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The Long Haul: 5 Tips for Honoring Loyal, Long-Time Employees

June 22, 2017 by admin

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You can’t put a price tag on the value that long-time employees provide to your business. They’ve been with you through it all: the good, the bad and the ugly. You’ve celebrated birthdays together, hit countless deadlines and maybe even relied on each other to make it through networking events.

How can you honor these loyal team members and show them that you truly appreciate the years of work they’ve put in helping you sustain and grow your business? Handing them a card on their “jobiversary” seems a little understated. After all, as Glassdoor points out, these employees have proven their loyalty, flexibility and understanding of your company over time.

Here are five tips for expressing your appreciation for your valued veteran employees. 

Give Earnest Thanks

There’s no substitute for looking someone in the eye and sincerely telling them that you appreciate them. However, you can make your point even more powerful if you bring up specific examples.

Before you pull an employee into your office to thank them (perhaps on a work anniversary or another milestone), collect positive feedback from their colleagues. Think about situations where they’ve proven to be an irreplaceable part of the team. This way, when you deliver your high praise, you’ll be demonstrating to them that you notice their strengths and contributions.

Don’t forget to mention a few traits or actions outside of daily job requirements, too. Does this employee take the time to bake treats and bring them in for the team? Does he or she step up to mentor new employees and interns without anyone asking? Have they organized an important event (like a luncheon, gala or party) on top of their everyday duties? Point it out. 

Make Your Appreciation Heard

In addition to taking the time to say thanks one-on-one, you can get the whole office involved. While you would never want to embarrass or patronize any employees, you still want to let them know that you’re not alone in appreciating them—the whole team does, too.

Thoughtful group activities like a collaborative card, desk decorating or a special blog post on your company website can help long-term employees feel outwardly proud about their contributions. 

Let’s Do Lunch

Everybody loves lunch. Let your employee of honor pick the place occasionally. It’s the perfect setting for a mix of friendly chit chat and discussing the company in earnest. Not only will you get to know the person better as an individual, but you may even pick up some valuable pointers on how you can keep improving your company’s culture and workflow, according to Spark Hire. And of course, pick up the tab at the end of the meal.

A Well-Deserved Bonus

Feeling valued is about a combination of words and actions. While you can never buy your way to having a supportive company culture, you can put your money where your mouth is and offer bonuses to stellar, long-term employees.

This monetary reward can be in the form of an incremental raise, a one-time bonus or a non-cash gift, and should be separate from their typical yearly raise. In fact, one of the greatest ways to appreciate your employees is to make sure their benefits package is competitive to start with. There’s no one-time gift that can replace benefits like health insurance, workers compensation, paid time off and more. 

Offer Privileges

If your company isn’t quite in the position to offer financial rewards, there are still many ways you can thank your steadfast employees. After all, they’ve stood by you for years!

Here are a few employee perks that won’t bust your budget:

– Flexible hours

– Extra days off

– Longer lunches

– Health and wellness enrichment

– Healthy food and snacks

– Team volunteer outings

As important as it is to honor loyal employees with special displays, one of the best things you can do for them is foster a positive company culture year-round complete with benefits, privileges and honest feedback.

Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: business, employees, staff, workforce

Bringing Your Content to Life with Live Streams

June 15, 2017 by admin

The world of the twenty-first century is one that moves faster than ever before. We want our news fast, entertainment on demand and our audio and video content delivered instantly. When speed is the name of the game, everything – business technology included – must adapt to keep pace.

One of the greatest steps forward that has been made in that field is the introduction of live video streaming to the conference room or office. With an increasingly global marketplace, corporations now source materials and labor from all parts of the planet, but the need for real, face to face, human interaction has not waned. If anything, the rapidly moving pace of the modern world has only increased the need for conversation and collaboration in business. Real-time audiovisual communication is one way this need can be met that considers cost, time constraints and overall efficiency and serves up a solution to every problem.

What Is Streaming?

According to Tech Target, a stream is video content that is compressed and sent via the internet to be experienced by a viewer in real time. What this means is that while creators are presenting their content, interested viewers can watch events unfold as they occur, even from thousands of miles away. The concept of the stream has revolutionized the way we experience world events, online media and indeed the world. When something happens in China for example, Americans can learn about it as it takes place. This creates an entirely new educational, political, scientific and social climate that we would have never been capable of navigating just a few decades ago.

All the receiver or viewer needs in order to enjoy media as it’s created is a player, which is any application that hosts streamed video. This can be included in the software of the device they use or may be an additional application or downloaded program, but there are dozens of these resources available for users of every type of technology.

