Category Archives: Productivity

Customer Service, Productivity

What are the Benefits of Implementing HubSpot Phone Integration in Your Business?

Hubspot is a modern customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides businesses with innovative solutions for managing marketing and sales, content management, and customer service needs.

One of its innovative solutions is the HubSpot phone integration software. The software lets you initiate customer calls from their contacts stored in your HubSpot CRM. This strategy provides information about their past interactions with your company and needs.

The system improves business productivity, efficiency and communication. This article explains why you should consider integrating the HubSpot phone into your business.

Improved Customer Service

The Hubspot’s phone system integration offers you a complete view of all past customer interactions. That includes all the notes, recordings and call logs. The availability of this information helps you enhance customer service by resolving customer issues quickly and personalising the customer experience.

For example, if a customer enquires about your service or product, you will quickly go through their past interactions with your firm and see what they recently purchased from your company. With this information, you will generate a personalised and more informed response to the customer.

  • Increased Sales

You will increase your sales by effectively managing and tracking the sales pipeline through a reliable phone system integration such as Aircall. Use HubSpot to log calls with clients, track every business deal and transaction and even schedule follow-up calls if the client is reluctant to purchase.

You can use HubSpot phone integration to create a list of all clients that called or emailed the business in the past one or two weeks. You can then prioritise this list as potential customers and make follow-up calls to seal the deal.

  • Enhanced Productivity in Business

The Hubspot phone integration system supports efficient data entry, unlike manual methods. That can help boost your firm’s productivity regarding customer service and sales. Customer calls are logged into HubSpot any time they contact the company, and this saves a lot of time in handling other essential matters in the organisation, such as closing deals and looking for a bigger market.

If a customer calls and orders, the HubSpot system can create the order directly from the customer’s contact record. That means you will not have to enter the order manually into the ERP system. That will reduce the risks of error and save time.

  • Better Insights into Your Organisation

As a business owner, you will have better insights into your business thanks to the HubSpot phone integration system. Such crucial information may be the average call duration from customers, the number of calls you receive daily and even the popular call times. This information is essential and can help enhance your marketing and sales strategies.

For example, if most callers are calling at certain hours, you could adjust your marketing campaigns to fall within those hours when the prospects are more active.

  • Enhanced Collaboration in Teams

Collaboration between teams in any organisation is the key to success and smooth working environments. The HubSpot phone integration system eases the collaboration between the customer service and sales teams. When a customer calls the organisation, the call information is logged onto the HubSpot system, meaning every team member can access this information. That means customers receive consistent experience, and everyone on the team is on the same page.

If a client calls asking about a given product, the sales rep answering the phone will shoot the question in HubSpot, where a customer service team member will access the information and follow up with the customer. Thus, the customer will receive comprehensive, accurate and timely responses to their questions.

Wrapping Up

Overall, the HubSpot phone integration is a crucial system for all businesses. It can help enhance productivity, improve customer service, and even scale your business. The system is also easy to implement and affordable, making it an ideal solution if you are looking to save time and automate your services.

 

HR News, Productivity

5 Ways to Maximise Productivity in a Busy Environment

As companies across the UK continue their long-phased transitions back to the traditional office setup and experiment with hybrid working, many employees now find themselves juggling between office days and remote work. For some, the return to a bustling office environment can be a stark contrast to the relative solitude and quiet of working from home.

The key to maintaining and even increasing productivity in such situations lies in adapting and employing certain strategies tailored to the environment. Here are a few steps to help you stay on top of your game in a loud and chaotic workplace.

 

  1. Create Your Own Office Bubble

Finding your personal zone can significantly boost concentration. One way to achieve this is by investing in some good quality bluetooth wireless headphones with noise-cancelling features. Not only will these drown out the surrounding office chatter, but they also send a subtle message to your colleagues: you’re currently engrossed in a task. By creating this “bubble,” you can replicate a bit of the isolation you enjoyed while working from home and choose the background music too!

