Category Archives: Administrative Support

Aug8

Email Isn’t Dead: How To Write Better Emails

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Email Isn’t Dead: How To Write Better Emails

Does your email get buried under newsletters and company FYIs. Are you tired of writing emails that never get read? Important messages need to get out – new policy information, company strategies, or even connecting remote teams. You don’t have to be Ernest Hemingway, but your emails need to be engaging if you want to get a message across.

With all the other emails competing for your reader’s attention, your plain email will get drowned out in the noise. Here are some tips to actually get people to read and respond to your emails.

1. Be selective with your target audience:
We open emails that are relevant to us. Otherwise, they get archived or passed over. To make sure that your email gets read, be selective in who you send your email out to. For example, an update regarding a power outage at headquarters won’t affect remote workers so remove them from the distribution list. Target, segment, and select before sending out that email.

2. K.I.S.S. (Keep it short and sweet)
Marketing studies have determined the sweet spot when it comes to email length. The magic number is between 75 to 100 words. So don’t ramble on with unnecessary content. Get to the heart of what you’re saying in order to capture and hold your reader’s attention.

3. Keep the subject line catchy
The military has a very precise way of formatting their email and it starts with a very specific subject line. They use these keywords:
ACTION – Compulsory for the recipient to take some action
SIGN – Requires the signature of the recipient
INFO – For informational purposes only, and there is no response or action required
DECISION – Requires a decision by the recipient
REQUEST – Seeks permission or approval by the recipient
COORD – Coordination by or with the recipient is needed

The next time you compose an email, try the above out for size. It helps your reader know what action to take on your email (if required) and sets their expectations on the content.

4. Be interactive
As employees to share their comments, ideas, feedback, etc. Engage them by playing videos, adding links, posting infographics, or even throwing in a poll or survey.

5. Loop them back with a different subject line
Resend your email to those who did not open it the first time by simply changing the subject line. Be specific that they missed the first one. This will let them know that they missed an important announcement or action. It may even double your open rate. An example of a second loop email subject line is: ACTION: ICYMI (In Case You Missed It), town hall meeting at 1:30 today requires your rsvp.

If it is within your skills, you can use tools like Canva to create a well designed email. Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. It can be used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content.

Like spoken words, written words also need to be given some thought. Keep your open rates high and your teams engaged by writing well thought of emails. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Aug1

How Leaders Can Affect Workplace Wellbeing

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How Leaders Can Affect Workplace Wellbeing

In 2021, the global workplace spent approximately $7.8 trillion of healthcare from problems arising from work related stress. Work stress can cause health issues anxiety, burnout, depression, and substance use disorders. Workers who are stressed at work are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors, such as substance abuse, poor eating habits, and lack of sleep and exercise. Poor eating habits alone can cause a host of complications from ulcers to diabetes. Imagine the impact on employees when this gets compounded by other stress related problems. If we want to make a dent on that $7.8 trillion, we would have to make employee wellbeing a priority. How do we do that? We start with leaders.

A Deloitte study found that 57% of workers, globally, are considering leaving their work “for a more supportive job.” What’s surprising is that 70% of executives are thinking of doing the same, for the same reason. In order to affect company wide change, we have to start at the top. Here’s what leaders can do in order to promote workplace wellbeing.

Make work fun again
I see a lot of entrepreneurs use their leisure time for doing work related stuff. While one entrepreneur uses his weekend to clean up his mailing list, you will find another entrepreneur choosing to use his dog walks to listen to podcasts that can spark content ideas. Both activities are work related, but can you spot the difference? We all have the autonomy to choose what we do with our time. Let’s choose to build opportunities to create more fun in our lives.

Talk the talk, walk the walk
During onboarding, employers like to go on about how their company is different from others in how they place premium value work-life balance only for employees to find out that these companies have no workplace wellbeing programs aside from vacation leaves. Leaders should have wellbeing programs in place that are more than just giving time off or spa coupons to employees who are overworked and overwhelmed. This could be in the form of parenting support groups, childcare options, clubs for people with similar hobbies, sports clubs, psychological safety and mental wellness seminars, or all of the above.

Use your vacation time
Leaders like to advocate for workplace wellbeing but fail to set an example when using tier vacation time. They wear overwork and undersleep like a badge of honor as if more time in the office and less sleep means success. Do you have a boss who answers work emails on vacation or spends all her time on meetings while vacationing in sunny Cancun? If you are the boss who does this, stop and set a better example for your team. Take a break when you say you will and don’t hold it against anyone who does the same. Rest is there to help us recuperate and calibrate and get our body and mind ready to face the next round of challenges – not to use as a background for business calls.

Prioritize your health and your employees will follow suit. Set an example of workplace wellness by being the epitome of workplace wellness. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

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