Successful Blog

Is Your Business Functioning on All Levels?

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It can be easy to keep track of your small business when you are first starting out.

You know what everyone is doing; in fact, you are often the person doing most of the work. However, as your business grows and expands into new areas and new departments, it can be difficult to ensure that everything is working smoothly until it isn’t.

To avoid crisis, you need to know if your business is functioning well in all areas. This is part of the role of business administration.

Organization

One area where you must review is on leadership.

Do you have a leader for every department or is one person trying to handle multiple areas? Is the right person in the right position of leadership?

Whether you believe that leaders are born or made, you must make sure you have a true leader in the right position to achieve the best results from your staff. That may mean hiring the right person or training someone to become the right person for the job.

You must also make sure you have your small business divided into the correct categories or departments to operate in the most efficient way possible.

Tasks need to be delegated to the area where it makes the most sense. This may differ from what has been done in the past, but results in better operations.

Communication

Do you have adequate communication channels set in place for your business?

A successful organization is one that receives input from all areas of the company. Furthermore, the leaders of the organization provide information that is accurate, relevant, and timely to the staff. No one feels left out or left “in the dark” as to the direction of the organization.

To have an effective administration means in part that you offer the opportunity for everyone to be heard.

This may include providing anonymous surveys for input. An organization must have weekly or monthly department and company-wide meetings to keep everyone updated on the different aspects of the business.

Review

A business must also have an effective review system in place.

This not only ensures that things are working well, but it gives you the opportunity to see if there are ways you can do it better. It helps keep your company organized while you make sure everything is progressing along based on the business plan. If you find deviations, you must decide if they need addressed or if your plan needs altered.

As your business grows, you will find it harder to keep your hands on the pulse of the organization. However, it is important to maintain the proper oversight of every aspect of your company to ensure future success.

By focusing on having the proper administration in place, you can achieve your goals and keep your company running smoothly on all levels.

Photo credit: smallbusiness.chron.com

About the Author: Joyce Morse is an author who writes on a variety of topics, including SEO and business administration.

Budget for Small Business Health Insurance

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With the introduction of Obamacare and your employees rushing to find out what insurance plans will work best for them, it is no wonder you are wondering how these changes are going to impact your business.

While the world of business insurance is changing, there are ways to keep up with these changes and still provide your employees with the health insurance and benefits they need. But before you do that, it helps to create a realistic budget that lets you offer insurance but still remain within the business assets you have available for these benefits.

Here are some tips and resources to help you get started.

Choosing to Offer Health Benefits

The first step when creating your budget should always be to decide if you will offer health insurance.

While in the past, this was a given, you might want to rethink your plans for 2014 and later years. Obamacare is going to change the necessity of businesses offering health insurance plans and the plans that are available.

However, keep in mind offering insurance is also considered one of the many benefits that entice employees and keep them happy with working for your company.

Some things to note are that health benefits are cost effective when combining with other benefits for your employees and they improve employee morale. This can help your business advance to the next level, improving your productivity level.

Creating Your Health Insurance Budget

Next is the budget factor.

No matter how small your business is, you still need to create a health insurance budget before moving further with the type of health insurance benefits that will be offered to your employees.

Start by looking at your current or past budget, if you have it. Look at different budget templates. You may need to make some tweaks to it, but it’s a great place to start.

Look at your overall business budget and how much you can set aside for health insurance, and start there. Once you have this number, you will be able to then look for insurance plans within this budget.

You may also want to compare the costs of individual versus family health insurance benefits.

Types of Health Insurance Plans

Now that you are working on your budget, think about the types of health insurance that is available to choose from. This includes group health insurance and defined contribution plans.

The group health insurance plans are the most common and are sponsored by your business. You will provide these benefits to your employees, who then get a choice of which they opt in for, changing their premiums, plans, coverage and more.

Instead of paying costs to a specific plan, you can also offer defined contribution health plan which is a more affordable option and is more of a discounted plan, rather than insurance plan.

Moving forward into 2014, you will find that the current health insurance plans you are offering have changed somewhat, but are still available.

If you are fine with your budget and these plans suit your employees, don’t stress about making big changes.

Photo credit: iwvoices.com

About the Author: Tina Samuels writes on social media, small business, marketing, and insurance.

Should You Allow Your Employees to Nap While on the Job?

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There was a time when people could get into trouble for falling asleep at work, but things have changed in recent years.

More and more companies are encouraging their employees to take naps during work hours.

If you are considering whether or not you should allow your employees to nap on the job, the following information can help you make the right decision.

Napping at Work in the United States

Many companies in the U.S. require their employees to work very long hours. To ensure that their employees will not be overly exhausted, these companies provide napping rooms or pods as a perk.