 

  1. Track Time for Tasks

Setting specific time frames for each task can spur motivation and keep procrastination at bay. By tracking how much time you’re allocating to each task, you’re more likely to adhere to those deadlines, helping you pace yourself and maintain steady productivity throughout the day.

 

  1. Avoid Unproductive Meetings

Not all meetings are created equal. If you believe that a meeting isn’t directly beneficial or relevant to your current tasks or projects, consider skipping it. Instead, ask for a summary or minutes to stay in the loop. This allows you to invest your time in activities that directly impact your output.

 

  1. Don’t Try to Multitask

There’s a common misconception that multitasking leads to increased productivity. In reality, it can dilute your focus, reducing the quality of your work. Prioritize your tasks and tackle them one by one. This ensures that each task receives your undivided attention and is completed to the best of your ability.

 

  1. Take Regular Breaks

Ironically, one of the secrets to sustained productivity is taking breaks. Regular short breaks can rejuvenate your mind, reduce stress, and prevent burnout. Use this time to stretch, divert your eyes from the screen, or engage in a brief, light-hearted chat with a colleague. It’s a chance to recharge and return to your tasks with renewed vigour.

 

Incorporating these strategies can make a significant difference in how you navigate and thrive in a busy office environment. Embrace the change, and remember that with the right tools and approach, you can be just as productive in the office as you were in your home workspace.

 

AI, Data & Analytics, News, Productivity

How AI Can Provide Transformational Opportunities For Business

“At present, manufacturers can benefit from adopting a collaborative approach that looks at how humans and robots can work hand in hand as AI continues to develop.”

AI and robotics can provide positive transformational opportunities, but should be employed in conjunction with manpower in order to achieve the best results.

That’s the view of one of the country’s leading experts in the field, who says ensuring an effective balance is struck will help ensure businesses maximise efficiency and profits.

Ian Hart

Ian Hart, adi Projects’ Business Development Director, said: “Androids are not capable of replacing humans inside factories altogether. But as the power of AI continues to develop, they have the potential to become irreplaceable for specific functions.

“The real value of AI when it comes to manufacturing is providing robotics with the ability to assess data and make decisions based on that data – to essentially possess a form of ‘thinking’ process, which is certainly a long way away.”

 

Ian, a director and chartered engineer with 25 years Executive Board experience, says we are seeing more and more great examples of human and robotic collaboration in action.

 

“There’s no longer anything new or innovative about standard three-dimensional robots that can automate repetitive manual tasks in factories,” he continued. “Standard robots do what they are programmed to do; nothing more, nothing less. We have seen some incredible examples of how humans can work collaboratively with these robots to enhance quality and increase profits. But we have not yet reached the next level.

“There’s plenty of robots that can shift an item from point A to point B, for instance. However, in the future, more advanced AI-powered robots could become capable of assessing the current circumstances and decide that it’s better to move the item somewhere else, or to not move it altogether.”

 

Across more than two decades in the sector, Ian has successfully established and developed a range of customer-focussed, engineering-based solutions, expertly managing the delivery of projects that involve the automation of manufacturing facilities.

 

He said: “There is no doubt that reducing our reliability on manpower has its benefits, in some cases. If you can replace humans with robots, then you can eliminate some of the risk in terms of the cleanliness of the factory, the possibility of transferring diseases and the presence of contamination – factors of utmost importance.

“Hypothetically, if you had a hermetically sealed food factory with no humans coming in and out, then the benefits with regards to the quality of the production and that of the product itself would be extraordinary. You could significantly extend the shelf life of a product, boost profits and reduce waste.

“However, this would require androids that were capable of ‘thinking’ to be locked inside of that space, carrying out all operations including repairs and alterations without the need for humans to go inside and potentially contaminate the environment.

“Similarly, these intelligent robots could be instrumental in the maintenance of factories, being available 24 hours a day for tasks such as inspections and watching over particular aspects of the production, as well as carrying out maintenance afterwards.

“Nevertheless, this type of technology is a long way away from being readily available, which means that at present, manufacturers can benefit from adopting a collaborative approach that looks at how humans and robots can work hand in hand as AI continues to develop.”

