Successful Blog

What Are You Doing to Foster Employee Engagement?

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By Roz Bahrami

A year has passed since the shocking Gallup Research “State of the Global Workforce” report that showed only 13 percent of employees around the world are actually engaged in their work.

This report hit most human resources departments like a hammer, but the follow-up question begged: “What can be done about low employee engagement?

It’s an acknowledged premise for success in any organization that engaged employees contribute far more than than those who are disinterested and distanced from their tasks. Everyone covets the workers who will happily go the extra mile for the cause, put real passion into their work, and be profoundly connected and loyal to their corporation.

The problem of engagement is not easily solved because the source of disengagement isn’t necessarily linked to the workplace itself. Employees don’t remove their personal problems with their coats when they start their shift. Working through personal problems and trauma at home still weighs heavy as they try to focus on the work at hand.

Acknowledging that issue is one part but, there is still a reality that it may actually be the workplace environment itself that isn’t working to engage its employees. Many HR departments want to put programs in place to increase engagement, but the issue inevitably is the means to measure their success.

Despite these challenges, real change can occur.

How to Foster Employee Engagement

Focus first on establishing an atmosphere of engagement right from top managers, stressing the importance of empowerment and respect for employee ideas.

One of the biggest factors that can contribute to engaging employees is communication. Employees want to know more information and have greater context on how their performance ties in with the company’s overall goals as a whole. They want to know that the job they are doing actually has an impact. Also, few people in your organization are more aware of the shortcomings of corporate procedures than those who must follow them. Give them a chance to speak regularly and contribute to positive change.

Pay attention to hiring to find managers who focus heavily on mentoring and coaching as opposed to dictating. All of the Gallup research comes back to the reality that corporate engagement begins and ends with effective management.

Work with your team of managers to build engagement opportunities and implement follow-up strategies so employees can see that their contributions and ideas are being treated with respect.

Weekly meetings, strategic brain-storming sessions, and spontaneous one-on-one meetings keep managers closer to their staff and also keeps employees engaged.

Let us know what you to to foster employee engagement or other great ideas you think we missed.

Author Bio:    Roz Bahrami is a blogger for https://SkyPrep.com, an online training software for companies to train employees and measure results. Roz is a regular contributor to blog posts related to corporate training, L&D and HR technology. Visit her personal blog at trainingconnoisseur.com.

Featured image via Flickr CC: Kevin Dooley

Educate Yourself on Importance of eLearning for Business

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Businessman Gear SuccessIt’s time to educate yourself on the importance of e-learning for business.

Both employers and employees can benefit from taking online courses. The choice of courses is almost limitless.

Whether you are seeking to obtain a certification, a degree, or simply to increase your knowledge in a particular area, e-learning offers a way to achieve those ambitions.

Convenience of eLearning

E-learning offers flexibility for students.

Enrolled students can log on to their classroom dashboard from any place with an Internet connection.

So when a business owner has an employee in the field who they want to enroll in an e-learning course, that employee doesn’t need to come in from the field in order to sit in a classroom and learn.

Timing is also a huge benefit to e-learning courses.

Most often, there is no time limit for how long a student can take to finish any one course, or to get their final certification. In cases where there is a time limit, it’s usually quite liberal.

After all, e-learning courses are specifically designed to meet the needs of students who have other major demands on their time, such as raising a family or working a full-time job.

Location is another valuable benefit for most e-learning students.

Armed with a laptop and a set of ear buds or headphones, students can engage with their course work outside in a park, in the employee break lounge, on public transit, or anywhere else they find themselves with extra time to spare.

How eLearning Benefits Employers

Even if employers don’t enroll in e-learning courses themselves, their businesses will benefit when employees are motivated enough to take e-learning courses.

Employers can greatly enhance their talent resources when they encourage and reward employees for taking e-learning courses.

As the following article looks at, there are 3 basic needs for inspiring motivation in eLearning.

The first one is accessibility. Having the courses be accessible to the employees is a key part of making sure everyone is treated fairly in regards to the opportunity.

One great way to ensure this is to post news about the e-learning opportunities in employee newsletters, in company emails and on office bulletin boards. This is also a terrific way for employers to protect themselves against the possibility of discrimination suits.