A report released by the Society of Human Resource Management revealed that napping rooms or pods were found in about six percent of all workplaces in 2011. Some of the well-known companies that allow their employees to nap at work are Google, Nike, Ben & Jerry’s, Pizza Hut, Huffington Post, Workman Publishing, Deloitte Consulting and Yarde Metals.

Cost of Sleep Deprivation to U.S. Businesses

According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults sleep an average of about seven hours per night during the work week, which is one hour less than the sleep duration recommended by experts. This means that a large percentage of American workers are sleep-deprived.

Sleep deprivation can have many adverse consequences, including increased errors, accidents, absenteeism, drug use and turnover; higher insurance rates, and lower productivity.

Depending on the severity of its consequences, it may result in substantial financial loss for a company. In 2011, Harvard scientists found that sleep deprivation costs U.S. businesses about $63 billion in lost productivity every year.

Benefits of Allowing Employees to Nap on the Job

Dozens of medical studies have found that sleeping for 30 minutes to one hour in the afternoon can increase alertness, productivity and mood.

Employees who are sleep-deprived have a greater tendency to feel tired than those who have enough sleep, and they may lose their ability to focus on their work. This can result in a decline in work quality and productivity, and even costly errors and accidents.

Napping at work can make your employees feel more refreshed and revitalized, enabling them to perform their duties more competently. It is especially helpful for those who are working in a creative field, because it can boost their ability to think creatively.

Create a Conducive Environment for Napping at Your Workplace

The best way to create a nap-friendly workplace is to dedicate a room for napping.

You can place beds, recliners or sleeping pods in the room and use dim atmospheric lighting to provide a comfortable sleep environment for your employees. If you do not have enough space to create a napping room, you can supply nap mats and eye masks instead.

Many companies that encourage napping on the job have seen a significant increase in employee productivity.

Therefore, it is highly recommended that you make napping a part of your company culture.

Photo credit: newscolater.com

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from running a small business to online reputation management.

How Much Can the Wrong Hire Cost You?

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Hiring a new employee carries some risk.

The person you choose to hire may look and sound great during interview, but he or she may turn out to be a poor performer in the end. It is essential that you try to avoid making a wrong hire, because it can cost your company dearly.

According to The Harvard Business Review, about 80 percent of employee turnover results from poor hiring decisions. Here is a look at the potential costs of a bad hire.

Financial Loss

In a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, about 41 percent of companies estimated that a bad hiring decision cost them more than $25,000 and 25 percent said that it cost them more than $50,000.

The financial cost of replacing a bad employee can vary greatly depending on his or her position in your company.

The Labor Department estimates that the average cost of replacing a new hire is about one-third of his or her annual salary.

Some of the expenses that are involved include interview expenses, orientation and training, employment assessment, termination costs, potential legal expenses for wrongful dismissal, relocation and career transition. A large portion of the financial loss results from the need to repeat the hiring process to find a replacement.

Lower Productivity and Work Quality

Poor job performance is usually the main reason why a particular employee is considered a bad hire.

An employee who is not making enough effort to fulfill his or her job duties satisfactorily can have a significant negative impact on the overall productivity of your company.

If he or she is constantly failing to meet deadlines and delivering poor quality work that needs to be redone, it will take a longer time for your company to complete projects and possibly cause your workforce to become more disorganized.

Negative Work Environment

Hiring the wrong employee can also have an adverse effect on the morale and satisfaction levels of other employees.

Competent employees may be required to pick up additional work because of the incompetence of the new employee, and they may feel dissatisfied as a result of that.

If the new employee has an attitude problem, he or she can undermine teamwork and create an inharmonious work environment, which can in turn hinder your business performance.

Reputation Damage

Employees who deal directly with customers are the “face” of your business, and their attitudes and behaviors can affect your customers’ perception of your company.

If the new employee occupies a customer-facing position, he or she can jeopardize your relationship with your customers. Poor service and negative attitude can upset and frustrate customers, and cause them to lose loyalty. A bad employee can cause significant damage to your business reputation even if he or she is with your company for just a few months.

A good workforce is one of the key ingredients for business success.

As such, you have to take the necessary measures to ensure that you hire the right people for your company.

Photo credit: pinnacleplacement.com

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from human resource management to online reputation management services.

Why Do Your Meetings Go Nowhere?

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Surprisingly, office meetings are always long. You hardly ever hear of anyone complaining that the meetings were too short.

Every company has its own culture when it comes to meetings and how they are conducted. The general sentiments surrounding office meetings however make them appear boring and ineffective.

But why should it be this way? Is there an alternative to making meetings productive?

The fact remains that every meeting usually has an agenda that is communicated either before or during the meeting.

What makes meetings seem like they are ‘going nowhere’ has to do with the set up and the premise for which these meetings are held and how the content is passed on.

Below are some reasons behind the failure of company meetings.

Objectives Aren’t Clear

Every meeting started must have clear objectives.