 

Highlighting the vital role costs and quality assurance play in manufacturing he added: “Manufacturers are looking to lower costs as a priority. Their desire to reduce their reliance on manpower stems primarily from the need to decrease the risk of contamination and improve quality. And though ‘thinking’ robots are not yet within our reach, there’s technology available that can certainly lend a helping hand.

 

“Upon considering the UK landscape post-Brexit, there is a considerable lack of labour availability when it comes to repetitive, manual jobs. Therefore, if manufacturers can utilise robots that can perform the same functions as humans, but in some cases faster and better, then obviously productivity rises and profit margins increase, which is a huge driver.

“Nevertheless, we have to be mindful of taking such a black-and-white approach: estimating the effectiveness of a human being against that of a robot means humans have no chance of coming out on top. It’s simply not the right mindset.

 

He concluded: “AI and robotics are inevitably going to cause certain types of jobs to disappear, yet human labour is, and will continue to remain indispensable now and in the future.

“Ultimately, to ensure we can effectively reap the many advantages of AI and robotics, we must clearly define the areas that will benefit from their implementation, and those that are better left to humans.”

 

 

News, Productivity

7 Approaches to Boost Your Business Productivity

Business productivity is the efficiency in undertaking business tasks using time, labor, and money for positive results at lower operating costs. A business that prioritizes productivity in its operational approach will streamline its workflow processes, drive revenue growth, meet its obligations to its shareholders, and increase its competitiveness in the marketplace.

Here are seven practical approaches to enhancing business productivity in 2023.

1.  Make Your Website Accessible

While website accessibility targets individuals with disabilities, compliance is beneficial for your business and will supercharge your business’s productivity and create new sources of revenue.  Website accessibility, per the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), means that your website is operable, perceivable, robust, and understandable for all users. Your website accessibility audit will alert you of compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Equality Act 2010 and recommend repairs for continued compliance. This way, your web content will reach a wider range of users for increased productivity. Compliance with website accessibility Acts will also reduce your risks of legal complications.

2.  Embrace Automation and Technology

Streamlining your operations through automated tools and technology will ensure your business’s efficiency. With the rising costs of running a business in 2023, coupled with labor shortages, an organisation striving to thrive should evolve and adapt. Fortunately, today’s marketplace offers many solutions for organisations to improve their customer experience, employee satisfaction, and efficiency through cost-effective technology tools. These include automated scheduling, inventory management, payroll, marketing, and communications.

Through workflow automation and technology, you will save thousands of hours and funds that would have been wasted by manual processes. Automation and technology will also improve recordkeeping and data retrieval in the future, bridging the gap between quality time with customers and service delivery so that your employees can give their best.

3.  Use Employee Time Tracking Systems

Employee time tracking systems are essential for any business to attain competitiveness in 2023. These systems are especially important if your business juggles different employee schedules, vacation days, and overtime. You can use these systems to track the employee’s time, enabling effective payroll management and ensuring employees work the hours assigned for their tasks.

Time and attendance system for employees will also ensure remote submission of time attendance data, enabling admins to be on top of their attendance when out of the office.

4.  Consider Accounts Receivable Financing

Cash flow management ensures liquidity, positively impacting sales, marketing, and overall business operations. With good cash flow management, your business will, in the long run, reduce costs and debts, and fund its growth, outperforming its competitors.

To stabilize your business cash flow, apply for accounts receivable financing. Accounts receivable financing ensures capital deployment until the business debtor pays their invoice, and your business will have more working capital for its short-term operations.

5.  Implement Agile Methodologies

The agile methodology ranks among the top approaches in business management in 2023 for its evolutionary nature and flexibility. These methodologies help businesses to keep up with the changes in the modern workplace resulting in improved quality, satisfied customers, adaptability, and reduced risks. The agile methodology builds on the concept of transparency, flexibility, continuous improvement, and quality. Since the agile methodology is a framework, you can choose an approach matching your company’s goals and culture, including Scrum, Crystal, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP).

