Business Management Resource

Save Money by Improving Your Employee Relations

June 6, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

It pays in big ways to have excellent employee relations. By keeping your staff happy, they’ll be more likely to continue working for your company. This saves you a bundle of money because you won’t constantly be spending money on new hires. Consider these strategies for improving your employee relations.

Create a Committee

So, nobody likes to be on a committee, especially at work. However, this committee is special because its members will develop ways to make the workplace more enjoyable. Recommendations might include giving employees one or two days off during a slow period for your company, offering on-site childcare, and giving wellness incentives. Some of these measures can save employers money in the long run in the way of lower healthcare costs and fewer sick days.

Offer Flexibility

If you don’t feel like you can give your workers additional time off, be creative in developing other ways to reward them. For example, find out if some jobs could be performed at different hours. Some parents might welcome the chance to work earlier hours so they can end their work day at the same time the kids get out of school. Additionally, many employers are making 30 hour work weeks available for certain positions. (Ideally, the employee continues to receive benefits, including health insurance.) There are cost savings because the employees take home three-fourths of the pay they received when they worked 40 hours per week. It’s a fair trade for many employees who enjoy having additional time off.

Keeping your employees happy may cost you up front, but many of these measures save you time and money in the long run.

Filed Under: Business Costs, Employee Relationships Tagged With: Company, Employment, Health insurance

How to Have Successful Client Relations

May 16, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Successful client relations are key to any business. Of course there are easy clients that are easy to please, but there are also high maintenance clients that seem to require hours on the phone, tons of edits and lots of time. There are some keys to successful client relations that can make a business flourish.

It is important that you know your role. Be sure that expectations are clear and concise. You need to know exactly what the client wants and expects. Get it in writing and pyrefer to it often.
Invite client input. If the client feels that they have made a significant contribution to the project they will be less likely to request major changes. They have a stake in the finished product due to their contributions.

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If you have messed up admit it. Clients do not like excuses. They want results.
Do not take every project you are offered. Too many companies just starting out are desperate for work and are tempted to take on projects that they know they may not be able to complete or do successfully.
Be on time. When you say you are going to deliver the results do it.
If the partnership just isn’t making progress ending the relationship may need to be considered. If you are miserable chances are the client is miserable. Part ways peacefully.

Client relations are the bread and butter to any business. Follow these tips for a happy, successful client relationship which will lead to a successful business.

Filed Under: Business, Client Relationships, Employee Relationships Tagged With: Business, Clients, Small business

Hiring employees for less

March 28, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Maintaining a healthy head count is crucial for the success of any business. You don’t want to end up understaffed when you need the manpower to finish vital projects or overstaffed during lean periods that leads to unnecessary spending. Although companies generally have a plan on how they will be going about their recruitment process, smaller businesses often end up incurring huge expenses in hiring. They need skilled and talented employees yet can’t afford to pay high salaries or commissions to agents. Here are some tips on how you can get quality staff for your organization without having to delve too deep into your pocket!

1. Hiring immigrants instantly reduces the amount you will be spending on salaries. Immigrants, although highly talented, usually ask for lesser pay as their English may be flawed or they may not have enough local experience. With a little bit of training they can become high performers.

2. A lot of female executives leave their jobs to concentrate on their families once they have children. Often, however, they look out for part time jobs or work as consultants. They can provide you with much needed expertise at a discounted price!

3. Look out for people who work on contract basis. If you think you will need additional staff for a single project, hire employees on a contract that lasts the duration of the project. This way, your work will get done and you won’t have to pay for employee idle time.

4. Interns are a great way to fill up positions that don’t require a lot of experience. They look for jobs solely to gain experience and don’t expect much of a pay.

5. Encourage employee referrals to avoid paying huge commissions to agents.

Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: Business, Employment, Recruitment

Hiring top management for small businesses

March 24, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Businesses, not matter how big or small, need top management who are experienced and experts in their fields in order to guide the company towards success. While large and established companies can afford to spend mammoth amounts in hiring senior management, smaller businesses can’t afford this luxury. However, this doesn’t mean that they should settle for poor quality staff or eliminate certain positions which may lead to their business objectives being compromised. There are several ways in which small businesses can get the expertise of top management without having to invest too much in hiring. Here are some tips:

1. To begin with, try hiring top managers as consultants. There are many chief officers who work part time or as advisors in smaller companies. You will be able to gain a lot from their knowledge and will pay only a fraction of the cost of hiring a senior manager on a full time basis.

