software solutions. Planning will help you narrow down your choices and ensure that you don’t get overwhelmed. You could begin the process by asking why you’re deploying an employee intranet software. You might also consider what challenges the intranet will enable you to solve. Most importantly, however, you want to ask yourself what outcomes you expect from intranet deployment 2. Define a Purpose With this in mind, you can accomplish many goals with an employee intranet. For instance, it can help with: Business process automation Document management Employee social engagement Knowledge management Teamwork support No matter your desired outcome, it’s helpful to document your intentions clearly. This statement of goals will guide the features you seek during the intranet platform selection process. It’s well worth the extra effort to ensure that a company communication portal can support your various workflows. 3. Outline Must-Have Functions When considering an intranet software solution, think about your company’s internal networking strategy. For instance, what problems do you need to solve? You might want a solution that creates a functional workspace for employees who seldom meet face-to-face. Alternatively, you may want to create a company culture where employees are more engaged and informed. Ultimately, you must question whether various software solutions will provide the needed functionality. In most cases, however, you’ll want a customizable solution that’s easy to use. It’s also important to choose a solution that will integrate easily with your existing systems. Also, your chosen intranet platform should serve as a centralized information hub, communications platform, and collaboration tool. 4. List Nice-To-Have-Functions Now, you can start to look at the functions that might make work-life more convenient or enjoyable. In other words, consider the extras or special features that would prove nice but aren’t mission-critical. For example, it might be nice if your company intranet resembled a popular social media platform. This resemblance would encourage faster adoption. Alternatively, you may want to select an intranet platform that integrates with your existing tools. This kind of capability will make it easier for you to automate business processes. 5. Get Employee Feedback It’s employees who’ll use your company intranet. With this in mind, it’s important to find out their needs. By collecting employee feedback, you can also figure the overall structure needed for your company intranet. This information will also help you pinpoint optimal features and determine governance policies. For instance, you might need an intranet that supports employee collaboration. In that case, you’d talk to your teams about the features that they need to support their daily work. 6. Choose an Intranet Platform Now that you’ve fully assessed your wants and needs, you can start to look at software solutions. At this stage, you’ll need to assemble a team to research the market and identify potential intranet solutions. It’s essential to narrow down your choices to solutions that align with your wants and needs. Here, it’s important to remember your previous research as you review potential vendors. Today, nearly any company will benefit from a modern, social intranet. For this reason, many companies trust a solution like LIKE.TG to support their employee culture and experience. 7. Develop an Employee Intranet Policy Before launching an employee intranet software, it’s critical to establish a usage policy. For example, you may want to keep as many important documents as possible on your intranet. Relying on a mix of different software solutions wastes time. Likewise, hunting for information can prove frustrating. In this regard, it may help to review your existing communication challenges. An understanding of your challenges will help you to develop an effective intranet policy moving forward. 8. Establish Accountability It’s also important to designate an intranet manager. This individual will oversee your internal networking strategy. For example, they’ll manage content sharing and restrictions as it applies to your employee intranet. It’s also important to choose someone who’s responsible for publishing information and maintaining various parts of your intranet. This individual must also ensure that your intranet content stays up to date. 9. Prepare for Launch It’s also vital to plan how you’ll launch your employee intranet. For example, your company may have had an existing system in place. If so, you can use that system to establish baseline metrics. It will help you to develop new adoption and engagement goals for your new employee intranet. It’s also important to make sure top-level managers are on board with the employee intranet deployment. The acceptance of company change starts at the top and trickles down. With executive leaders on board, employee acceptance will follow. You may also consider holding special training sessions. During the sessions, you’ll teach frontline managers about the new employee intranet. With this new knowledge, they can easily promote the new intranet and answer employee questions. 10. Roll Out Your Intranet Rolling out an employee intranet will prove different for every company. Usually, however, large organizations require a more complex deployment. Also, a larger company will require more time for the deployment of a new employee intranet. However, all companies can benefit from testing a new employee intranet before full deployment. During this testing stage, you’ll also want to establish the roles and responsibilities of employees. For instance, some employees might handle training. Others might oversee governance and policies. Yet other employees might manage content creation and approval. These are the kinds of responsibilities you can solidify during your test rollout. 11. Establish Access Controls It’s critical to establish access controls as needed. For example, you’ll most likely need to restrict certain areas of your intranet or keep your information confidential. You may even want to establish controls where some sensitive information is viewable or searchable only by authorized personnel. It’s important to identify these kinds of security concerns quickly. You must address them immediately to ensure the security of your company information. 