Tag: employee customer connection

Collaborative Tech: Must-Haves For Workplace Flexibility

Cubicles and 9-to-5 schedules are becoming relics of the past in today’s highly competitive labor market, where top talent demands a new paradigm.

The Capital One 2019 Work Environment Survey found that 61 percent of professionals expect their next employer to offer flexible hours, and 54 percent expect the ability to work remotely.

“Flexibility to work outside traditional business hours and the four walls of the office is no longer just a nice-to-have for today’s professionals–it’s an expectation,” says Stefanie Spurlin, vice president of workplace solutions at Capital One.

To meet those expectations, business leaders must make smart technology choices, especially in the area of collaboration. Employers must provide solutions that make it easy for employees to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the office and to collaborate with their coworkers while they are traveling or working remotely.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSibTbzQ4YO2lFxmk1jBHkLJQH_ap7OJ0HuC9udcNbvP4a_rFZ9&sVideo meeting and conferencing solutions, real-time collaboration tools like chat services, and internal mobile apps are becoming the office products of the new workplace, as ubiquitous as fax machines in the pre-digital age.

“The goal is to find tools that build connectivity across geographies and locations, allowing teams and individuals to work as if they are sitting together,” Spurlin says.

While pursuing those objectives, business leaders must also keep in mind the type of work being done, especially the distinction between synchronous (people working at the same time) and asynchronous (people working at different times) work, says Anita Williams Woolley, associate professor of organizational behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

“When you think about project-based work, there’s usually some combination of the two involved,” she says.

The Time Zone Challenge

Employees working in different time zones often have limited opportunity for real-time communications. This geographical divide drives a need for technology solutions that enable workers to clearly record what they’ve done and organize information so their coworkers can find it easily and pick up where they left off.

“Documents should allow threaded discussion in the text by enabling comments and allowing users to ask questions so colleagues can come in later, look at the document, and catch up easily,” Woolley says. Robust document storage and threaded conversations on chat platforms are also important.

Whether employees are separated by thousands of miles and multiple time zones or just a couple of floors in an office building, technology plays a critical role in helping them to maximize their job performance. When asked which technologies would improve job performance and success at work, 75 percent of respondents in the Capital One 2019 Work Environment Survey cited video meeting or conferencing capabilities and 74 percent mentioned real-time collaboration tools.

“Putting the proper technologies in place to help people connect just as easily with their colleagues when working remotely as if they were in the office together gives employees the freedom to work away from their desks without feeling like they are sacrificing interaction with their coworkers,” Spurlin says.

Helping Leaders Meet Management Challenges

Technology also helps business leaders meet the challenges of managing a multi-geography workforce. When employees are working in multiple locations, extra effort on the part of managers may be required to make sure those employees feel connected.

As Spurlin explains,“they should feel empowered to approach the manager digitally, perhaps via chat or a quick text, the same way an employee in the office may swing by a manager’s office to ask for a few minutes to check in.”

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Making video rather than phone calls–the default means of connecting for check-ins or status meetings with employees working in different locations–is one way business leaders can leverage technology in this effort. Doing so ensures that valuable face-to-face meeting time is regularly scheduled.

“People management is one of the things that is really changing as the workforce becomes more and more distributed, but technology enables managers to bridge any gaps and facilitate different management styles or needs,” Spurlin says.

Flexibility is an increasingly important consideration for today’s employees when evaluating job opportunities and comparing prospective employers. Eighty-one percent of respondents in the 2019 Capital One 2019 Work Environment Survey cite flexible schedules as one of their top two reasons to stay with a company.

“With that in mind, companies can gain an edge by putting technology solutions in place that will help to foster a collaborative work environment and better work-life integration for employees,” Spurlin says.

By: Capital OneView

Source: Collaborative Tech: Must-Haves For Workplace Flexibility

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The Most Important Hires You’ll Make Are Your First Employees. So How Do You Spot a Good One?

We all know how important employees are to any company. Payroll is often your biggest expense. It takes A-plus employees to build a successful business, and if you’re going to spend most of your waking hours at work, why not spend it with people you enjoy?

I think hiring great talent is absolutely critical to get right, and it’s why one of my favorite questions to ask other founders is “What’s your favorite interview question?”

Doing so has helped me unearth some gems that I now include in my own interviewing practices–like the all-revealing “On a scale of one to 10, how lucky are you?” (which is an instant gauge of how positive and glass-half-full a candidate is — I love answers that are 8-plus).

Asking smart questions is helpful, but only when you know what to look for. Having spent my career in companies of all sizes, I do think there are specific qualities that make up a phenomenal early-stage employee–the person you want in the trenches with you when you’ve got fewer than 50 employees.

Here’s what to look for in your future star employees:

1. Generalists, generalists, generalists

Your biggest pain point today may be marketing. But what about tomorrow? In an early-stage company, you need well-rounded players who are willing to roll up their sleeves and figure out how to do anything and everything.

