Author Archives: kate

Jul27

Why Your Employee Engagement Program Isn’t Working & Why

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Why Your Employee Engagement Program Isn’t Working & Why

Pre pandemic, employee engagement, and well-being had been on a steady rise, globally. However, the recent 2022 report from Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace shows that employee engagement and well-being figures have remained stagnant. A quick look at the figures shows that only 21% of employees report being engaged at work, while 60% of workers are disengaged, and 19% of them say they are just plain miserable.

As managers and leaders, we’re always looking for ways to improve the engagement and well-being of our colleagues and employees. The recent popularity of hybrid work has enabled employers to use strategies such as remote working and four-day work weeks. Still, 19% of the workforce report unhappiness, that’s a number that can’t be ignored.

There is no one end-all and be-all reason for disengagement and unhappiness in the workplace. Instead, it is a combination of factors that contribute to dissatisfaction. Let’s take a look at two of the most common factors of employee disengagement:

1. Comms breakdown
Remote working and hybrid work has uncovered a lot of tools that enable digital communication. In fact, digital communication has never been better today than any other point in time. Video communication and collaboration software companies have continually improved, upgraded, and added features to accommodate the new hybrid way of working. In June 2022, Microsoft Teams announced its new round of upgraded features and enhancements. An example of this is the multi-language meeting invite control which enables administrators to display the join information in meeting invitations in up to two languages across all email platforms.

With the wealth of enhancements available on digital communications platforms, there’s still a lot of room for miscommunication and misinterpretation, which 62% of the report respondents say have the most negative effect on their mental health.

Regular and inclusive communication is important now more than ever. Leaders should be mindful of their tone and choice of words during meetings or catch-up calls. If you are working with distributed teams, make sure you schedule video calls (not voice calls) so that people can see your gestures, body language, and facial expression, too.

2. Burnout
Despite great efforts to implement an all-inclusive employee engagement program, employees still feel overwhelmed. That’s because we are experiencing uncertainty on a different level and getting over this kind of adversity requires some creativity.

Leaders are now more aware of the challenges employees face and are more open to having the ‘workplace burnout’ conversation. More vacation time or personal leaves alone won’t help solve the problem, as the problem is tied to a lot of circumstances (social, economic, etc.) as well. This is a challenge that every leader will have to solve via constant trial and error and no solution will be the same for every company. However, awareness and openness to the general discussion is a good starting place to address workplace burnout.

Assess where your organization is right now in terms of employee engagement and take the necessary steps to improve the workplace. After all, it takes good and efficient leadership to bring energy and meaning to work and make the workplace a venue for people to thrive. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Jul21

The Remote Teams Checklist

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The Remote Teams Checklist

There are a lot of advantages to remote work, but having remote teams tops the list. Why? Because, first of all, having remote teams means that a business can expand their talent pool and employ top talent from anywhere in the world. Second, and this I think is of equal importance, remote teams add diversity to an organization.

A lot of businesses are moving to remote work or some sort of hybrid work arrangement. How can they make sure that their employees will thrive in a remote work or hybrid environment?

Structure
Every organization needs structure. Remote teams are no exception. First of all, establish a workflow. Then, map out the reporting hierarchy. Keep all the members visible to one another so that teams know how the dynamics work and how to collaborate with other team members to accomplish their goal.

Technology
Once a structure has been established, equip your remote team with the means to accomplish their objectives. How will you do that with a distributed workforce? Laptops aren’t the only means to collaborate and help your remote team work together. You can also use collaboration apps and tools that are company approved. Make sure that security protocols are in place and strictly enforced. Business licenses to company approved programs are the best way to go, but if you are a small company, make sure that there is no disparity between apps used and make sure that the laptop is pre-equipped with approved tools and programs. Cyber security tools like Crowdstrike or similar tools can give enterprise grade protection to entrepreneurs and SMEs at an affordable price. Explore your options.

Staffing
People are the heart and soul of teams. Not everyone is equipped with the skills or the aptitude to work remotely. Teams or team managers might miss the non-verbal interaction that takes place during face to face meetings or -in-office work models. Assessing who is right for what type of job is critical in remote working. Choose wisely.