The application of streaming media varies widely from user to user, but the primary usage is entertainment and journalistic coverage. Artists use live video of performances to include audiences that would otherwise be unable to enjoy their music in that format, while reporters cover breaking news via online outlets that bring the facts to their viewers before cable networks can. This has created a higher demand than ever for real-time content, and companies like BlueJeans can show their clients how to put this demand for live streaming to work for their business.

How Can Streaming Work for the Workplace?

There are many benefits for those who choose to utilize streams for businesses applications. Customers and clients enjoy access to content and interaction with their favorite creators that have not been available previously, while companies large and small enjoy the consumer feedback that live broadcast can provide. When asked, potential consumers had much of this feedback to offer to PostPlanner.com, and to any professional considering using these services. Some of that feedback included the following opinions, all based in market and field research:

  • The sense of transparency and timeliness offered by streamed media is an invaluable resource to any brand.
  • Real-time customer interaction should not be viewed as a fad. It satisfies a real need and brings businesses into the here and now.
  • Advertising is easier when demonstration is possible, and this platform is designed for demonstration.
  • Streaming builds community, increases empathy and fosters relationships between creators and their audiences.
  • Offering a look behind the brand name at the people who run companies and corporations helps to humanize these entities, and kindles trust in these people.
  • Answering consumer questions and addressing customer concerns is easier than ever with these services.

While live, broadcasted audio and video has been around for a very long time, streaming is a concept that has leapt into the forefront of the public consciousness in recent years. With so many aspects of life now rooted in the internet, it only makes sense that a major outlet for communication and entertainment is now using that same network to share the information and ideas that we as a society need to share every day.

One of the best ways that business owners and representatives put this platform to work for them is through the virtual conference. Whether the meeting is internal, such as an employee conference or educational session or external, such as demonstrative promotions, advertising or direct interaction with consumers and clients, the streams held by businesses always have a purpose. That purpose is to improve the goods and services that each business provides and to enhance customer experience and employee understanding.

Social Media Examiner tells us that the most modern approach to promotion of any kind is live engagement. Today’s corporate world runs on quick and concise communication, and that’s true of businesses both large and small. Finding the best way to apply real-time audiovisual technology to each situation is only part of the equation, but as media trends continue to develop so do market research professionals and their approach to using tools like streams to keep up with the perpetual movement of the working world.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: business, live streaming, media production, social media, video

How to Take an Idea and Make it Work

April 29, 2017 by admin

There is a lot of information out there on how to use crowdsource software to generate new ideas. This information is all highly valuable and really important. However, what this information often doesn’t get into, is what to do once ideas have been generated.

Why You Must Plan for Idea Selection

When you crowdsource for ideas, there is the possibility that you will get thousands of replies. This is why it is very important that you plan how ideas are selected, which happens twice. The first time is once they are presented, and the second is when they have been tested. By having a process and plan in place for this, you will be far more likely to end up with an idea that can actually be implemented and made to work. Let’s take a look at some important tips.

  1. Build and Expand on Ideas

First of all, when you crowdsource for ideas, they aren’t complete yet. They must be properly reviewed, clustered into categories, and then expanded upon. An affinity diagram can be a very useful tool for this, as it helps you to identify whether there are any underlying themes. You should also make sure that as many people as possible are involved in this stage, for instance by leaving the crowdsource or idea management software platform fully open.

  1. Meet the Objectives of Your Company

Once you have completed the first step and have various categories of ideas, you need to determine which of those categories actually meet the mission, vision, goals, and objectives of your company. Ideas can be very good, but simply not relevant. Those can be shelved rather than discarded. Other ideas will never be relevant, in which case they should be removed immediately. At this point, internal stakeholders have to be involved, as they understand the company culture and its mission and vision.

  1. Understand that Good Ideas Don’t Have to Be Great Ideas

Many of those who look through ideas only pay attention to those that could really be “the next big thing”. But a small improvement on a relatively insignificant process can have far-reaching positive benefits. In fact, really big, company-changing ideas should be reviewed completely separately (they should be in a different category at step 1, in fact).

  1. Test Whether Any Assumptions Are Right

As human beings, we make assumptions. For instance, we assume we know the customer. While this cannot be helped, what can be helped is taking those assumptions as gospel. Instead, you have to test them. This is absolutely fundamental, as directing a new idea towards a demographic that doesn’t actually exist will lead to instant failure.