12. Show Employees Around It’s important that your staff understands everything that your employee intranet can do. They must also know how to use it. It helps to highlight the challenges that the new employee intranet will help you overcome. For instance, you may have selected a new intranet to give employees better access to your employee directory. Alternatively, you may have wanted to boost employee engagement by providing employees with the same features as a social media site. By choosing an employee intranet solution with this kind of capability, you can promote better real-time communication. You can also empower employees to experience more meaningful interactions and work more productively. 13. Promote the Employee Intranet By deploying a new employee intranet, you’re asking employees to learn a new software system. It’s important that they understand how they’ll benefit from it. It’s also important for them to understand how to use it. With this in mind, it’s essential to model the behavior you want to see from your employees. Also, it’s important for managers to check the new employee intranet regularly. Managers must make sure that they’re available to answer questions. They should also make themselves available to acknowledge feedback. Also, it’s important for managers to show employees that the new intranet is a good thing. For example, management should make use of the employee intranet to give employees praise. This kind of positive feedback will help to promote a faster uptake of the new employee intranet. Benefits of an Employee Intranet Hopefully, our tips will help you to create a modern employee intranet. More importantly, we want you to enjoy the full benefits of the new software. It takes time and effort to deploy a new employee intranet. Still, the extra work is well worth the effort. When done correctly, a contemporary employee intranet can promote information accuracy. It will also help to improve employee productivity. Most importantly, an up-to-date employee intranet can help to eliminate knowledge silos. It will enable your company to benefit from the full insights of your company’s collective knowledge. Things to Avoid Again, employee intranet deployment is different for every company. However, there are a few things that every company should make sure not to overlook. For example, every company should establish documented rules about how staff members are allowed to communicate using the employee intranet. It’s also important to provide training for employees who will use the new platform. They must understand how to navigate through the new system and use its features. Also, it’s vital to remember that an employee intranet contains important data. Today, any data requires security measures. Most companies secure their company intranet with logon credentials. However, in today’s environment, it’s vital to take security a step further. It’s good practice to secure your information with a firewall that protects your intranet from the outside world. It’s also important to encrypt data that lives on your company intranet. You should also backup your data regularly to prevent information loss. Boost Engagement With the Best Intranet on the Market Hopefully, our guide on setting up your employee intranet has given you valuable insights. By following our tips, you can make sure that your company gets the most out of an employee intranet deployment. If you’re looking for the best employee intranet software available, LIKE.TG can help. Our Workmates employee intranet software will give you a critical edge in promoting teamwork, boosting morale, and driving employee engagement. More importantly, it’s a modern, easy-to-use social intranet platform that really works. Don’t take our word for it. Request a free demo to learn more about how our employee intranet software can help you to boost employee engagement. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!

For years, businesses have been diligently catering to their customers' needs. Their USP, corporate ethos, mission statement, and branding are all carefully crafted to surpass the expectations of their client base. Business KPIs and strategies have always been focused on retaining customers and acquiring new ones. In terms of profit and ROI, this makes complete sense. And the happier those customers are, the more they will spend on your products and services. That is still the case today and it no doubts always will be. But a shift is happening in how employers handle the expectations of their staff. In roughly ten minutes you’ll be provided with some invaluable insights including what EVPs are, how to implement them, and how they can drive profits and save money. That's our Reader Value Proposition if you will. What Are EVPs? You might be thinking: this is nothing new. Surely Employee Value Propositions are just perks worded in business jargon, right? Well, it's a touch more complicated than that. Perks are across-the-board; one-size-fits-all benefits intended to keep employees happy. They’re basic rewards that generally don't change over time. EVPs are a cultural shift whereby you invest just as much in your employees as you do in your customers. It means you extend your ethos, mission statement, and KPIs towards retaining staff and maintaining their wellbeing. That means investing time and money. It means researching, planning, and reviewing. It means providing financial and non-financial benefits to attract and retain the best talent. After all, it's your staff who keep your customers happy and find you, new customers. If you want the best customers then you need the best staff. Why Do You Need EVPs? Today's top talent have a ton of offers and options. Organizations have long-term strategies for acquiring the best candidates, so prospects can afford to take their time and evaluate their choices. Remote working means that businesses can cast a global net to find the best talent for a role - but so also can prospects. Therefore, if you want the best, you face international competition. How to Implement EVPs Your EVP strategy should be unique to your industry, your organization, and to your employees. Consult your current and former staff - if they've moved to working remotely, then use the most secure video conferencing. When someone leaves your organization, ask them why. What were the push-and-pull factors in their decision? Employee surveys are an efficient method for gathering data. Ask questions such as: What do you like about working for the company? What do you dislike about working here? Which of your tasks do you find challenging or difficult? Which of your tasks do you find easy or repetitive? How long do you envisage working for the company? Can you see a clear line of progression within the company? Is there any training or development which would benefit you? Do you ever feel overworked or stressed? When and why? Is there anything more the company could do to ease your workload? Are you