Implementing agile methodologies will save your business from spending years on a process that eventually fails because of a mistake in its early phase. These methodologies rely on trusting teams and employees that engage directly with customers to understand the goals and offer solutions.

To implement agile methodologies, follow the steps below:

  • Onboard management into the agile methodology by presenting its benefits
  • Train your team members on the overview and use of agile methodologies for their specific roles
  • Encourage your team members to collaborate
  • Give regular feedback to team members on their work and take feedback on the agile process working for constant improvement.
  • Celebrate success when things go well to maintain high team morale and encourage hard work.

6.  Set Clear Goals and Priorities

Setting clear goals and priorities is a viable way to increase business productivity. When you set SMART goals, your employees will know what is expected of them. Priorities encourage employees to focus on the most important work and complete them to the highest quality and by the set deadlines.

7.  Regularly Evaluate and Optimize Processes

A business can improve performance by holding itself accountable. This means regularly evaluating progress and remaining on track with achieving your goals. Conducting periodic performance assessments of your employees and systems will eliminate inefficiencies and bottlenecks that hinder productivity. This will then guide the implementation of new technology, procedure optimization, and workflow streamlining.

Conclusion

Boosting business productivity in 2023 requires a focus on collaboration and efficiency. Through technology and the best business practices, businesses can create a productive work environment. Time-tracking software and collaboration platforms will streamline workflows and improve organisational communication while setting clear goals and evaluating them will ensure focus. Finally, boosting productivity requires ongoing improvement and learning, and through agile methodologies, a business will position itself to success in 2023.

Business Advice, News, Productivity

7 Productivity tips for small business owners

When you’re running your own small business, it can seem like there are only so many hours in the day. Between preparing materials, managing employees, staying on top of clients and other tasks, it’s not always easy to get everything done on time. In this article, we look at some ways to work smarter so that you can accomplish more in the same amount of time or less.  

 

Have a checklist

A checklist is beneficial when you have multiple tasks to complete at once. Whether it’s a facility management checklist or something more specific, having one will help keep you from getting overwhelmed by the many tasks that need attention.

 

Automate processes where you can

To be more productive, you need to automate as many of your processes as possible. This can mean automating what you do daily, but it also means automating the process of doing things like paying your bills, preparing a ship inspection checklist and sending out invoices. The less human interaction there is in a process, the less likely you’ll make mistakes or forget something.

 

Master prioritisation

It’s best not to try and tackle too many tasks at once. That way, you’ll be less likely to get overwhelmed by all the work you have on your plate. Instead, set realistic goals and only take on one or two projects at a time.

 

Use the Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro technique is a time management method that breaks work into 25-minute intervals followed by five or ten-minute breaks. It is based on the idea that frequent short breaks can increase productivity and focus.

The technique consists of setting your timer for 25 minutes and focusing solely on one task during that period. Then take a five or ten-minute break before starting another interval. This cycle continues throughout your workday.

 

Outsource

When your business cannot cope with the workload, outsourcing may help. Outsourcing your work will allow you to focus more on growing your company rather than managing a team of employees. You can hire freelancers or contractors who specialise in specific fields and let them do their job while you focus on other tasks. This way, you’ll have more time to grow your business and make it successful by staying focused and not being distracted by other responsibilities.

 

Minimise distractions

Distractions can sabotage productivity. Therefore, make sure your workspace is clean, organised, and well-lit. If you find yourself using social media more often than usual, try using an app which will limit what you see on your devices! Also, consider adding some noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds to tune out the world around you when it’s time for work. This will help keep your focus on work instead of other things.

 

Recognise where you don’t have the expertise and get help

Small business owners often believe they’re experts at everything, but that’s not always true. You might be good at marketing your business, but if you don’t have any experience with accounting or finance, you should seek a professional who can help you out.

 

If you put these tips into practice, you’ll be well on your way to success – and hopefully much less stressed and frustrated throughout the process!

 

Business Advice, News, Productivity

How To Become More Productive at Work

Improving your time management and organisational skills can boost your overall productivity at work. There are certain techniques that you can implement to make your days at work more efficient and introduce different methods to help you better manage your time. These simple changes can make a big impact on your productivity and help to enhance your working day.