Lack of tangible and well-structured objectives not only wastes time but also confuse the attendees who may be left to guess what the meeting is all about. Be sure of what you are trying to achieve by holding the meeting and bring that objective out clearly.

To help you on this, a pre-meeting review and rehearsal would be appropriate just to ensure that the agenda is in order and the points are well arranged, this enhances and streamlines the objectives of the meetings. Unless you convince yourself, you may not be able to convince the rest of the attendees.

Unregulated Number of Attendees

Before holding any meeting, the number of people to attend these meetings needs to be checked and ascertained.

Not everyone should attend the office meetings. In fact that is one of the reasons that make these meetings fail in making an impact. The more the people attending the meeting, the higher the likelihood that such a meeting will consume so much time compared to the set time limits.

Instead of each person attending the meeting, only a few should be picked and the rest served with a brief summary of the discussions later on.

Time Blown

A meeting is ‘elastic’ in nature; it tends to stretch out to fill whatever time it has been allocated.

Meetings which take longer than necessary tend to eat into the company’s time and still end up being counterproductive. Part of the time allocated will normally be used for conversations that are not even company related or if they are then not on the agenda.

To make such meetings successful, you can reduce the time so that only the relevant things get time to be discussed.

The ‘Latecomer’ Factor

Meetings tend to spend too much time on arrivals. Late arrivals in particular can waste time for the entire group.

The solution to this is to start the meeting on time so that latecomers will find ways to catch up on their own. People will soon shape up and arrive in time because latecomers are embarrassed walking in when others are embroiled in deep discussions. This will save time for the whole group and the meeting will achieve its purpose.

Conducting Sitting Instead Of Stand-Up Meetings

Research shows that stand-up meetings take lesser time that those where people are seated.

This is because stand-up meetings tend to make people less comfortable, meaning decisions are arrived faster, deliberations made in record times and only pertinent issues get airtime. So far these meetings have been ranked among those that are productive and efficient.

Remember time saved in the course of a meeting is always equated to productive time given back to the company.

Discuss more with less time; you will find meetings meaningful and effective.

Photo credit: imlworldwide.com

About the Author: Tina Samuels writes on how to be first on Google, social media, marketing, and other business topics.

5 Ways Your Employees Can Be More Productive

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Increasing your business productivity is an excellent way of boosting your profits. But if your employees are lagging, or you’re just not seeing the results you’d like, how do you turn things around?

Here are five ways you can help your employees be more productive — making both them and you happier:

1. Provide comfortable break areas and times – It may seem counterintuitive, but providing a relaxing area for employees to unwind a few times during the day can actually increase the amount of work they get done. People who feel chained to their desks all day can zone out, and their lowered productivity can affect morale, which can turn into a nasty cycle.

Set mandatory break times for all employees (even if they’re not all at the same time). Consider implementing short, office-wide breaks in which everyone gets up once an hour to do a few stretches. This can improve your workers’ physical comfort and give them energy boosts throughout the day.

2. Give them the technology they need to do their jobs well – These days, mobile devices are becoming more and more essential to running a business. If you can’t afford to provide these devices to workers in the office or field who may need them, encourage them to bring their own.

If you choose to let employees work from their own devices, make sure your business data is well protected with strong passwords, time-outs, and other security measures.

3. Provide flexible working options – Whether it’s telecommuting one or more days per week, offering a flexible work schedule, or another accommodation, creating a flexible workspace can have an enormous effect on employee morale and productivity.

Having everyone in the office has its advantages, making collaboration more convenient. But with ever-evolving technology, working from
home is becoming a more feasible and attractive option for many companies.

Worried that productivity will drop if you let employees telecommute? Numerous studies have shown otherwise.

A Stanford University study from February of this year found that in one company, out of 16,000 workers, those who were allowed to work from home showed a 13% performance increase over their office-bound colleagues.

4. Provide regular, constructive feedback – It’s hard to improve in a vacuum. Employees who aren’t sure where they stand, or who have formed inefficient habits, may need some help identifying areas to work on.

Give your employees encouragement for a job well done, or thoughtful advice for how to perform better. Delivering this feedback regularly will help keep everyone on track.

5. Keep meetings short and sweet – Conducting a meeting without an outline or agenda is a recipe for a long, unproductive session.

Instead, write up an agenda and identify someone to lead the meeting and keep conversations on track. You’ll also need someone to take notes to make sure no important points get lost. Keep the meeting focused on important points, and consider issuing status reports and minor updates in a weekly email instead of during meetings.

These are just a few of the ways you can help your employees be more productive and keep your office running smoothly.

Photo credit: techliant.com

About the Author: Freelance blogger Angie Mansfield covers a variety of topics for both individuals and small business owners. Her work addresses such things as health, social media, and how to remove information from online records.