2. Several educational institutions like colleges and universities have highly educated and experienced staff who are available as advisors or consultants. Many such institutions also run programs that provide free leadership and mentoring to budding entrepreneurs. Check if your company can qualify for any such program.

3. Even when you hire top management on a consultant or part time basis, encourage a team atmosphere. Making them feel that they are as much part of the company as a full time manager will motivate them to perform better and give the organization their best.

4. Before you hire anyone for a top management post, go through a proper reference and background check procedure just as you would for any other employee. Top management are the leaders of a business and you need to be sure they are genuine.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Business, Management, Small business

Save money – promote your employees

March 20, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Hiring new recruits from external sources can consume a lot of time and money. You have to engage your HR team into the recruitment process, pay consultants for referring suitable applicants, train the new recruits and then go through a waiting period till the new employees fully settles into the job which could take months! Promoting employees within the organization is always the better way to go, especially for small businesses that can’t afford the cost of hiring new recruits. Here are a few tips on how you can use in-house talents t fill up higher posts:

1. If you have a small company, chances are that you will know what skills and abilities every individual working for you has. Make a list of all their educational and professional qualifications as well as soft skills that your employees may have.

2. Keep an eye out for high performers. People who are willing to go the extra mile and show an interest in development are likely to evolve into better roles over a course of time. Remember to be unbiased in your evaluation of your employees.

3. Make sure that every employee has a career path to follow. Have your HR team have one to one sessions with each employee to know how they see themselves progressing in the organization and plot a timeline based graph for their growth.

4. Have in-house training courses arranged that aim at developing employee skills that will benefit your organization. Keep a check on which employees shine during these training sessions.

5. Let your employees know that you are interested in promoting them and encourage them to approach you when they feel they are ready to take on more responsibilities.

Filed Under: Employee Relationships Tagged With: Employment, Human resources, Small business

Effective Employee Orientation

March 16, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Most companies have an orientation program for new recruits to get them up to pace with the organization. Orientation fast tracks an employee towards better understanding of the organizational goals, the work environment, policies, benefits and lots more. Here are a few points that will make employee orientation more effective for any organization.

1. Have a good orientation plan. Bombarding a new employee with a load of information on the first day is never a good idea so spread your orientation over the period of a month.

2. On the first day, make sure the new employee gets introduced to all their colleagues as well as department heads.

3. Appoint someone from the employees’ department as his or her ‘buddy’. This person will be responsible for making the new recruit comfortable in the new work environment and help them adjust.

4. Create an Employee Handbook that contain all the policies pertaining to HR, administration, benefits, holidays and almost anything that an employee can have a question about. Give this handbook to the employee on the first day and ask them to read it thoroughly, indicating that their knowledge will be tested shortly.

5. At the end of the first week, conduct a quick test to know if the employee understand his or her job role and how their own department functions.

6. AT the end of the month, arrange for an employee orientation day for all the employees recruited that month. Have senior managers and executives of each department brief them on how their department functions. It would be great if you could get a chief officer to explain the organization’s goals, mission and vision.

7. Conduct a final test to know if the employee is aware of all policies of the organization.

Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: Employee Handbook, Employment, Human resources

Shoe string training

March 9, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Companies may recognize the importance of training their staff but often find themselves cash strapped to invest in it. Many companies put their elaborate training programs on hold after the recent global economic crisis. Although this may save the immediate buck, it can prove costlier in the long run due to poor productive growth of employees. High end training is almost always difficult for small businesses to pull off and so they often ignore training of employees all together. Just because you can’t commit a massive amount s training budget doesn’t mean you have to forego training! Here is a look at some methods you can try to train your employees for barely any cost:

1. Form a training ‘Union’ of sorts with other small business owners. Use each others expert staff to share knowledge and skills. Each company will have employees with unique skills who can act as trainers for others.

2. When purchasing equipment of software, include product training as part of the contract. Get the manufacturer to send a representative to your office premises and train the employees on how to use the equipment of software. This will cut the cost you would incur in training the employees while your staff will get trained first hand by the manufacturer’s experts.

3. Form in-house training groups consisting of employees who have been identified as having good leadership and mentoring skills. Encourage them to set up weekly training classes for colleagues. Give them an incentive in the form of performance bonuses. This way, your employees will get trained for a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional trainer.

4. Try out one of the many online training courses available. Several sites provide free training material that can be utilized by your in-house training groups.

5. Send a single employee to a professional training camp and have the employee pass on the knowledge and skills to colleagues.