What you do out of work will also have a noticeable impact on your productivity in work. For example, if you are in financial trouble, this will play on your mind and will distract you whilst at work. Thus, being able to budget properly when you need to can make a big difference to your performance at work, much like exercising outside of work hours can help you maintain a clear mind when at your desk.

 

1. Tackle your biggest tasks first

If you focus on your largest and most time-consuming tasks first it can help you stay more focused and help you tackle your workload head on. When organising your workload, make a list and assign the most time to the bigger tasks. Make sure that you are dealing with these at the start of your working day when you are the most switched on and focused.

 

2. Limit interruptions

Interruptions can kill work productivity and it is easy to quickly lose track of time. Whether you are back in the office and distracted by chatting to your co-workers, or you are working from home and are sidetracked by domestic distractions. These little interruptions, though they may seem brief, can actually disrupt your workflow and limit your overall productivity. 

It can be difficult to limit interruptions but there are different ways to do this. For example, if you are working in an open-office environment or coworking space, you could use noise-cancelling headphones. These will limit the external sound and help you focus. If you are wearing headphones, people are less likely to come up to you and distract you.

 

3. Block time out in your schedule

Using time blocks to create your schedule is a great way to boost your productivity at work. Think about the time you need to get on with certain tasks; for example, 90-minute or 60-minute time blocks where you work on particular tasks or projects. If you are a more visual person, you can even block these out in your calendar or as a printed out schedule. This helps you keep track of time and exactly what you are working on. Not only does this method help you focus your time, it makes you accountable to finish a task within a certain time frame. Always be realistic about how long these tasks should take you so that you do not become unmotivated.

 

4. Focus on one task at a time

Juggling projects or tasks can make you feel like you are getting a lot done; however, focusing on one task at a time can actually help you to be more productive. If we are focusing all of our attention and energy on one task, we can usually get it done quicker, rather than wasting time switching between tasks. Also, when we focus on one task at a time, we are likely to be producing more high quality work.

This will also depend on what you do when at work. For example, if you are working in property, you may not be able to focus on a single task or project, such is the nature of the industry. However, where possible, try and keep things simple and straightforward and this will help you overall productivity.

Concentrating on one task at a time until it is complete can be a good habit to get into. It allows you to work efficiently through a list of tasks and set one goal at a time. This can be a more motivating way to work and encourages you to finish something at a high standard before moving on to the next task. If you are multitasking, consider prioritising your tasks based on size of the task and their relative importance. You can get your most demanding tasks out of the way first before focusing on smaller, less time-consuming tasks.

 

5. Take regular breaks

Taking regular breaks should not be a luxury but a necessity. Regular breaks can actually boost overall productivity as they prevent burn-out or fatigue. Left long term, this can be detrimental to your physical and mental health and can impact your energy or motivation to work. Think about taking multiple short breaks across the workday; for example 5 to 10 minute breaks after a few hours of work. Short breaks can allow you to recharge your batteries, rest and mentally prepare to take on your next task.

HR, HR News, News, Productivity

4 Ways To Improve Productivity Within Your HR Department

If you want to improve the productivity levels within your HR department, perhaps one of the most effective things you could do is introduce automated software. This type of software is designed to ease the burden of repetitive or difficult tasks on your employees. This will allow them to focus on other tasks within the business and perhaps allow them to expand into other roles where possible.

You may find that employees are more engaged in their role thanks to this, which will see more productivity flourish. This is just the tip of the iceberg. This article is designed to showcase to you a few different ways you could improve productivity within your HR department, so let’s get started.

Improve The Onboarding Process

Something that may be currently letting down your HR department is the employee retention rate. If you have employees within this department constantly coming in and out, it will be hard to create any structure or organisation.

It may be that your onboarding process is not as good as possible, and it’s leading to ineffective employees coming through and not being trained from the beginning. To try and improve your onboarding process, you should consider speaking to your existing employees and the employees that have seen how the company has changed over a few years. Ask them how they found their onboarding and what they wish they had at the time. Once you get to grips more with the onboarding, you should see more organisation and structure, leading to more productivity.