The best early hires I made at LearnVest could transition seamlessly from running a focus group to understanding our customer acquisition stats to reviewing a legal doc. They were title agnostic and open to pitching in wherever they were most needed. While it might seem counterintuitive, deep expertise in a niche area is less important at this stage than finding an athlete who can do anything and everything.

Often, people who fit this description are inbound candidates. They’ve gotten scrappy and identified your company as an exciting opportunity. They want to be at a startup because they want to have a voice in shaping a company’s future. Ask questions like, “What gets you out of the bed in the morning?” to verify that their motivation is intrinsic and driven by a need to contribute in any and all ways.

2. No egos

One of my mentors once told me, “If you knew what it took to start a company, you’d never do it.” Building a company is hard.

That’s why there’s no room for egos–both literally and figuratively. For starters, chances are your first HQ will be small and a rude awakening for any employee coming from a corporate boardroom. But beyond that, everyone needs to check office politics at the door and bring a team-first mindset.

In the interview process, dig into how a candidate worked with others. Ask them to describe a group project they worked on. Is this someone who’s willing to do whatever it takes to help the team? (For example, before our first board meeting at LearnVest, I was the one cleaning the bathroom before our board members came in. At the end of the day, they appreciated how “all in” I was!) Does this person share credit and praise their co-workers?

Early-stage teams are often limited in the number of teammates, which means that everyone has to give that much more. Think of it as a startup golden rule: Be the kind of employee you would want to work with. For me, that means zero egos.

3. Believers

In the earliest days, your success isn’t tangible yet. Employees have to derive motivation from a bigger vision and unite around a shared mission.

Simply put, you can’t have any skeptics at this stage. Look for people who bring positivity, optimism, and a can-do attitude. It is these believers who will act as your culture builders, and once your company scales, they will help you carry your original mission forward.

It can be hard to spot this quality in an interview process, so be sure to spend some time on the topic in any reference calls you do. Try to understand how this person has weathered challenges in past roles (from someone other than the candidate).

4. Grit

Growing up, I was a competitive diver. One of the best lessons it taught me was grit. No matter how your dives go, you have to get back up on the platform and keep pushing yourself. You have to fully commit to every move you make, despite the pressure for perfection and the eyeballs on you.

You need that same grit in your early employees. There’s so much competition–both from incumbents and other startups that will inevitably appear in the same space. The curveballs are endless. Or, as I’ve said, being an entrepreneur is like getting punched in the face every day. Those who succeed are those who have grit, pure and simple. It’s OK to take a day off or walk around the block on a challenging day, but only the resilient ones who show up every day, ready to face the next task, make it.

I’ve long been a believer in setting goals that seem too far out of reach. When you strive for something that seems impossible, you’ll often end up going much farther than if you set the bar too low. The best gritty employees I’ve seen have been able to reach those far-out goals–because they continue to push and come up with creative solutions. In practice, this might be your business development lead who repeatedly gets a no from your dream partner. Instead of letting it lie, they come up with a creative solution to nudge the door open and end up inking a deal after all.

As the saying goes, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The best startup personalities are those who are motivated by roadblocks. There’s no time to shut down for a pity party–you have to keep working harder, smarter, and better.

By: Alexa von Tobel

Source: The Most Important Hires You’ll Make Are Your First Employees. So How Do You Spot a Good One?

Get your Bulk Hiring happen in just 4 days with unlimited free job posting only at Freshersworld.com.(To register : http://corp.freshersworld.com?src=You…) ,This video will give you an insight about Ways to improve your hiring process. One of the most important ongoing tasks you’ll have as a business leader is hiring. It’s not easy, though; it’s a time-consuming process with monetary and reputational consequences if you make a bad hire. Taking the time to find the right person — someone who is not just technically capable but also a good fit for the company — is important. Companies that are successful in hiring have a process that includes attracting high-quality candidates, evaluating them in several different areas, and taking the time to get to know the people in different ways. Here are some tips to build and improve your own hiring process. 1. Job descriptions. If you’re not careful, the way your job posting is written can deter great candidates from applying. The more successful postings included statements such as “We seek to provide employees with constructive feedback to foster their career growth,” and “You will have many opportunities to collaborate with talented people.” The takeaway? Put more of the focus on what your company can do for potential employees, and you’ll attract candidates who better fit your needs. 2. Embrace digital trends and social media. Most people want to work for companies that keep up with the latest tech trends Another good way to embrace the digital side is to make sure your career site is mobile-friendly. 3. Focus on soft skills. Although the right skill set may seem like the most important factor in whether a candidate is a good fit for a particular role, the truth is that skills can be acquired, but personalities cannot. 4. Check social media profiles. Like most employers, you’ll probably do a background check (or at least a quick Google search on the candidate’s name) to see what comes up about that person online. But if you’re not looking through the candidate’s social media profiles, you could be missing a key way to find out more about the individual as a person and an employee — for better or for worse. While it’s legally risky to allow a candidate’s social media activity to factor into your hiring decisions, it can give you a better picture of someone you’re interested in hiring 5. Fit the personality to the job. A candidate’s personality is another important factor to consider. For example, a trait such as empathy would likely be much more important for a nurse or a social worker than it would be for a tax attorney or a computer programmer. 6. Improve your interviews. Eighty-two percent of the 5,000 managers surveyed reported that the interviewers were too focused on other issues, too pressed for time or lacked confidence in their interviewing abilities to pay attention to red flags candidates exhibited during the interview process. Do not overlook on factors like coachability, emotional intelligence, temperament and motivation. 7. Let candidates interview you, too. Allowing prospective employees to interview you will give you a chance to see what’s important to them. Plus, it will give candidates a chance to determine that they want to keep pursuing a job at your company, or to decide that it’s not the right fit for them. 8. Keep an eye on your reviews. Potential employees often seek insider information about companies they want to work for, and this includes salary estimates, interview tips and reviews from current and former employees. Top candidates may not even apply in the first place if they don’t like what they see: 69 percent of job seekers said they would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were currently unemployed. On the flip side, 94 percent of respondents said they’re likely to apply for a job if the employer actively manages the employer brand by responding to reviews, updating the company’s profile, and sharing updates on the company’s culture and work environment. And if you have a lot of negative reviews from former employees, it may be time to work on your company culture before you try to fill any open positions. Freshersworld.com is the No.1 job portal for freshers jobs in India. Check Out website for more Jobs & Careers. http://www.freshersworld.com?src=Youtube Here is the Android app of fresherworld.com now we are more closer to you : Link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/de… ***Disclaimer: This is just a training video for candidates and recruiters. The name, logo and properties mentioned in the video are proprietary property of the respective organizations. The Preparation tips and tricks are an indicative generalized information. In no way Freshersworld.com, indulges into direct or indirect promotion of the respective Groups or organizations.