able to “switch off” when you're not working? Are you happy with the salary and financial rewards you get from the company? Do you feel stable in your position? Do you feel you get adequate time off work? Which of our current employee benefits do you most appreciate? Can you think of any other benefits that the company can consider? If you get any recurring responses then it's probably worth addressing the issue but you should get a contrasting range of responses. Your EVP strategy needs to be just as adaptable and diverse as your workforce. Examples of EVPs Many EVPs are specific to their industry, but let's look at some of the broader EVPs which can apply to most organizations. Financial EVPs As well as basic salary, you might have other incentives to reward your employees, namely: Performance-based bonuses Annual bonuses Sponsored vacations Pension plans Health insurance Paid time off Complimentary meals Free refreshments Discounts for company products Non-financial EVPs Although not financial incentives, many non-financial EVPs do still require investment and will need budgeting. They look like this: Team building exercises Stability and security Equality Flexitime Camaraderie Work/life balance Standardized comms Here, work/life balance and standardized comms are related. Standardizing your communications to a single channel or has numerous benefits. It means all your comms are in one place so messages don't get lost or forgotten. Lastly, it means that when the working day is done, your staff can shut down their comms channel. They can enjoy quality time without being interrupted by work messages. This reduces stress, aids quality of sleep, and improves diet - all of which will make your team more efficient and productive during work hours. Career-based EVPs For your most ambitious and driven employees, career-based EVPs will be key. They can include: Career development Technical training Improving and refining current skills Acquiring brand new skills Buddying and mentoring Management skills Travel opportunities Learning new languages Medical and mental health training Focussing on the last point on the list, it's a good idea to have an employee with mental health training in each department and remember to display their names where your staff can see them. If anyone has a problem, they’ll have a list of people they can talk to and can choose to talk to individuals they feel most comfortable with. Automation An EVP that doesn't comfortably fit in one category is digital transformation acceleration rpa. This means that repetitive and menial tasks can be automated. Your staff members are freed up to do work that is more meaningful, creative, and rewarding. Not to mention more profitable! Customize your EVPs Tailor your EVP strategy to different age groups, interests, ambitions, and requirements. Let your employees map out their own EVP journeys. Mapping your ideal customer is a well-known marketing technique. It can also be used for recruitment, so try mapping out your perfect employee and see the journey it takes you on. What kind of role would attract them? What benefits can you offer to make you stand out? How would you financially incentivize them? How can you help to further them and develop their career? What working environment would they enjoy? What are their long-term ambitions and goals? Would something as simple as a virtual phone number help them? On a Mission Your EVP plan is there to attract prospects - so tell them about it! The first thing to do is write your EVP ethos into a mission statement or promise. It might look something like this: "Joe's Shack started as a family business in 1978. We now employ more than 300 people but we still feel like a family. We believe that each employee is different and important. We will inspire you, motivate you, and expand your skillset. Tell us your dreams and ambitions and we will help you realize them. Join the Joe's Shack family." Sell your EVP plans in the same way you promote products. It should feel like a product in that it is something that people will want to buy into. Word of mouth is great for recruitment. If your staff is well looked after and happy, they’ll tell the world about it. Word will soon travel throughout your industry that you are a great employer. You can spread the word as well. Write about your EVP plan on your company website, socials, blogs, and video channels. Let your customers see how much you value your people. Added Value Businesses are always happy to invest in productivity-boosting technology like call recording software, or task management solutions. However, they tend to forget about employee satisfaction. It's just as important, and investing in welfare-boosting incentives is a surefire way to improve the employee experience. Customers like using companies that have happy employers. A strong EVP will boost sales and provide a great ROI. You won't have to spend as much time or money on your recruitment campaigns. People will come to you and ask for work instead of you having to go to them. Furthermore, if you can retain your staff, you save money on training new employees. Review and refine Times change and so do people. You innovate and adapt to meet customer expectations and you should do the same for your staff. The principles of EVP mean that your staff are more engaged and are happier to talk to you. They will share their ideas and not just about EVPs, but about business in general. They might suggest new techniques and technologies like workflow process software. Your EVP plan should be under constant review. Stay ahead of your competitors and keep your best talent. Long-term Links EVPs mean you will be better placed to retain your staff and it also helps maximize their potential while you work together. You can't always keep hold of an employee; an employee might want to work in a different industry, for example. They might emigrate. Or, they might even be dealing with external emotional factors such as a long-distance relationship. If things don't work out, they’ll hopefully come back and work for you once more. You see, some relationships are just too good to give up. Author Bio: Erik Bergman co-founded Catena Media and helped grow it to over 300 employees and a $200 million valuation before stepping away to start Great.com, an iGaming organization that donates 100% of its profits to environmental charities. In addition to running a successful online affiliate business, Erik also hosts the Becoming Great podcast, shares entrepreneurship tips with his more than 1 million social media followers, and contributes to sites like Entrepreneuer.com, Business Insider, Foundr, and Forbes.