Expectations
Let your remote teams know how many hours daily are expected of them and what output is required. Remote teams are built around the basis of flexibility, but make sure that teams know when they are expected to be contactable and online for questions, meetings, collaborative work, etc. Your remote working policy should be in place and must be fair and equitable. Enforce this policy as soon as a team member is granted access to remote work benefits.

Engagement
As mentioned earlier, not everyone has the aptitude to work remotely. They may lack tech, for example, they might have an old laptop model that’s not compatible with most of your tools and programs. They might have spatial issues like not having a quiet place to work or enough privacy as they might be sharing a house with roommates. Or they might just not be accustomed to working from home, hate the isolation that comes with remote work, and crave the watercooler interactions at the office. Whatever, the reason is, make sure that your remote team is actually amenable to remote working. Look for ways to connect in-office teams with distributed teams and do this on a regular basis. One way is to engage in hybrid work where everyone is required to work in-house for a set number of days and still have the flexibility to work remotely on some days.

Have a clear and enforceable policy for each item on the checklist and regularly revisit them to improve your remote working processes. What are your tips for successful remote working teams? Share your tips with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Jul19

Five Essential Leadership Skills for a Successful Business

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Five Essential Leadership Skills for a Successful Business

Last week, we talked about “Three Essential Skills for a Successful Business.” We all have this idea that a boss sits back and relaxes as other people do their roles in the company. The truth is, it takes a lot of work to be able to get to this level as a leader. And even then, people will always need management and opportunities and resources for growth. To get to the level of handling a well-oiled machine, leaders must be extra efficient in leading. It is a leader’s job to influence people to see a common goal for the company and equip them with the career development tools and resources to hone their skills.

Leadership is not about telling people what to do but about influence by example and action. The previous article mentions these 5 powerful skills that every leader needs to master the art of powerful and positive leadership. Let’s dive into each:

1. Communication
The art of communication is very hard to master. Good leaders know how to convey a message using the appropriate words, language, and tone. Body language is also as important as spoken words.

2. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. The best way to describe it is to “put yourself in another’s shoes.” Good leaders have the ability to be a good listener and keep an open mind to accommodate differences in points of views.

3. Delegation
Every hiring manager knows the difficult job of placing the right person in the right role. But once hired, people can go both ways – be the perfect fit, or be unfit for the role. Every leader is essentially assessing their employees’ superpowers and weaknesses at all times in order to be able to delegate the correct job to the right person. The success of the project depends on how well leaders manage their employees strengths and weaknesses.

4. Practical thinking
Basically, leaders must be able to make informed, data based, critical decisions quickly and efficiently without letting their personal biases or emotions influence them.

5. Risk management and foresight
The pandemic has taught a lot of leaders the value of having a business continuity program. Very few imagined the coronavirus scenario. Most are prepared for disaster and cyber risks, but not for a virus that could wipe out entire populations. Now, leaders are more prepared and armed with data in order to map out a business continuity program that includes health and safety scenarios.

To some people, good leadership abilities come naturally. For most of us, it is a learned skill. One that you can hone by reading books, taking courses, and watching and adopting the ways of those who have built successful business empires through diligence, the right cast and crew, and good leadership. What are the leadership skills that you think are essential for every business owner? Share your tips with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Jul11

Three Essential Skills for a Successful Business

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Three Essential Skills for a Successful Business

It’s natural to hope that your business grows and starts to earn money quickly. But the reality is, it’s never that easy. Growing and nurturing a business takes a lot of effort and resources in terms of time, planning, capital, and commitment. Leads won’t come knocking at your (virtual) door and sales won’t come flooding in right away. You need to take practical steps to ensure success. Experience is a tough teacher, it will give you valuable lessons later. Some of us can’t afford missteps and mistakes so if we can avoid the major pitfalls – all the better.

