Category: Marketing blog

Your employees are one of the most important elements of your company- these are the people that perform the daily tasks that keep things ticking over and your business moving forward. If problems arise with your staff it could mean anything from reduced productivity to lawsuits to a loss of profit. Therefore you need to find the right employees in the first place and then keep them. Here are a few issues you might have, and how to overcome them.

Pay

As much as your employees might like their job, and your company might be an awesome place to work, at the end of the day people work to be paid. When pay is messed around whether it’s late or incorrect, it’s a quick way to get your employees back up. You don’t know what their financial situation is, and even being one day late or a few dollars short could mess things up for someone so it’s a risk you simply can’t take. Payroll recruitment agencies can ensure that everything is paid on time and the law is being followed to the letter, so outsourcing this area of your business could make good sense. That way it’s one less thing for you to deal with in-house, and you know everything is being done correctly. If you do want to deal with payroll yourself, invest in some good payroll business software to make life easier. Other issues that might arise with pay is workers wanting a pay increase. The best thing to do would be to treat each case individually. Give raises to workers who genuinely deserve it, they will appreciate the company more and be less inclined to leave and find work elsewhere. If they do you’re left with a spot to fill that will cost money in recruiting, interviewing, background checks and everything else.

Bullying and Harassment

The workplace is unique in which people who wouldn’t necessarily be friends through choice are forced to spend eight hours a day with each other. This can sometimes lead to conflict and clash of personality, in more sinister cases bullying, harassment and sexual harassment can take place. As the boss it’s your job to ensure your team are working well with each other. Make sure you let employees know that any problems can be reported in confidence, and ensure the law is followed with any reports and allegations made. Doing thorough referencing and background checks, and hiring workers that have a proven record of working well as a team will help you to avoid this. Regular team building activities can help to strengthen bonds, even things like the occasional dinner paid for by the company would be appreciated and is a good chance to get everyone together.

High Staff Turnover Rate

Are your staff dropping like flies? Every time you have to advertise a job role, interview, background check and train a new staff member it costs money. It will also mean a drop in productivity while everything settles into a routine. Making sure you keep your staff members is important. Treat them well, offer fair wages and good employee benefits. During the advertising stage, be honest about the job role- this will prevent people taking it on, being disappointed or misled and leaving. It’s not just a case of snagging the best people for the job, but keeping them too.

Theft or Sabotage

As a business owner we know to protect our assets. We use good burglar alarms and CCTV, we use strong passwords and firewalls, we lock our money up in a safe and protect ourselves physically and digitally from intruders. The only problem is threats don’t just come from the outside. In many cases it’s employees on the inside who are the problem, with things like theft, fraud and sabotage (where information is being given to your competitors) that’s the problem. Suspending employees you suspect are doing this would be the first step and conducting a full investigation. Having systems in place that help bad employees get spotted and caught out is another option. You could have an anonymous reporting system where people feel comfortable alerting you if something is out of the ordinary knowing they won’t receive any backlash. Properly background checking employees is worthwhile to, anyone with a criminal history especially in things to do with fraud or finances could act again. While someone with no criminal history could too, it’s just an extra precaution you could take.

Low Productivity

Low productivity will mean poor performance in your business, and could affect your profits or relationships with customers and clients. Decide what the problem is and what needs to be done. Would a better office with updated equipment, nicer surroundings and more daylight help? If you’ve been considering moving office anyway, a drop in productivity could be a clue you need to do it sooner rather than later. Psychologists have shown certain colours, natural daylight and living plants all help with productivity and worker motivation. Even something as simple as creating a staff room where workers can relax on breaks and lunch could help. If they are having to leave and go off site you could be losing a few minutes of each work day due to people coming and going. Having a strict clocking in/ out system can help to avoid this and could help boost productivity levels. Would more training help matters, or a team building weekend? Another thing to check is that employees are not overworked. Productivity might be low where people are snowed under and not able to get through everything within the working day. In this case you will need to re-jig employees roles, hiring new staff members where needed to make sure everything is getting done.

Keep your workers happy and productive and reap the rewards for your company. Nip any problems in the bud, and let employees know they can speak to you if issues arise.

How do you deal with employee issues?

Online presence is everything for your business. Even if you’re a local company such as a cafe, launderette or shop that doesn’t sell online, you still need to be out there on the web or you risk losing customers. People will be searching every day for businesses like yours, and regardless of what you do or sell you need to be out there. You need to have a strong presence that shows you are active online, have followers and are who you say you are. Whether you’re a new company looking to get out there or just want to boost your presence online, here are a few ways to go about it.

Invest in a Fantastic Website

Your site is your online representation of your business. It is the first thing customers and clients will see, so it needs to be right and make a good impression. A web designer will be able to create something custom for you and help you stand out from your competitors. Try and do this yourself and your site might look amateur and put people off before they’re even properly looked. It should be visually pleasing, not cluttered with ads and have beautiful graphics designed. A good website doesn’t come cheap, but is a very worthwhile investment for your business.

Advertise Correctly

There is no point having a fantastic business if no one can find you. Advertising and marketing is so important, it allows you to get out there in places where potential clients and customers can find you. You could go with affiliate marketing, Adsense, banner ads and guest posts from bloggers and so much more. A big part of your budget as a business will be on getting yourself out there. Don’t underestimate this, make sure your finances allow for room for it.

Have A Responsive App Created

A cellphone app is a amazing way for small and medium-sized companies to get ahead of their opposition. It is the perfect way to basically get your business onto the phones of your customers. It gives you the opportunity to have all of your information, products and contact information in their pockets, only ever a touch of a button away. It makes you appear like a dependable and trustworthy company, and this is beneficial if you are new to business. Customers know that a rip-off company isn’t going to go to go through the trouble of creating and paying for an app, so seeing yours can reassure them that you are secure to shop with.