Filed Under: Business, Training Tagged With: Employment, Small business, Training

How to make training effective

March 7, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Employees are one of the most crucial resources of a company. Gone are the days when staff was taken for granted and it was believed that paying them on time was enough to keep them happy. Employee productivity is no longer only about how many hours a person works but also about the quality of their work and how their skills can be developed for higher roles. Training goes a long way in the development of employees and most modern organizations pay a lot of attention to this facet of business. However, just getting your employees into a training room and lecturing them for hours is not enough. Here are some tips on how you can make training more effective:

1. Set clear goals based on your business objective. What are the skills you want your employees to develop? Is training going to be enough or does it have to be backed up by some formal education? How will the training help employees drive towards business objective?

2. Think from an employees’ point of view. They will be more interested in the training if they believe that they too will gain something from it. Link training programs to promotion or salary hike prospects. Make training a part of the performance appraisal process.

3. A lecture lasting several hours can be extremely boring. Make the training interesting by using multimedia like videos and presentations. Engage the attendees by interacting with them during the course. Conduct a quiz or debate o stir up some excitement.

4. Have clear expectations on what you want the training to achieve. If you are aiming at improving communication skills of employees then set a bar which every employee must cross after the training is done.

5. Training would be pointless if you can’t measure its effectiveness. Conduct a test or survey post training to see how the employees have progressed and encourage them to take further training if they miss the bar.

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: Business, Employment, Training

Benefits are Changing; Top Workplaces Offer More Than Vacation Packages

February 23, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

What is considered a ‘good employer’ has changed. It used to be, all a boss had to do was offer a decent wage, paid lunch hour and some health insurance, and people felt they got benefits. However, looking at the list of the top 100 businesses to work for makes that seem minimal.

Here are some things the top companies are offering their workers:

Flexible work schedules – Some people cannot fit into the ‘9-5’ model that America’s gone by for so long. It’s important to let employees have a sense of control over their own lives and making a schedule that they like makes fewer days missed at work.
Child-friendly Workplaces – It’s okay to take several weeks off when a child is born, but now mothers are finding it’s okay to bring baby to the office while they work. Software firm SAS offers employees on-site health care, child care, and in summer they even provide summer camps. Many places are also becoming pet friendly.
Atmosphere of fun and creativity – At Facebook employees get around from meeting to meeting on scooters placed around the floor, and ping pong and foosball tables are scattered here and there, as well. At Qualcomm employees enjoy baseball games, surfing lessons, kayaking tours and lots of other fun things.
Rewards great service – When people feel appreciated they make a point of doing a good job. The Methodist Hospital system gives quarterly bonuses of $300 to non-management staff. Annabelle’s Restaurant gives employees parties with great prizes like airfare and massages for high-revenue days.
Understanding employee’s lives – acknowledging that real people are working and not robots means that at times some amendments to scheduling may have to be made. Johnson Financial Group gives employees leave of absences with full pay.
Good incentive programs – every company on the list has some sort of great benefits for meeting incentives.

Filed Under: Business, Business Costs Tagged With: Employment, Facebook, Johnson Financial Group

Business Planning is Essential

February 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

We all dream of owning our own business, but most of us really don’t know the right way to do it. A business plan is essential to starting a successful small business. To simply talk about it, dream about it, and then try to make a go of it will most likely result in failure. Successful business ventures always begin with an idea and motivation, but in order to implement that idea into a work in progress specific steps need to be taken.

The more organized an idea the better result will be for all involved. Using ERP, a enterprise resource plan, will help business owners, future employees, and potential lenders see how the business can benefit the community, if it will survive the first year, and what alternatives or contingencies the owners has should the business begin to fail.

There are many business plan templates available on the internet, and even if you have to pay for one, it’s worth it. Business plan templates guide you through the important information you’ll need to really lay out your new endeavor. Think of it as a wordy math formula. Once you’ve filled in all of the blanks, does the sum add up to a positive answer?

Often times, it’s the business plan that reveals the sad truth. Maybe that awesome idea really wasn’t so awesome. That’s not to say it’s impossible, it just means you’ve got to get back to the drawing board.

Some things that are included in a business plan are:
Mission Statement – This is where you really focus on what you plan to do.
Start Up Capital – You’ll need some money to start that business.
Key Players – Who are the owners, officers, managers, etc.
Products – This is where you discuss what you will be selling.
Location – This is where you describe where your business will be located.
Overhead – This is where you try to budget the various costs of running the business.
Income – Figure out what you’ll be charging for various products. Also, this is where you try to set a monthly goal.

These are just a few of the components of a business plan, and if they don’t add up, you’ll know before you start. Always work through this part of starting a business so that you can be successful in your new adventure.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Business, Mission statement, Ownership