  1. Be Ready for Resistance

Last but not least, you have to be ready for some resistance. People do not like change, whether they are your employees, your customers, or your board members. There will always be a nay-sayer who believes things will go completely wrong. You need to channel that into a learning process that delivers something positive.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: business, entrepreneur, idea, innovation, software, tech

Time to Change Career_ Here Are Some Suggestions For The Number Crunchers

March 25, 2017 by admin

Many of us simply fall in to a career, often we take what we can get and make turn it into our career rather than seeking it out specifically, many of us may have a particular skill and be able to find a career doing that whereas some of us never really find a career per se, we just take on a  job and see where it takes us. The problem with choosing a career in this way is that we can become miserable down the line, we add responsibilities to our lives like houses and cars and it can be difficult to switch once you have started.

Thankfully, it is never too late to switch careers, it is all about just taking the risk and finding a job which plays to your strengths and will be one that you enjoy. If you are someone who is great with numbers then here are a few job choices which you could look at for your new career.

Tax Accountant

Businesses rely heavily on tax accountants in order for them to stay legal, ensure that they are not paying too much or too little tax and to stay on top of the ever changing requirements of taxation. In order to gain a position as a tax accountant you will need to pass the relevant exams which allow you to practice taxation. You will also need to be an expert in the field of taxation and ensure that you stay abreast of any changes that take place in the law.

Broker

Being a successful stock broker like JP Morgan’s Michael Briese requires that you have strong numerical skills, the analytical ability to process great amounts of financial information such as market movements, forecasts and stock prices and also a great bedside manner. You will be measured heavily on your success and your ability to build and maintain relationships and in return you will be rewarded with a handsome salary and a job in an exciting industry.

Teacher

If you have a strong ability when it comes to numbers then why not put your skills to use as a teacher. Mathematics is often viewed as quite a boring subject by many students and one which is difficult for a great deal of them to truly understand. Math teachers are required to not only impart great math knowledge but also to make learning fun and more importantly, make it relatable for the student. If you think that you have the charisma, the creativity and the knowledge to be able to teach math then this could be a great career choice for you that will be very rewarding personally.

These are just a few of the great careers which you could elect that will allow you to utilize your ability with numbers. The key thing to remember is that it is never too late for a career switch and as long as you are confident that you can do the job well, there should be no fear around leaving that old career behind.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: business, career change, careers, education

Guide to the Perfect Business and Pleasure Trip

November 11, 2016 by admin

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Guide to the Perfect Business and Pleasure Trip

Business travel is often combined with pleasure travel by simply extending it into the weekend so that you can enjoy some much needed down time in a place that you may either enjoy or have not been to and always wanted to explore. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your combined trip.

Plan Ahead

When planning to include some leisure time into your business trip go online and research what there is to do in the destination that you will be visiting. Also, ask your business associates in that area what they recommend that you do and see while you are there. They will be only too happy to tell you all of the wonderful sites and places that their home town has to offer.

By planning out a tentative schedule of places and things to do in your limited free time, you will avoid wasting valuable time on the road trying to look up things to do. This also provides you with the opportunity to investigate hours of operation for the places that you want to see, so that you don’t plan to do something on day or at a time that they are not actually open.

Ask for Extended Stay Rates

Many hotels offer extended stay rates that could save you and your company money when you stay a few extra days. You may even find that your extended stay rate comes in under your daily travel allotment so that you are not actually spending any personal cash on your hotel stay.

Use a Car Service

Mentally transitioning into vacation mode when you are on a combined trip can sometimes be difficult. One way to do this is to treat yourself with something that you would not normally do at home or on a business trip. Items such as having a meal in a gourmet restaurant or using a limo service for a night out help you unwind and get into that vacation mentality. When in Australia, limo hire Perth is an excellent choice to consider.

Follow the Locals

While you are out and about do some people watching and take notice of where the locals all seem to be heading for meals or entertainment. This is a way to get a first-hand feel for how the locals live and what they enjoy about where they live. It’s also one of the best ways to find the most unique and delicious food in town.

A business trip can easily be combined with a mini-vacation if you take the time to prepare for both aspects of the trip, and make an effort to let your mind get into the correct mindset for vacation travel. Combining business and mini-vacation trips is an excellent way to see much more of the world for much less money than you might be able to do with separate business and vacation trips; it also helps your body rejuvenate when on the road for work.

Filed Under: Finance, Travel Tagged With: business, pleasure, travel

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We left our home in Sydney, Australia many moons ago in May 2012 and, other than a brief stint back in Perth for Christmas and a wedding in early 2014, we have been travelling the world nomadically ever since, running a business from our laptops and we’re here to show you how to do it!