Improve Storage Solutions

You may have noticed that your HR staff have a lot of paperwork that they need to organise and manage in general. If you, or your department, don’t have clear storage solutions, then it’s likely that there will be a lot slipping through the cracks. Storage management is important for HR, as you should be able to find any important files when you need them.

For example, if you have an employee putting in a request, you should be able to access their files and request as soon as possible. If you have any interviews/onboarding for a potential employee, you will need to ensure that you have any CVs ready on hand in a place you can easily access.

It can get overwhelming to deal with your storage solutions, especially the longer it goes on, as it keeps adding up. It would help if you tried to get some cloud storage solutions, as this will lessen your physical impact on your storage and outsource it in a way. You may have similar files that could be compressed or merged together, saving you storage space and also helping with organisation. You can merge your PDFs with ease through online tools and software while still maintaining high quality. You should see your HR staff be able to work more productively when they are on top of their storage and organisation overall.

Communicate More

You should ensure that you are communicating more effectively with your HR staff. Not only should you be communicating with them yourself, but you should also be promoting more internal communication within the HR department.

While communication is important for all departments of your business, your HR department will need to work with other departments and individual staff, so they should know how to talk to each other effectively.

If they are not currently great at communicating, then it’s likely that the other departments in your business will suffer as a result. One way that you could improve communication within the workplace is to engage in team-building activities. There is a range of activities and games that you could sign your team up for to help promote teamwork and communication. Consider asking your employees what sort of activities they may be up for, so they aren’t surprised with any activities they don’t like.

 

Provide Effective Feedback

There’s a lot that can be said for positive reinforcement within your organisation. You should ensure you are always providing feedback to your HR staff. Of course, you should try to be more positive, and ensure you are rewarding hard work when it happens. With that said, you should ensure you give constructive feedback when things aren’t running as smoothly as you would expect.

You can’t expect employees and your HR department to learn from mistakes if you don’t change anything or inform them of what’s gone wrong. You should ensure you are doing this from a positive place and reassure them that it’s not their fault. They will appreciate being told straight how to improve, and they may personally benefit from being able to grow too.

It’s important to combine regular communication with regular feedback so that your employees can grow and learn from any mistakes. The end result should be a well-organised HR department that needs little input or change from yourself, allowing it to be automated in some way.

HR, Productivity

6 Ways to Inspire Productivity in the Workplace

The working landscape has changed to accommodate hybrid and remote setups. Although these operating methods have been proven to boost productivity, you need to nurture this through effective management. When inspiring productivity, you need to consider employee health and wellbeing, which will boost their morale and increase your business’s productivity. Throughout this article, we will discuss six ways to generate productivity in the workplace.

Quality Equipment

Your team needs to have access to quality equipment, even when working from home. Therefore, if you’ve got the right talent on your team, don’t close them out by refusing to provide them with the essentials. In a remote environment, this may mean investing in several Lenovo Home Office Desktop, which will ensure everyone can access work and stay connected.

Effective Time Management

There are only 24 hours in a day, which often doesn’t feel like enough in the business world; utilising time properly will help your team make the most out of the day. You need to promote a working culture where employees set reasonable deadlines and stick to them. To help them manage their workflow properly, you can use an online planner like Trello, which blocks tasks into a virtual board.

Grant Autonomy

When your employees are working from home, it’s tempting to keep checking in on their progress for peace of mind. However, instead of inspiring productivity, this makes people feel claustrophobic in their working environment. You need to trust in your hiring skills, deliver a clear brief, and allow employees to get on with it. This doesn’t mean you need to lose complete control. Instead, you can set goals for individuals and assign times for open discussions. This way, your team won’t feel as though you’re being overbearing.

Do Not Multitask

Contrary to popular belief, multitasking isn’t the best way to optimise your time. Therefore, you should ditch it in favour of effective prioritisation. When your team only has one task to focus on, they will complete it to a higher standard, and at a faster rate, which is a win-win for your business.