A second way to motivate employees to take up e-learning is to make it relatable to their job success. It is in this way that employers can really benefit from helping all their employees to do better in their job performance.

Any industry can benefit from employees who are more educated in terms of dealing with the issues that come up in their job.

For example, a factory worker would benefit from courses that teach about automation. A salesperson would benefit from courses about purchasing behavior. A retail clerk would benefit from courses regarding preventing shoplifting.

Finally, employers can motivate employees to enroll in e-learning by offering rewards based on measurable goals.

When employees see that they can be promoted or earn more money by taking e-learning courses, everyone benefits.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Kate Supino writes about best business practices.

Creative writing vs effective business communication

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Ernest Hemingway would have been a terrible proposal writer.

 

There are two faces to the craft of writing.

On one side, you have the creative writer, head in the clouds, flirting with the muse of inspiration.

On the other side, you have the technical writer, the copywriter, the business communication professional. Still dreaming with creativity but tasked with a specific goal. Often with a crunchy deadline.

These are two equally important skill sets, and they don’t often reside in the same brain. They typically require different environments, different tools, and different approaches.

Why do you need to recognize this difference?

If you’re hiring a “writer,” you certainly need to know which type will suit your requirements best.

  • Are you going to enforce quick deadlines?
  • What’s the reading level of your audience?
  • Is the person going to work in a team environment, or solo?

If you’re sitting down to write, you need to consider the end goal.

  • Can you bust out your flowery adjectives or do you need to keep it simple?
  • How much time does your reader have to absorb the piece?
  • What’s the context? Is your piece going to be part of a master communication plan that requires a specific voice or message?
  • Are you trying to entertain, educate, both?

If you’re teaching someone to write, you must think about both facets of the craft.

  • Are you going to assign your student a timed essay or have them polish and edit a piece over a long period of time?
  • What tools will they use? Pen and paper? Professional writing tools like Scrivener, Evernote, or something else?
  • Who are they writing for? What’s their mission?
  • Will they be required to come up with their own topics, or will they be assigned writing tasks?

Which writer are you?

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image via Flickr CC: thierry ehrmann

Put Some Bounce Into Your SMS Marketing Plans

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Smart Home Device - Office ControlYour club or other form of entertainment establishment is alive with nightlife.

Excitement and energy pulse through the space and the air is fused with electricity. You want your marketing efforts to exude the same vibe.

Have you thought about bumping up your SMS marketing?

Text message marketing is one of the smartest marketing techniques right now.

You can reach large numbers of people who will follow through on a call to action. Most people have access to text messaging and check their texts throughout the day.

With smart messaging, this can be low cost, high reward form of marketing. Your club will be even more vibrant and exciting.

As the article “6 creative ways to advertise your club’s SMS marketing program” looks at, here are some things to remember:

  • Motivate people to sign up with incentives – Include a free drink or discounted cover charge when they sign up for text alerts. Think about this for getting current customers to sign up immediately, as in when they are in your club – post the number to join in your club and offer a free drink with sign up.
  • Make it urgent – With a quick turn-around time, people are more likely to take you up on your offers. For instance, when you say you get free entrance to the club with SMS sign up, make sure you include an expiration date and make it quick, like one week.
  • Let your subscribers know of special events – They can be the first to know about events like ladies’ nights or special DJ’s. It’s a great way to form those connections with your customers; they’ll love the feeling of getting insider’s tips!
  • Post your SMS offers on your social media – The people coming to your club are probably pretty into social media, so get this out there. Those that subscribe to your Instagram and other social media will get reminders to sign up for SMS. You can also send texts now and then with social media participation reminders. These work hand in hand.

Easy She Goes with SMS Marketing

The great thing about SMS marketing is how easy it is.

Because you are limited in your text characters, you don’t have to worry about creating long winded content. Short and sweet is the way to go, with a clear call to action, a reward and an expiration date.

Be sure to text consistently, but no more than a couple of times a week. You don’t want to annoy your customers, but you want to keep their attention. Vary your incentives and be creative.

You’ll see more and more subscribers and more and more revenue coming in!