Write An Engaging Blog

Blogging is something that grown in popularity over the last few years. The benefits of blogging for business are well established, and this is something you should definitely consider getting on board with if you’re not already. It’s fantastic for your business’s online presence, as well as helping to grow your audience, getting more organic traffic and showing your customers you’re a legitimate business. You could write the content yourself or work this into one of your staff members jobs. Or you could work with a talented freelance writer there are plenty of sites online which can connect you. Use a company’s SEO services to ensure you’re using the right keywords and tags to get your posts seen by as many people as possible.

Ask For Reviews

It’s against the law to provide compensation in return for a positive review. However if you’re doing a good job, people will naturally leave good reviews. And there’s no harm in asking your customers if they’d like to leave a review on social media, your website or a third party review site like Reevoo. That way other customers can see that people have used and had a good experience with your site which can mean they’re more likely to go through you themselves. Another option would be to work with bloggers. You could provide a product or service to them free of charge in exchange for an honest review. This can also get you backlinks on high quality blogs as well as a (hopefully positive) review of your business. Again you can’t ask for a positive review, but if the blogger reviewing has any issues it doesn’t hurt to sort these out so you’re getting the best write up possible.

A lack of online presence could mean the end for your company- even if you don’t sell online. Follow the steps above to get your business out there and seen by the right people.

Your day begins like any other day at the office. You arrive ahead of time, but no sooner have you walked through the door, the phone begins to ring and your team of employees are lined up outside your room with any number of ‘urgent’ queries.

This is before you have managed to look at your calendar for the day, which is inundated with meetings, both in the office and across town. Your email inbox is overflowing with ‘important’ messages, as well as a few suspicious looking ones telling you your bank account has been hacked by aliens.

You haven’t had time for your morning cup of coffee, your blood pressure is rising, and you sit back in your chair wondering how you are going to prioritise the many tasks at hand. Just another day at the office!

Does the above sound familiar to you? Don’t worry; there are business managers up and down the country having the same work based crises you are. There was a time when you had a life, with an opportunity to breath during the day, and yes… have that cup of coffee. You can have those days again, without having to take early retirement. In this article, we will consider several ways in which you can streamline your operations and simplify your working day. “It’s just a pipe dream” we hear you saying as you put your jacket on to zip across town for yet another meeting, but keep reading before you get into your car and waste another couple of hours of your day.

Automate your accounts

Many business owners hire an accountant to deal with the company finances. If you haven’t gone down this route, or you still prefer to handle some aspects yourself, you can streamline the process without giving yourself a mathematical headache. Use an accounting package to manage your bills and invoices, and automate the process so you don’t have to worry about manually sorting things out. From chasing your customers for late payments to paying your broadband bill, you can automate all those repetitive tasks that take up much of your time.

Create a FAQ page online

You should already have an online presence for your business, but if not, get on it as soon as possible. There are plenty of web hosting companies who will help you set something up quite cheaply, no matter how much of a technophobe you are. With a website, you can streamline many areas of your business, from online payments to marketing your products. However, you should also set up a FAQ page. Your clients and customers won’t have to contact you for trivial (or major) details if you can provide as much information as you can on your site. It will save you time answering queries that can easily be sourced on your website.

Easily find staff

Staffing issues are common among both small and large companies. Not only do you have to find a reliable team to begin with, but you also have to find cover when they are ill, on holiday, or just plain unreliable. You can save yourself a lot of trouble by using an external firm such as Portfolio Procurement Recruitment Agency. Such agencies can help you get the right people for your team, on both a full-time and temporary basis. Considering the amount of work it takes to hire people, through the application and interview process, it makes sense to delegate this responsibility.

Manage office schedules

Not only do you have to manage your own schedule in the day, but you are also responsible for each member of your team as well. You want to make sure every person is where they are supposed to be, and not wasting time getting involved in tasks that aren’t a priority. For this reason, it’s worth using scheduling software packages that will help you keep track of your employees, and manage your own time more effectively. Packages come in a range of prices, but you can try a free demo with most of them if you are unsure about paying upfront.

Cut down on travel time

Travelling to meetings can be a nightmare, especially if traffic is a problem, and parking is non-existent. It’s still possible to have a face-to-face meeting with one or more people through video conferencing software. Not only can you talk to people who are in the same town as you, but you can make international calls as well. Not only does this cut down on travel costs, but it’s also cheaper than making a phone call. Video conferencing not only allows you to talk to another person, but you can also make presentations on an online whiteboard, share files, and broadcast your meeting to passive viewers.

Delegate tasks

You may be in charge of your business, but that doesn’t mean you have to do everything! You aren’t showing weakness if you delegate to others, so if there are tasks that could easily be managed by another member of your team, pass it over and give them the responsibility. Not only will it help you, but they will benefit from the experience as well. If you don’t have the people to delegate certain tasks to, then consider outsourcing. From web designers to freelance writers, there are private companies and individuals who can take on board specific tasks on a short or longer-term basis.

Cut down on staff meetings

Meetings get in the way of everybody’s day, so cut down on them. If you have something important to say to your team, send them a circular email so they are all up to speed. Alternatively, schedule a meeting first thing in the morning, using it to convey important information before getting on with the rest of your day. This will save you time later on, and it will cut down on people coming to your door with insufferable questions.

Final word

They are only a few ideas, but they will save you time and stress in your working day. Hopefully, you will be able to relax a little more and give yourself a break from time to time as well.