Improve Communication

In remote workplaces, employees still need to communicate with each other, especially when collaborating on projects. Therefore, you should explore quality platforms including Slack and Microsoft Teams. Both of these will allow your team to chat, call, and share files easily. Further, you will be able to integrate the platforms with countless other tools, which can increase productivity further.

Keep Meetings Essential

When operating a remote team, if it can be sent out via email, then it’s likely not worth a meeting. You should hold remote team meetings no more than weekly. However, you will need to learn how to plan these types of meetings. Before entering the group call, take time to create a strict meeting plan and don’t let anything run over; the time not spent in meetings means more time being productive.

Remote workspaces are more common these days, but productivity can flitter off if you’re not careful. Therefore, you should follow the guidance above to maintain or reclaim control.

Employee Motivation, HR, HR News, Productivity

Are Your Employees Motivated Enough?

Keeping employees motivated is a constant struggle for most employers – only about 20 percent of workers around the world feel engaged by their work, according to a recent poll by Gallup. There’s a good chance that many of the workers in your organization are feeling disengaged and unmotivated, at least during work hours.

Employee disengagement can have huge ramifications for your business – and most of them are negative. It can contribute to high turnover, lowered productivity, decreased morale, and reduced profits. If your employees aren’t motivated enough, your business will suffer. Here’s what you need to do to boost morale and engagement at your company.

Talk to Your Employees

The most important thing you can do to find out what motivates your employees is to ask. Sit down with them and find out what they value. Find out what’s holding them back from giving their all at work. Disengaged employees often aren’t wholly unmotivated in other areas of life, but instead have some kind of motivational block that doesn’t allow them to engage at work. Perhaps they have some issues going on at home. Maybe they need different responsibilities. Find out what drives your employees and what they need from you in order to bring their best to the table.

Make Your Place of Business a Nice Place to Be

Employees won’t feel motivated to do their best if they’re forced to be in a dingy, run-down, or otherwise unpleasant environment all day. Make sure your facilities are clean, modern, and nice to spend time in. Bring in a few potted plants or put in a fish tank. Let employees decorate their cubicles or other work spaces. When employees feel comfortable in their work space, they can focus on their performance.

Give Employees the Tools They Need

A poor workman may blame his tools, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need properly functioning tools in order to get a job done. Make sure your employees have the right equipment to do their jobs and that it’s up to date. Employes may lose enthusiasm for their work if they’re constantly frustrated by slow, broken, or outdated equipment.

Make Employee Recognition a Priority

You should always be looking for ways to give positive feedback, recognition, and praise to every employee. Everyone is doing something right, whether that’s showing up on time consistently every day, staying late to help wrap up some important tasks, going out of their way to provide top-notice customer service, or giving the company a huge chunk of their professional lives in service. Don’t be stingy with the positive feedback. People feel good when their efforts are recognized and praised, and that makes them more motivated to continue doing the praiseworthy behavior. However, if you don’t recognize people’s efforts, they begin to lose motivation as they slowly begin to feel that nothing they do matters anyway.

Put together an employee recognition program, if you don’t have one. It should include key elements like employee anniversary recognition program, as well as a platform for peer-to-peer recognition and formal recognition. Make sure everyone hears regularly that they’re doing well and express your appreciation for your employees’ efforts regularly. A simple thank you can do so much for an employee’s inherent sense of motivation.

Create Some Flexibility

If there’s one thing everyone wants from work in a post-COVID world, it’s flexibility. Remote work and flexible scheduling were already things before the pandemic, but now that most people have had a taste, they don’t want to give it up. Flex work allows employees to achieve greater work-life balance, and that frees them up to focus on doing their best at work. It also helps employees feel like the company cares about their needs, so they’re more likely to return the favor and commit to meeting the company’s needs.

Support Professional Development

While some of your employees may be happy to give years or even decades to your organization, the days when employees stayed with the same company for their entire careers are over. Most of your employees are going to be planning to someday leave the company for what they hope will be greener pastures. When you accept that and offer employees the opportunity to build skills and develop professionally, they’ll reward you with increased loyalty and motivation to do their best work.