Good luck and please share anything fun and creative you’ve done with SMS marketing for your club.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Heather Legg is an independent writer who covers topics related to social media, SMS marketing strategies, and small business.

Listening for Your Customers’ Wish List

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Do you like Christmas shopping? I dread doing laps around a store looking for ideas for the hard-to-buy-for people on my list. But several years ago I started doing something ordinary that has completely changed Christmas shopping for me. When I spend time with loved ones, I try to pay attention to their likes, wants or needs and I note them in my phone. Then, come December, I have an idea list so I can get each person a gift that fits them perfectly.

The snag to this plan, of course, is when I’ve been too focused on myself or my agenda to notice what someone might need. When I approach my time with others wanting to be served or as tasks to be completed, I don’t notice their needs and so, come December, I’m at a loss as to what gift would serve them best.

And in the same way, maybe we’re missing out on how to serve our customers best. When we are too busy with our agenda, we miss out on seeing others’ needs. We need three things to solve this problem:

  1. We need to listen actively.
  2. We need to note our customers’ needs.
  3. We need to follow up and work to fulfill the needs.

Odds are that our customers’ needs are obvious, but that we’re not always listening for them. We need to have our focus on serving others in all that we do, even if that means our agendas need to be interrupted for us to do so.

We may notice needs from time to time, but how can we be more intentional and practical with them? The following are some ideas I had. If you have a client-service business, you should be focused on actively listening for your clients’ needs in every conversation. Simply set apart time to note needs after conversations. If you have a retail business, you could set up a note board for sales associates to write down customer needs they’ve discovered. If you have a service-based business, you could have your employees note customer needs after each service provided.

It’s often the simple things that can make a big difference in how we serve customers. If we actively listen for needs and work to meet those needs, we may find our businesses become rare and our customers become loyal.

 

Original image from Death To The Stock Photo.

About the Author: Lindsey Tolino comes alongside artisans, craftsman and people monetizing their passions to help them create healthy businesses. She shares her heart at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+ .

Take Your Company’s Data Integration to New Levels

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Businessman using his tablet computerNow that you’ve got your company off and running and your business intelligence all locked up with data integration, it’s time to take it to new levels.

Data integration is the latest way for businesses in all industries to meet the constantly evolving demands of their clients and customers.

It’s also a proven way for businesses to streamline all their department efforts, including HR, marketing and sales.

Take Human Resources to the Next Level

Human resources professionals are always looking for new and better ways to attain and retain quality employees. The task hasn’t always been easy.

In the past, HR professionals had to perform their personnel hunt on the sly, plucking top employees from their current jobs, wooing them over secret lunches and convincing them to jump ship. The entire affair was cumbersome and fraught with frustration and disappointment.

Half the time, after that entire struggle, the caught employee turned out to be not as expected, and ended up jumping ship – again.

With data integration, HR professionals can cease opportunities to finely tune their search for high potential job candidates, to a point where they are nearly certain they are chasing the right rabbit.

Once on board, data integration systems give HR professionals a bird’s eye view of employee’s performance and where there is room for improvement.

Take Marketing to the Next Level

As the following article looks at, your marketing department may be the area where you will see the most benefit from unlocking knowledge and enhancing collaboration with data integration.

With the correct data integration system in place, your marketing team can project trends, target leads and customize marketing strategies in record time.

Using data integration systems, marketing managers can swiftly react to changing patterns and interests in your target demographics.

It’s like being able to read a customer’s mind, and then changing what you say seconds before you say it.

Take Sales to the Next Level

With a data integration system at your sales team’s disposal, they will be able to act on information that is input into the system.

They will be able to collaborate with other team members, whether they are across the room or around the globe.

Sales efforts no longer have to be put on hold because one or more members of your sales team are out of pocket. Shared data is data that can be acted on instantly.

Those who are able to utilize the data and move ahead with projects will be able to update the project status, sign their digital name to the work, and move on to next steps.

The lead, or target customer, will then move automatically and organically to the next stage in the buying decision, ready for the next sales member to take the lead.

Streamlining your business with data integration is the next big thing that technology has brought to the hands of business owners.

Take advantage of this latest wave and find out how data integration can change the way you do business.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Kate Supino writes about business and marketing practices.