How to Refocus Your Strategy and Reenergize Your Team – Stanley Meytin

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A person’s passion is the sincerest definition of who they are. Passion can manifest itself in a hobby, an aspiration, or if you’re really lucky, a career. Take two people, Joe and Jane, as an example. Joe has a passion outside of his career. He devotes a lot of his free time to this passion and naturally speaks about it to his peers.

When his peers think of him they probably define him as “person passionate about X.” Now take Jane, one of the lucky few who has made a career out of her passion. She devotes twice the amount of time, twice the amount of energy and twice the amount of conversation to her passion. How do you think her peers define her?

If you’ve read Simon Sinek’s bestseller Start With Why, then Jane will remind you of Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Southwest Airlines, or Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc. Joe will remind you of the Wright Brothers. Each of these individuals built empires by undyingly following their passion. Sure, you can claim that these individuals are used as examples because of winner’s bias. But they succeeded because not only were they extremely passionate. They succeeded because they were able to clearly communicate their visions.

I consider myself extremely lucky. Like Jane, I’ve built a career out of my passion. When I first launched my film production company, my team asked the same questions regarding our clients that our competition was asking:

  • What is this client doing that’s different?
  • What do they bring to the table?
  • What problems are they solving for their customers?

While these questions helped us understand our clients, we realized they weren’t getting to the core of what defined them. We were part of the same old convention of business. We were focusing on what our clients were doing and not why they were doing it in the first place. Once we realized this, we began asking ourselves different questions:

  • How can we harness the passion that defines the client’s company to create a story?
  • Are their employees inspired by that passion?
  • Does the story align with their core values?
  • How can we align the story with the company’s brand mission?
  • How is that story going to connect with their audience?
  • How are we going to make the story authentic and engaging?

The biggest takeaway, however, didn’t come in the form of one of our clients’ videos going viral. It came in-house. 2016 was the first year we set a quantitative benchmark for the number of videos we wanted to produce. Not only did we not hit the benchmark, but with all the energy we put into hitting a quota we lost focus on creating a better product. We produced more videos, but they were watered down compared to previous years. We lost our own purpose.

We got rid of all quantity benchmarks in 2017 and as a team, we held a meeting to refocus. In this meeting, we asked ourselves the same questions that we asked our clients. We ended the meeting with a mission to create a video channel to tell impactful and authentic stories that inspire others.

That channel has been a remarkably accurate reflection of the meeting where it was first conceptualized. We’re now using the same techniques that helped us define our purpose in our core business for our corporate clients. Not only has it righted our ship and produced success but it has also provided us with an entirely new set of questions to ask our clients:

  • Is their organization helping others?
  • Is their mission connecting with others?
  • Are their customers genuinely understanding their mission?
  • Are employees buying into their mission, do they believe their roles play an important part in promoting the mission?
  • Are they building a community?
  • Are they staying true to their core values and the values of their customers and employees?

The beauty of these questions is that you can propose them to your clients, to your employees and even to yourself. They’re not specific to video production or any industry for that matter. If you already have the answers, that’s incredible. If not, then use them to refocus your strategy or reenergize your team.

Just swap “their” and “they” for “your” and “you.” Connecting to people on a deeper level, nurturing a human connection, evoking emotion and inspiring are key ingredients to building loyalty and bringing the best out in people.

Note, however, that not all ingredients are created equal. Like apples grown on two separate farms, the ingredients that I listed — those that were seeded and cared for with passion — will always taste better.

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