Supporting your employees’ professional development shows that you care about them as individuals even beyond what they can do for the company. It means you’re willing to support your employees’ growth even if that growth takes them away from the company someday. Give your employees plenty of training opportunities and consider programs like tuition reimbursement for employees who want to advance their education. Doing so will boost engagement and morale.

Treat Your Employees with Respect and Integrity

Everyone wants to be treated with respect, and integrity is always the mark of a successful leader. Your words and actions should always align, and you should always treat your employees with professional respect. They’ll quickly lose motivation to do their best work if you’re saying one thing but doing another, or treating them disrespectfully. In fact, few things can push people out of your organization faster than disrespect.

Are your employees doing their best? If they’re not feeling motivated and engaged, then they’re probably not doing their best work. Create an environment in which your employees can feel supported to do their best, and they’ll take your business to new heights.

News, Productivity

Remote and hybrid teams investing in workplace culture see increases in productivity and profitability

A recent report reveals almost half (42%) of leaders of remote and hybrid teams are investing more in workplace culture due to the pandemic. The study by Omnipresent and Remote Social shows that managers are rethinking what their companies and employees need in order to succeed in a remote or hybrid work environment, in order to increase productivity and profitability.

The report, How managers are investing in remote and hybrid team success, reveals that productivity, work-life balance and communication are all common pain points for managers, but managers are seeing tangible benefits from their investments in their teams. More than half (51%) of UK managers claim they have seen the most benefit on productivity and profitability, and 40% invest an average of US$51-100 per employee, per month on workplace culture. These teams are also benefiting from a good work-life balance (52%) and half of the teams (32%) have seen improved internal communication.

However, both hybrid and fully remote teams are struggling in some key areas. Even if they have seen improvements on workplace culture, 55% of fully remote and hybrid workers claim they lack work communication and collaboration opportunities or tools to do their work effectively. The report highlights how workplace communication and collaboration requires consistent strategy development.

Kate Gray, Head of People and Talent at Omnipresent, states:

“For remote and hybrid organisations, intentionality is key when strengthening company culture and giving purpose to employees to help drive their daily decision-making. Employers must be deliberate in how and what they communicate with staff, while also delivering the tools and opportunities staff need to feel part of a team and work toward a shared goal.

“While strong intent is key, it’s not simply a case of spending more on generic workplace strategies or practices that were once implemented on-site. Cultural strategies should be tailored to teams’ specific needs. Hybrid team managers in particular need to be thinking about challenges that are inclusive of both their on-site and off-site employees and consider how logistical elements – like benefits, resources, and equipment – may need to differ as a result.”

Employers recognise the correlation of increased budgets and spending on culture and collaboration. Forty-seven percent of managers investing more in workplace culture said COVID had a positive impact on collaboration. Managers investing more in workplace culture for their remote and hybrid teams are more intentional in their approach as a whole, leading to improved overall communication and collaboration.

While many global managers fear that remote and hybrid work prevents camaraderie among team members, the report shows that it does not automatically lead to a breakdown in personal connections. Instead, 42% of leaders feel that changes to work following COVID-19 enabled colleagues to connect more on a personal level. Investing in an inclusive workplace environment for on-site, remote and hybrid teams helps employees feel like they are all part of the same company.

Mike Fitzbaxter, Co-founder of Remote Social, says:

“Fostering effective communication, engagement and social interactions are key to building a successful and productive team culture. The challenge remains in creating a culture that’s inclusive in how it supports both on-site and remote staff. Managers now need to be conscious of creating a workplace environment that doesn’t simply emulate the physical office; it’s therefore essential to ask employees directly what they would find most useful and build your strategy from there.

“Ultimately, remote and on-site workplaces are different environments, but they’re part of the same ecosystem. By intentionally supporting employees regardless of their location, a business can benefit from a truly innovative and thriving workplace culture.”

The report, ‘How managers are investing in remote and hybrid team success’ includes responses from 1,192 HR managers and company leaders from the UK, Australia, USA and Canada.