Here are a few essential skills that will ensure you avoid the avoidable pitfalls and keep your business moving in the right direction:

1. Financial Literacy
If you want to see profits, you have to practice good financial management. Given the changing circumstances brought about by the pandemic, businesses are just starting up again and bouncing back. So, as a business owner, you’re in for some tough competition. I won’t pretend to be an expert in business finance as even experts find it a hard topic to dive into. So, these are the basic things that you need to know and teach yourself in order to have financial literacy:

a. Maintaining a positive cash flow
b. Tools you can use to manage your business finances
c. Tax benefits

2. Marketing Skills
Strong marketing is important to every business. Even if you have stellar products and excellent services, clients and customers won’t know about them unless you effectively get the message out there. As a business owner, you must constantly look for opportunities to make people aware of your brand and engage with potential clients and customers.

a. Content creation – this is a skill that can be easily learned and is relatively easy to template, but producing content consistently can be hard and especially time consuming. So, look at those who have gone before you (in your industry) and learn from their example. Adopt their best practices and use tools to get tips and insights.
b. SEO – this helps clients come to you instead of you actively looking for them. Having a basic understanding of SEO places your business in a position where you can get discovered by potential customers.
c. SEM – similar to SEO, SEM gives you the exposure you need to be “top of mind’ of potential customers and clients

3. Leadership
Leadership is not about telling people what to do while you sit back and let them do all the work. Leadership is about influencing people to see a common goal and getting them to work with you and work together to achieve a common objective. Business objectives differ to some extent – social causes, making a difference, environmental impact, etc. But one objective makes a business, a business – profit. So, a business owner’s goal should be to hire and influence people to work towards growing a business and making a profit. Use these powerful skills to master the art of powerful and positive leadership:
a. Communication
b. Empathy
c. Delegation
d. Practical thinking
e. Risk management and foresight

Did I miss anything? What are the skills you think are essential for every business owner? Share your tips with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Jun27

Return To The Office: The Great Divide

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Return To The Office: The Great Divide

Those who work from home have never had the unfortunate experience of long commutes and in-office late night overtimes. However, the rest of the workforce have their orders: return to the office. A lot of companies are on the hybrid work model, which could mean that some days, employees get to work from home but work onsite, most days. But the work from home experiment has proven that working from home can produce the same (if not more) output from employees. 

According to a BBC report there is a simmering tension between those who have been recalled to the office and those who are allowed to work remotely. Because of varying roles and levels within an organization, the very nature of the hybrid work model could brew resentment between employees who have their return to office orders and those who have the opportunity to work remotely and manage their schedule as they see fit. How can managers get ahead of the great divide?

Visibility:

Those who work in-office may be perceived as more ‘visible’ by management allowing opportunities for promotion or projects. It’s not just the free snacks or the office sponsored coffee, it’s also the ‘top of mind’ effect. The more management sees you, the more they’ll remember you for leadership roles. Hybrid workers feel excluded as they are not deemed ‘visible’. 

Balance:

The dreaded long commute is the top complaint of everyone who pushes back on the ‘return to office’ mandate. This wasn’t such a big issue when everyone was working on site, but now…

Having the ability to sleep in lieu of prep time and a long commute is just one of the perks of remote work. Then there’s the flexibility of organizing errands and chores and navigating social obligations that remote workers can afford to do vs. on-site employees. 

Social time:

Because of close proximity to one another every work day, on-site workers naturally form social bonds with those they see on a regular basis. They can leave their personal challenges at home and rely on each other for moral support or a mood lift. On the other hand, team members who only engage with their colleagues and leaders through a handful of email messages or via short, work related instant messages/chats can miss out on the social bonds and camaraderie formed through natural everyday conversation.

Next steps:

Managers should ensure that all employees are being evaluated along with the same KPIs. Make it clear (via a conference call, so that everyone has no reason to miss the announcement) that both hybrid workers and on-site workers will be evaluated the same way. 

Managers and employers should also ensure that expectations remain the same of hybrid workers and in-office staff. 

Everyone should follow the same career growth framework. 

Also, take advantage of technology and make sure that managers/ employers arrange time for social activities like regular online activities such as watercooler chats, trivia nights, office sponsored lunches. 

Has your company issued return to the office orders? How did your team handle it? Share your tips with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp