What Is SMB Global Team Management?

At its core, SMB global team management refers to how small and medium-sized businesses organize, lead, and support employees working across different countries, cultures, and time zones. Unlike enterprise-level management, which often comes with extensive HR infrastructure, SMBs usually operate with leaner teams and tighter budgets. This means leaders need to be more intentional about setting up processes for global team communication, ensuring compliance with local laws, and creating a culture where every member of the international workforce feels valued.

Effective SMB global team management isn’t just about logistics like scheduling meetings or managing payroll – it’s also about fostering connection, trust, and engagement across diverse, distributed teams.

What Makes SMB Global Team Management Unique?

For small and medium-sized businesses, managing global teams is not the same as it is for large enterprises. Limited budgets, lean HR functions, and fewer resources often mean SMBs need to get creative with how they handle global team communication, compliance, and engagement. Unlike bigger companies, SMBs can’t always throw more headcount or tools at a problem – they need smart, scalable solutions. This makes SMB global team management both challenging and rewarding, as smaller businesses often benefit from greater agility and closer-knit company cultures.

Why Global Teams Matter for SMBs

Building an international workforce isn’t only about expanding operations – it’s also about accessing diverse skills, tapping into new markets, and fostering cross-cultural collaboration. In fact, global teams can drive innovation by bringing fresh perspectives to problem-solving. For SMBs, this can be a game-changer, allowing them to compete with much larger players. The key, however, is ensuring that remote employees feel connected, engaged, and aligned with the business’s goals. That’s where intentional remote workforce strategies come into play.

Let’s get started!

Tip 1: Strengthen Onboarding and Check-Ins

For effective SMB global team management, onboarding should go beyond a quick orientation. A structured process that introduces company values, tools, and expectations helps new hires feel connected, even across borders. Providing clear documentation and a central hub for resources gives global employees consistency from day one.

Regular check-ins also play a huge role in engagement. Harvard Business School found that employees with consistent manager interactions are three times more engaged.

Ways SMBs can strengthen onboarding and check-ins:

• Create a centralized onboarding guide with essential resources.
• Schedule weekly team huddles to keep everyone aligned.
• Hold one-on-one check-ins for personal connection and feedback.
• Use short pulse surveys to track how new hires are settling in.

Tip 2: Embrace Asynchronous Communication

Coordinating across time zones is one of the toughest parts of remote workforce strategies. Relying only on real-time meetings often leads to scheduling headaches and fatigue. Asynchronous communication – where updates and collaboration happen without requiring everyone to be online at the same time – keeps work flowing smoothly.

How SMBs can apply async practices:

• Use project dashboards (e.g., Trello, Asana) for status updates.
• Record short video updates instead of scheduling late-night calls.
• Share meeting notes or decisions in Slack or Teams channels.
• Document processes clearly so team members can pick up tasks anytime.

Tip 3: Foster Cross-Cultural Collaboration

Managing an international workforce means recognizing that cultural differences shape how people communicate and work. Without awareness, misalignment can creep in. Leaders should actively promote inclusivity by making space for cultural learning and celebrating diversity.

Research consistently shows that diverse teams with strong cultural intelligence are more innovative and adaptable. SMBs may not have the resources of large enterprises, but they can still build awareness and inclusivity at scale.

Practical ways to foster cross-cultural collaboration:

• Celebrate global holidays to recognize regional traditions.
• Offer short cultural-awareness training sessions.
• Encourage employees to share personal customs or practices.
• Use tools like Hofstede Insights to understand cultural norms.

Tip 4: Provide the Right Tools for Global Teams

The success of the SMB global team management often depends on having the right tools in place. Without centralized platforms, global employees may struggle with miscommunication, duplicate work, or delays. Cloud-based solutions make collaboration seamless across borders and help small businesses scale efficiently.

McKinsey highlights that digital collaboration tools significantly improve team productivity. For SMBs, investing in the right tech can level the playing field with larger competitors.

Essential tools for SMB global teams:

• Messaging platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams for daily communication, supported by tools like AttendanceBot, which help SMBs manage time zones, track shifts, and streamline leave requests – all within the same workspace.
• Project management tools (Asana, Trello, Jira) for task tracking.
• HR software for global payroll and compliance management.
• Cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox) for file sharing and version control.

Tip 5: Balance Flexibility With Accountability

Global teams value flexibility, but SMBs must also ensure productivity. Leaders who focus only on accountability risk burnout, while those who allow unlimited flexibility may face missed deadlines. Striking a balance between the two helps employees thrive while meeting business goals.

A flexible but structured approach keeps work consistent without micromanaging. Setting clear expectations up front ensures accountability, while flexible schedules help employees work when they’re most effective.

How SMBs can balance flexibility and accountability:

• Define clear KPIs and measurable goals for all roles.
• Allow flexible hours but agree on a few core overlap times.
• Use time-tracking or task-completion tools instead of rigid monitoring.
• Recognize achievements regularly to reinforce accountability.

Tip 6: Stay Compliant Across Borders

One of the most challenging aspects of international workforce management is ensuring compliance with local laws. Payroll, benefits, tax obligations, and labor regulations vary widely, and non-compliance can lead to costly penalties. For SMBs without in-house legal teams, this is a top concern.

Using HR tech platforms or outsourcing global payroll to trusted providers ensures accuracy and reduces compliance risks. Even small businesses can benefit from automating processes to stay ahead of regulatory changes.

Compliance steps SMBs should consider:

• Research local employment laws in every country where employees are hired.
• Partner with an Employer of Record (EOR) for complex markets.
• Automate payroll and tax filings using HR software.
• Regularly review labor law updates to avoid surprises.

Tip 7: Build Trust and Engagement in Remote Teams

No global team thrives without trust. Employees who feel valued, heard, and supported are far more likely to stay motivated and aligned with company goals. For SMBs, where every team member plays a critical role, engagement is even more important.

Gallup research shows that engaged employees drive 23% higher profitability. Building engagement in global teams means going beyond work tasks to foster genuine connection.

Ways SMBs can build trust and engagement:

• Recognize achievements publicly, no matter the employee’s location.
• Create informal spaces (Slack channels, virtual coffee breaks) for bonding.
• Be transparent in decision-making and share business updates.
• Encourage two-way feedback to give employees a voice.

Conclusion

Managing a distributed workforce can feel daunting, but with the right approach, SMB global team management becomes an opportunity rather than a challenge. By focusing on clear communication, cultural inclusivity, flexible structures, and compliance, small and medium-sized businesses can unlock the full potential of their international workforce.

Technology plays a vital role here. Tools like AttendanceBot, which integrate seamlessly into Slack and Microsoft Teams, give SMBs the power to manage time zones, track attendance, handle leave requests, and streamline workflows—all without adding extra complexity.

For SMB leaders, success comes down to balance: blending human connection with smart systems. With these seven tips and the right digital support, global teams can stay aligned, engaged, and ready to drive growth across borders.

The post 7 Essential Tips for SMB Global Team Management appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

This is where Agile Performance Management comes in. By replacing annual reviews with continuous feedback and real-time reviews, this flexible approach helps organizations keep employees engaged, aligned, and performing at their best. With a focus on agile goals and agile methodology goals, companies can foster a culture of growth, resilience, and accountability—ultimately reducing burnout and improving retention.

But how can HR leaders successfully implement Agile Performance Management? Let’s explore how this approach transforms performance management and drives long-term success.

Why Traditional Performance Management Is Failing

For years, companies have relied on annual or biannual performance reviews to evaluate employees. But these outdated methods often do more harm than good. Without continuous feedback, employees go months without knowing if they’re on the right track. By the time formal reviews happen, the feedback is outdated, leaving employees feeling frustrated rather than motivated to improve.

In contrast, Agile Performance Management ensures that feedback is real-time and actionable. Instead of rigid, once-a-year evaluations, employees receive ongoing input that helps them adjust and grow. This approach is particularly effective for setting and tracking agile goals, which evolve as priorities shift. By integrating agile methodology goals, teams can adapt quickly to changes, stay aligned with company objectives, and improve overall productivity.

Additionally, traditional performance reviews often contribute to disengagement. Employees who feel unsupported or undervalued are more likely to experience burnout, leading to increased absenteeism and turnover. With Agile Performance Management, HR leaders can create a more dynamic and engaging system that supports both individual growth and business success.

Here’s a comparison table showcasing the key differences between Traditional Performance Management and Agile Performance Management:

Agile Performance Review Examples With Industry Case Studies

Implementing Agile Performance Management requires moving away from rigid, annual evaluations and embracing continuous feedback and real-time reviews. Here are industry-specific examples of how companies have successfully adopted this approach to improve employee performance, engagement, and retention.

1. Spotify’s Weekly Check-Ins

Spotify has transitioned from traditional performance reviews to a model emphasizing regular one-on-one meetings. These weekly or biweekly check-ins focus on continuous feedback, allowing employees to receive timely guidance and support. This approach fosters a culture of continuous growth and development.

• Learn more: A Deep Dive into Spotify’s Employee Performance Reviews: How to Unlock Continuous Growth

2. Google’s 360-Degree Feedback System

Google incorporates a 360-degree feedback mechanism in its performance management process. This system gathers input from peers, subordinates, and supervisors, providing a comprehensive view of an employee’s performance. The emphasis is on continuous development and regular feedback cycles throughout the year, rather than relying solely on traditional, infrequent evaluations.

• Learn more: Google Performance Review Guide: Inspo For Your Org

3. Adobe’s ‘Check-In’ System

Adobe replaced annual performance reviews with its ‘Check-In’ system, which emphasizes ongoing dialogue between managers and employees. This approach focuses on setting clear expectations, continuous feedback, and growth opportunities, aligning with agile performance principles.

• Learn more: Adobe’s Check-In System: Performance Management for the Modern Workforce

4. Netflix’s Real-Time Feedback Culture

Netflix fosters a culture of real-time feedback, encouraging employees to provide and receive feedback as part of their daily interactions. This approach ensures that performance discussions are timely, relevant, and directly tied to ongoing work, supporting continuous improvement and agility.

• Learn more: How Netflix Reinvented HR

5. Microsoft’s Continuous Performance Discussions

Microsoft shifted from annual reviews to a model promoting continuous performance discussions. This strategy emphasizes regular check-ins, real-time feedback, and flexible goal setting, aligning with agile performance management practices.

• Learn more: Microsoft’s New Approach to Performance Management

By adopting these agile performance management strategies, organizations like Spotify, Google, Adobe, Netflix, and Microsoft have enhanced employee engagement, adaptability, and overall performance.

How Agile Performance Management Reduces Employee Burnout

Employee burnout is at an all-time high, with stress-related absenteeism and disengagement on the rise. Traditional performance reviews often contribute to this problem—delayed feedback, unclear expectations, and rigid goals create anxiety and frustration. Agile Performance Management addresses these challenges by fostering a culture of continuous feedback, real-time reviews, and adaptable goals, reducing stress and improving overall well-being.

1. Eliminating the Stress of Annual Reviews

In traditional performance management, employees receive feedback only once or twice a year. This lack of timely input can lead to uncertainty about their performance, causing unnecessary anxiety. With continuous feedback, employees receive regular updates on their progress, helping them stay on track and make necessary adjustments before small issues turn into major problems.

Example: A marketing firm replaced annual reviews with biweekly check-ins, where managers provided immediate feedback on ongoing projects. This change reduced employee stress and increased engagement, as team members felt more supported in their roles.

2. Real-Time Reviews for Faster Course Correction

Work environments evolve quickly, and employees often struggle when stuck with outdated goals. Agile Performance Management allows managers to conduct real-time reviews, where they provide instant guidance based on current performance. This ensures employees are always working toward relevant and achievable goals rather than outdated expectations.

Example: A software development company integrated real-time reviews into their project retrospectives, ensuring engineers received feedback at the end of each sprint instead of waiting for quarterly assessments. This not only improved productivity but also reduced frustration caused by unclear expectations.

3. Flexible Goal-Setting to Prevent Overload

Rigid performance goals can push employees toward burnout, especially if priorities shift. Adopting agile methodology goals allows employees to adjust their objectives based on real-time business needs, preventing unrealistic workloads and unnecessary stress.

Example: A customer support team implemented agile goals, breaking down yearly objectives into monthly priorities. This approach gave employees better clarity and control over their workload, reducing stress and increasing job satisfaction.

4. Encouraging a Growth Mindset Through Continuous Feedback

When employees receive feedback only during formal reviews, they often fear criticism. In contrast, continuous feedback creates a coaching environment where feedback is seen as a tool for growth rather than a performance penalty. This shift in mindset reduces anxiety and helps employees build resilience.

Example: A consulting firm introduced peer-to-peer feedback sessions, where employees provided real-time insights to one another. This made feedback feel more constructive and collaborative, reducing performance-related stress.

Benefits of Agile Performance Management

Shifting to Agile Performance Management can transform workplace culture, leading to higher engagement, lower turnover, and improved business outcomes. Here’s how adopting continuous feedback, real-time reviews, and agile goals can benefit organizations:

1. Increased Employee Engagement

When employees receive real-time feedback, they feel valued and supported in their roles. This engagement leads to higher productivity and job satisfaction. According to a study by Gallup, employees who receive regular feedback are nearly four times more likely to be engaged than those who do not.

2. Reduced Burnout and Stress

Traditional performance reviews can create anxiety and uncertainty. By implementing continuous feedback, employees gain clarity on expectations, reducing stress. Research from Harvard Business Review highlights that frequent feedback helps employees adjust proactively rather than feeling blindsided by annual reviews.

3. Better Adaptation to Changing Business Goals

Rigid goals can cause employees to feel stuck and overwhelmed when priorities shift. Agile methodology goals allow for continuous realignment, ensuring employees stay focused on what truly matters. A case study by McKinsey & Company found that companies using agile goal-setting frameworks improved their ability to respond to market changes by 30% faster than those using traditional models.

4. Improved Manager-Employee Relationships

Managers who provide continuous feedback develop stronger relationships with their teams. A report by Deloitte found that organizations that foster ongoing performance discussions experience higher trust and collaboration between managers and employees.

5. Higher Employee Retention Rates

A lack of feedback and development opportunities is a top reason employees leave organizations. By implementing agile performance management, companies create a supportive work environment where employees feel heard and valued. Research from SHRM suggests that organizations with frequent feedback and development discussions reduce turnover rates by up to 25%.

6. Data-Driven Performance Decisions

Real-time reviews provide managers with conti nuous performance insights, allowing them to make informed talent decisions. A study by MIT Sloan Management Review found that organizations using real-time performance data improved decision-making efficiency by 40%.

Implementing Agile Performance Management in Your Organization

Transitioning to Agile Performance Management requires more than just swapping annual reviews for more frequent check-ins. It’s about fostering a culture of continuous feedback, real-time reviews, and agile goals that align with both employee growth and business success. Here’s how HR leaders and managers can implement this framework effectively.

1. Shift from Annual Reviews to Continuous Feedback

Traditional performance reviews create unnecessary stress and fail to address challenges in real time. Instead, implement continuous feedback by:

• Encouraging regular one-on-one check-ins between managers and employees
• Providing instant recognition for achievements to boost morale
• Using 360-degree feedback to create a well-rounded performance perspective

Example: A tech startup replaced annual reviews with biweekly check-ins via Slack and Microsoft Teams, where managers gave real-time feedback on ongoing projects. This led to higher engagement and quicker problem-solving.

2. Set Agile Goals That Adapt to Change

Rigid, long-term goals can quickly become outdated. Instead, use agile methodology goals that can be adjusted in real time.

• Break down annual objectives into quarterly or monthly goals
• Use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to ensure alignment with business priorities
• Encourage employee participation in goal-setting to increase motivation

Example: A sales team transitioned from yearly revenue targets to monthly agile goals, allowing them to pivot strategies based on market trends. This led to a 15% increase in sales performance.

3. Use Real-Time Reviews for Immediate Course Correction

Employees thrive when they receive timely feedback that allows them to adjust their performance proactively. Implement real-time reviews by:

• Providing instant feedback after major tasks or projects
• Using collaborative tools like Slack, Asana, or Trello to track progress
• Creating a culture where feedback is seen as a tool for improvement, not criticism

Example: A consulting firm introduced real-time peer reviews after client meetings, helping consultants refine their approach for future interactions. This led to higher client satisfaction scores.

4. Leverage HR Tech for Performance Management

Adopting the right tools can make Agile Performance Management seamless. Consider:

• Performance tracking software like 15Five or Lattice for continuous check-ins
• AI-driven feedback tools that analyze employee performance trends
• Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations (like AttendanceBot) to streamline communication

Example: An IT services company integrated Performance Management Software with Slack, enabling managers to provide feedback in real time. This improved team collaboration and transparency.

5. Train Managers to Foster a Feedback-Driven Culture

For Agile Performance Management to work, managers must shift from being evaluators to coaches. Help them by:

• Providing training on giving constructive, timely feedback
• Encouraging managers to act as mentors rather than judges
• Creating feedback guidelines to maintain consistency across teams

Example: A legal firm conducted manager training sessions on effective feedback delivery. Within six months, employee satisfaction with performance reviews increased by 30%.

Final Thoughts

By embracing Agile Performance Management, organizations create a culture of continuous feedback, real-time reviews, and agile goals—all of which drive engagement, reduce burnout, and improve overall business performance. As the workplace evolves, HR leaders must shift from outdated review models to dynamic, employee-centric performance management strategies.

The post Agile Performance Management and Continuous Feedback appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

The Importance of Physical Safety in the Workplace

The importance of physical safety in the workplace cannot be overstated. It is a crucial component of organizational success, and employers have a legal and moral obligation to provide a safe and healthy working environment for their employees. Here are some reasons why workplace safety is important:

• Protects employees from harm: Workplace safety measures help protect employees from physical harm, such as injuries and illnesses caused by accidents, exposure to harmful chemicals or substances, and other hazards.
• Improves productivity: When employees feel safe and secure in their workplace, they are more likely to be productive and efficient in their work. A safe workplace can also reduce absenteeism and turnover rates.
• Enhances employee morale: Knowing that their employer is taking measures to ensure their safety and well-being can boost employee morale and job satisfaction.
• Complies with legal requirements: Employers have a legal obligation to provide a safe working environment for their employees. Failure to do so can result in legal consequences, such as fines, penalties, and even lawsuits.

Steps for Ensuring Workplace Safety

To ensure workplace safety, employers must take proactive measures to identify potential hazards and implement appropriate safety measures. Here are some steps that employers can take to ensure workplace safety:

Conduct Regular Safety Audits

Employers should conduct regular safety audits to identify potential hazards and assess the effectiveness of current safety measures. Safety audits can help identify potential safety hazards, such as faulty equipment, inadequate lighting, or blocked emergency exits.

Develop and Implement Safety Policies

Employers should develop and implement safety policies that outline the procedures and protocols for ensuring workplace safety. Safety policies should be clear, concise, and easy to understand, and should cover topics such as emergency procedures, personal protective equipment, and hazard identification and reporting.

Provide Safety Training

Employers should provide safety training to all employees to ensure they are aware of potential hazards and know how to protect themselves. Safety training should cover topics such as fire safety, chemical safety, and emergency response procedures.

Provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Employers should provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to employees to help protect them from potential hazards. Examples of PPE include gloves, goggles, respirators, and hard hats.

Encourage Employee Participation

Employers should encourage employee participation in workplace safety programs by providing incentives. For instance,  bonuses or recognition, for employees who identify potential hazards or suggest ways to improve workplace safety.

Regularly Review and Update Safety Measures

Employers should regularly review and update their safety measures. They can ensure that the measures remain effective and up-to-date with changing regulations.

Foster a Culture of Safety

Employers should foster a culture of physical safety in the workplace by promoting open communication, encouraging employee involvement in safety programs. Also providing ongoing training and education on workplace safety.

How to Foster a Culture of Safety?

Safety culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and attitudes that shape an organization’s approach to safety. A strong safety culture is one where everyone in the organization prioritizes safety, from senior management to front-line employees.

A positive safety culture can significantly reduce workplace accidents and injuries, improve employee morale and productivity, and even enhance an organization’s reputation.

What are the Key Characteristics of this Culture?

• Leadership commitment: Safety culture starts at the top, with leadership setting the tone for the organization. Leaders should demonstrate their commitment to safety through their words and actions, such as by providing adequate resources for safety programs and openly discussing safety issues.
• Employee involvement: A strong safety culture involves all employees in safety initiatives. Employees should be encouraged to report safety concerns and hazards, and to actively participate in safety training and awareness programs.
• Communication: Communication is critical to a strong safety culture. Organizations should have clear channels of communication for safety-related information, such as safety bulletins, safety meetings, and safety feedback mechanisms.
• Continuous improvement: A strong safety culture involves continuous improvement. Organizations should regularly evaluate their safety programs, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes as necessary.
• Accountability: A strong safety culture holds everyone accountable for safety. This includes managers, supervisors, and employees. Everyone should be held responsible for complying with safety policies and procedures, reporting safety hazards and incidents, and taking corrective actions when necessary.
• Learning culture: A strong safety culture fosters a learning environment where employees are encouraged to learn from safety incidents and near-misses. Organizations should conduct thorough investigations of incidents and use the findings to improve safety programs.

Building a strong safety culture takes time and effort. It requires a commitment from everyone in the organization to prioritize safety and work together to create a safe working environment. However, the benefits of a strong safety culture are significant, both for the organization and its employees. By prioritizing safety and building a positive safety culture, organizations can create a workplace that is safer, healthier, and more productive for everyone.

What is Emergency Response Planning?

Emergency response planning is a critical aspect of workplace safety. An emergency response plan (ERP) is a documented set of procedures that outlines how to respond to various emergency situations, including natural disasters, fires, chemical spills, medical emergencies, and other crises. The goal of an ERP is to ensure the safety of employees and others in the workplace, as well as to minimize damage to property and the environment.

Here are some key components of an effective emergency response plan:

Risk Assessment

The first step in developing an ERP is to identify potential risks and hazards in the workplace. A risk assessment can help identify potential hazards, such as fires, floods, or chemical spills, and determine the likelihood and potential impact of each hazard. This information can then be used to prioritize emergency response procedures and allocate resources accordingly.

Emergency Response Team

An emergency response team (ERT) is a group of trained employees who are responsible for implementing the ERP during an emergency. The ERT should be comprised of employees from different departments and should include individuals with specialized skills, such as first aid or hazardous materials handling. The ERT should be trained regularly and have access to the necessary resources needed to respond to emergencies.

Emergency Response Procedures

An ERP should include detailed emergency response procedures for different types of emergencies. These procedures should outline what actions to take in the event of an emergency. Including evacuation procedures, emergency shutdown procedures, and procedures for dealing with hazardous materials.

Communication

Effective communication is critical during an emergency. The ERP should include communication procedures for alerting employees, emergency services, and other stakeholders about the emergency and providing updates as the situation evolves. Communication procedures should also include a system for accounting for all employees and visitors on-site during an emergency.

Training and Drills

Regular training and drills are essential for ensuring that employees understand their roles and responsibilities during an emergency. Training should cover the ERP procedures, including evacuation procedures and the use of emergency equipment.

Evaluation and Revision

An ERP should be evaluated and revised regularly to ensure that it remains effective and up-to-date. This evaluation should include a review of any incidents or near-misses, feedback from employees and emergency responders, and updates to regulations and industry standards.

In addition to these components, an effective ERP should also consider the unique characteristics of the workplace. By developing and implementing an effective ERP, employers can ensure physical safety in the workplace.

Conclusion

Workplace safety is a critical component of organizational success. Employers have a legal and moral obligation to provide a safe and healthy working environment for their employees. By taking proactive measures to identify potential hazards and implement appropriate safety measures, employers can protect their employees from harm, improve productivity and morale, and comply with legal requirements. Remember, workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility, and a safe workplace benefits everyone.

The post The Comprehensive Guide to Physical Safety in The Workplace appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

In today’s fast-paced work environment, building strong relationships with coworkers is more important than ever. Team-building activities can help foster a sense of community and improve communication, but coming up with engaging and fun ideas can be a challenge.

In this blog post, we’ve compiled a list of 150 Most Likely To Questions for work, ranging from silly to serious, to help you get started with your team-building activities. These questions can be used in virtual or in-person settings and are suitable for colleagues at all levels of seniority.

1. Most likely to arrive late to a meeting?
2. Most likely to be the office clown?
3. Most likely to be a perfectionist?
4. Most likely to be the office gossip?
5. Most likely to be a workaholic?
6. Most likely to be the first one to leave work?
7. Most likely to be the last one to leave work?
8. Most likely to be the office neat freak?
9. Most likely to break the printer?
10. Most likely to burn popcorn in the office kitchen?
11. Most likely to bring homemade treats for everyone?
12. Most likely to bring the most impressive lunch?
13. Most likely to call in sick when they’re not really sick?
14. Most likely to complain about the temperature in the office?
15. Most likely to correct someone’s grammar?
16. Most likely to forget their password?
17. Most likely to get lost in the building?
18. Most likely to have a messy desk?
19. Most likely to have the best sense of humor?
20. Most likely to have the most organized email inbox?
21. Most likely to make a typo in an important email?
22. Most likely to misspell someone’s name in an email?
23. Most likely to never take a lunch break?
24. Most likely to overshare personal information?
25. Most likely to show up in a suit when everyone else is dressed casually?
26. Most likely to take on extra work voluntarily?
27. Most likely to take the last donut in the break room?
28. Most likely to take the most vacation days?
29. Most likely to use the office supplies for personal use?
30. Most likely to work from home on Fridays?
31. Most likely to accidentally reply all in an email chain?
32. Most likely to always have a snack on their desk?
33. Most likely to be the best at public speaking?
34. Most likely to be the go-to IT person?
35. Most likely to be the mediator in a conflict?
36. Most likely to be the most tech-savvy?
37. Most likely to be the office mom or dad?
38. Most likely to be the social butterfly?
39. Most likely to be the team player?
40. Most likely to be the ultimate procrastinator?
41. Most likely to bring the most creative solution to a problem?
42. Most likely to bring up controversial topics in meetings?
43. Most likely to break into song and dance at any given moment?
44. Most likely to bring up the most interesting conversation topic?
45. Most likely to eat the most snacks during a long meeting?
46. Most likely to forget their lunch at home?
47. Most likely to have the biggest personality in the office?
48. Most likely to have the most contagious laugh?
49. Most likely to have the most impressive work wardrobe?
50. Most likely to have the most random assortment of items on their desk?
51. Most likely to have the messiest car in the parking lot?
52. Most likely to have the most motivational quotes on their bulletin board?
53. Most likely to have the most photos of their pets on their desk?
54. Most likely to have the most unique work setup?
55. Most likely to keep a diary at work?
56. Most likely to keep their workspace decorated for every holiday?
57. Most likely to lead the team to victory?
58. Most likely to make everyone laugh during a stressful situation?
59. Most likely to make the most typos in their emails?
60. Most likely to need the most coffee to get through the day?
61. Most likely to never check their voicemail?
62. Most likely to never use their vacation
63. Most likely to not follow the dress code?
64. Most likely to not read the company handbook?
65. Most likely to order the most expensive item during a business lunch?
66. Most likely to overuse corporate buzzwords in meetings?
67. Most likely to put off answering emails until the last minute?
68. Most likely to quote a famous person during a presentation?
69. Most likely to read every email word for word?
70. Most likely to refuse to work with a certain colleague?
71. Most likely to respond to an email with just an emoji?
72. Most likely to say “let’s touch base” during a meeting?
73. Most likely to say “think outside the box” during a brainstorm?
74. Most likely to say “we need to pivot” during a crisis?
75. Most likely to say “you’re on mute” during a conference call?
76. Most likely to send a passive-aggressive email?
77. Most likely to skip the company holiday party?
78. Most likely to talk about their side hustle at work?
79. Most likely to take the most sick days?
80. Most likely to take the most smoke breaks?
81. Most likely to take the most selfies at work?
82. Most likely to talk to themselves out loud?
83. Most likely to use the most office jargon in a single sentence?
84. Most likely to use their work computer for personal reasons?
85. Most likely to watch cat videos during work hours?
86. Most likely to wear headphones all day at work?
87. Most likely to win the lottery and quit their job the next day?
88. Most likely to work on a project all night and forget to sleep?
89. Most likely to work through lunch to meet a deadline?
90. Most likely to write a passive-aggressive sticky note?
91. Most likely to write the most professional email?
92. Most likely to write the most persuasive email?
93. Most likely to write the most poorly written email?
94. Most likely to yell at their computer when it’s not working?
95. Most likely to zone out during a meeting?
96. Most likely to be called out for their bad breath?
97. Most likely to be caught napping at their desk?
98. Most likely to be caught surfing the internet instead of working?
99. Most likely to be in charge of organizing the company picnic?
100. Most likely to be in charge of the next big project?
101. Most likely to be invited to the boss’s office for a private conversation?
102. Most likely to be promoted next?
103. Most likely to be the office fitness guru?
104. Most likely to be the office therapist?
105. Most likely to be the one who sends the most emails?
106. Most likely to be the one who starts the office lottery pool?
107. Most likely to be the one who volunteers for everything?
108. Most likely to be the one who works the most overtime?
109. Most likely to be the person who is always on their phone?
110. Most likely to be the person who never turns off their phone?
111. Most likely to be the person who works from home the most?
112. Most likely to be the person who works on the weekends?
113. Most likely to be the team leader?
114. Most likely to be the worst driver in the company?
115. Most likely to bring the most interesting lunch to work?
116. Most likely to check their phone during a meeting?
117. Most likely to constantly make lists?
118. Most likely to correct others’ grammar?
119. Most likely to create the best presentation?
120. Most likely to delegate tasks to others?
121. Most likely to email during a conference call?
122. Most likely to forget a coworker’s name?
123. Most likely to forget their own password?
124. Most likely to get lost on the way to a meeting?
125. Most likely to have a cluttered desk?
126. Most likely to have a secret snack stash at work?
127. Most likely to have the best attendance record?
128. Most likely to have the most positive attitude at work?
129. Most likely to have the most sarcastic sense of humor?
130. Most likely to have the most unusual hobby outside of work?
131. Most likely to have the most unique fashion sense at work?
132. Most likely to host the best office party?
133. Most likely to ignore emails after work hours?
134. Most likely to initiate a group chat for work?
135. Most likely to make the most sales this quarter?
136. Most likely to miss a deadline?
137. Most likely to never take a lunch break?
138. Most likely to never take a sick day?
139. Most likely to over-communicate during a project?
140. Most likely to oversleep and be late for work?
141. Most likely to procrastinate until the last minute?
142. Most likely to receive the most recognition from management?
143. Most likely to share the most memes with coworkers?
144. Most likely to sing karaoke at the next office party?
145. Most likely to spend the most time on social media during work hours?
146. Most likely to take the most selfies with coworkers?
147. Most likely to talk to their plants more than their coworkers?
148. Most likely to use the company printer for personal use?
149. Most likely to work on multiple projects at once?
150. Most likely to write the funniest company-wide email?

Conclusion

Team-building activities can help improve communication, build trust, and foster a sense of community among coworkers. “Most Likely To Questions” is a classic team-building game that can be adapted for work settings to help team members get to know each other better.

From serious questions about work habits to silly questions about personal preferences, these questions are designed to spark conversation and help colleagues find commonalities. By playing “Most Likely To,” teams can break down barriers and build stronger relationships, ultimately leading to a more productive and positive work environment. So, gather your team and get ready to have some fun with these engaging questions!

The post 150 Most Likely To Questions for Work: Spice Up Your Team Building appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

Who is the CEO?

The CEO, or Chief Executive Officer, is the highest-ranking executive in a company. They are responsible for the overall success of the organization, and they make strategic decisions about its direction and growth. The CEO sets the tone for the company, and they are the public face of the organization, representing it to investors, customers, and the media.

The CEO’s responsibilities include setting the company’s goals and objectives, creating a long-term strategic plan, and ensuring that the organization has the resources it needs to achieve its goals. They are also responsible for establishing the company’s culture and values and ensuring that they are reflected in every aspect of the organization.

In addition to their strategic responsibilities, the CEO also oversees the day-to-day operations of the company. They work closely with other executives to ensure that the organization is running efficiently and effectively. The CEO may also be responsible for hiring and firing executives, managing the budget, and making major financial decisions.

Who is the President?

While the CEO is responsible for the overall success of the company, the President has a more focused role. The President is typically responsible for a specific area of the company, such as sales, marketing, or finance. They are responsible for setting goals and objectives for their area of the company and ensuring that those goals are met.

The President’s responsibilities may vary depending on the company and the industry. In some companies, the President may be responsible for overseeing multiple departments. While in others, they may be focused on a specific function within the company. Regardless of their specific responsibilities, the President is responsible for ensuring that their area of the company is operating efficiently and effectively.

Can a CEO and President be the Same?

In some companies, the roles of CEO and President may be combined into one position. This is often the case in smaller organizations, where the CEO is responsible for all aspects of the company’s operations. However, in larger organizations, the roles are typically separated, with the CEO focusing on the overall success of the organization and the President focusing on a specific area of the company.

In some organizations, the CEO and President roles may be combined into one position, or the titles may be used interchangeably. In other cases, there may be multiple CEOs or Presidents who share responsibilities for different areas of the company.

Differences between CEO and President

Overall Responsibility

The CEO is the highest-ranking executive in a company, responsible for the overall success of the organization. They are responsible for setting the company’s goals and objectives, creating a long-term strategic plan, and ensuring that the organization has the resources it needs to achieve its goals. The President, on the other hand, is responsible for a specific area of the company, such as sales, marketing, or finance. They are responsible for setting goals and objectives for their area of the company and ensuring that those goals are met.

Different Skill Sets

While both the CEO and President need strong leadership skills, they may have different areas of expertise. The CEO may be more focused on the big picture and strategic planning, while the President may have a more operational focus and be more involved in day-to-day decision-making.

Authority

The CEO has the ultimate authority within the company and can make decisions that affect the entire organization. The President, on the other hand, has authority only within their area of the company. They may be responsible for making decisions about their department or function. But they do not have the authority to make decisions that affect the entire organization.

Focus

The CEO is responsible for the big picture. Ensuring that the organization is moving in the right direction and achieving its long-term goals. The President, on the other hand, is focused on the day-to-day operations of their area of the company. Making sure that everything is running smoothly and that goals are being met.

Responsibilities

While the CEO oversees the day-to-day operations of the company, they also work closely with other executives to ensure that the organization is running efficiently and effectively. The CEO may also be responsible for hiring and firing executives, managing the budget, and making major financial decisions. The President, on the other hand, may be responsible for overseeing multiple departments or functions or just one area of the company.

Culture

The CEO is responsible for establishing the company’s culture and values and ensuring that they are reflected in every aspect of the organization. The President is responsible for ensuring that their area of the company is operating efficiently and effectively within the broader culture and values set by the CEO.

Visibility

The CEO is the public face of the organization, representing it to investors, customers, and the media. The President may have a lower profile but is still responsible for representing their area of the company to stakeholders.

Position in the Hierarchy

The CEO is at the top of the corporate hierarchy. While the President reports to the CEO and is part of the senior leadership team.

Frequently Asked Questions about CEO vs President

Is the CEO always a Founder?

In many startups, the CEO is also the founder of the company. This is because the founder is typically the person who has the vision and drive to start the company. They are the best person to lead it in the early stages. As the company grows and becomes more complex, the CEO may hire a President or other executives to help manage the organization.

Is the President the Next CEO?

In some cases, the President may be seen as the successor to the CEO. This is because the President has a deep understanding of the company’s operations. They may have been groomed by the CEO to take over the top role when the time comes.

Where does the Board of Directors Come in?

Both the CEO and President typically report to the board of directors, which provides oversight and guidance for the organization. The board may be responsible for hiring and firing the CEO and President and may also be involved in major decision-making for the company.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the roles of CEO vs President may vary depending on the organization and industry. But there are some general differences between these two top-level positions in a company. The CEO is responsible for the overall success of the organization and has the ultimate authority. While the President is responsible for a specific area of the company and ensures that goals are met. Both positions require strong leadership skills, the ability to make tough decisions, and a deep understanding of the industry. It’s important for organizations to carefully define these roles and ensure that they have the right people in place.

By understanding the differences between CEO vs President, organizations can ensure that they have the leadership they need to succeed in a competitive marketplace.

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For an IT or software company, a tech stack typically means the programming languages they use to develop a website or app.

Watch the YouTube Video to get a better idea of what a technology stack means: Tech stacks (Explained for recruiters in IT)

A company cannot function with a single application or tool. The business requirements could be managed better by building tech stacks. However, before building a tech stack, companies must audit the stack that they are currently using.

Why Audit an Existing Technology Stack? 

Companies must consider auditing their existing tech stacks due to following reasons:

• Centralizing data: Using multiple apps for similar tasks would lead to unnecessary wastage of resources and time. It would also be difficult for companies to maintain the data sourced from various applications and tools. Therefore, they might think of ways of centralizing the data by using a multi-purpose app that can handle multiple tasks. 

• Manage time and efficiency: The existing applications and tools might be inefficient in saving time for employees. Or else they might not bring in operational efficiency. For example, an attendance monitoring software that needs manual data entry will not only waste time but might also create inconsistent and inaccurate data. Businesses can replace the existing application with an attendance tracking system that fetches data from punch cards or biometric scanners to manage these aspects. 

• Saving money: Saving money is essential, especially for small and medium-sized businesses that cannot afford to spend a major portion of their capital on operations and data management. In this case, the companies might replace their existing technology stack with simpler tools and affordable and easy-to-use applications. 

As businesses grow, they might no longer need the same software and applications. Therefore, they can decide to switch to apps that align with their business strategies. Due to product changes, previously used apps or tools may no longer be needed. It might be the ideal time for businesses to invest in new technologies and tools. But first, they must audit their existing toolkits and apps to find the technologies that are still relevant to the business. 

How to Conduct a Tech Stack Audit?

Companies should analyze the relationship between an app and the business processes instead of only auditing the apps. To make the required changes, they need to take feedback and inputs from each stakeholder of the business. The opinions of clients, employees, team managers, and daily app users matter as these people will be connected with the apps at different levels. 

For example, a company that sells its products via a website can think of integrating a new portal to bring in work efficiency and better data control. Apart from taking views of the operations, sales, and support team, the website developer should also review existing customers who will be using the website in the future to place orders. 

Questions to Ask while Conducting a Tech Stack Audit

The following questions can help them identify the effectiveness and role of their current tech stack:

• Which are the processes that need apps or software solutions to function smoothly?

• Which apps are used explicitly by certain teams to complete their daily tasks?

• Are there any apps that serve multiple purposes? If yes, which purpose do they fulfill?

• What impact do the apps have on the business? Are the apps closely related to customer experience and employees?

• How often is an app used for business operations or administration? Is it used daily or only sometimes?

• How much investment is required to revamp the existing technology stack?

• Can apps that serve multiple purposes be integrated to reduce operational costs?

Who does the Tech Stack Audit?

Usually, a company will assign the auditing task to professionals in their HR team. While creating a list of such questions and answering them, they must store the data carefully in a spreadsheet or document. As new aspects related to an app are unveiled, they can keep adding new columns to the sheet. 

Copies of the original sheet can be created and passed on to all the teams for input. Once the sheets are filled and sent back, the professionals must analyze them and record them in a final or original sheet. It is recommended that the data of all the apps be saved in one sheet as it will help them create a concrete audit report in the end. 

The apps that have the most business aspects or are related to most employees can be retained or restructured as per new business needs. HR professionals might want to create pie or bar graphs to present the data’s implications visually. These graphs could be integrated into the audit report to provide meaningful insights to the company’s leadership. 

Also, recommendations for new apps or technologies can be made to revamp or remodel the existing technology stack. Once the leadership goes through the audit report, they may approve the recommendations or might ask for a new audit report by marking any inconsistencies in the existing one. 

How to Add new Tools to the Tech Stack?

Analyzing the technologies on which a tech stack is built

Each company needs a unique tech stack for conducting its business. Usually, the development team decides the apps or tools to be integrated into the processes. However, while shortlisting the tools, analyzing the technologies on which they are built is necessary.

Different technologies are required to build a website and mobile apps. Similarly, the operating system on which the tools are to be implemented can determine the kind of technology needed to build it. As technology stack examples, we can see that Android apps can be built using Kotlin, and iOS apps can be built from Swift. Therefore, companies must carefully understand the difference between mobile and web tech stacks before building or shortlisting them. 

It is also essential to choose a reliable technology that supports multiple platforms. Before developing an app, the developers must determine the front-end and back-end technologies. If a new tool or application is to be designed from scratch, it must be tested before being implemented. 

For instance, if an e-commerce app is designed, its ability to handle multiple users at a time should be tested before launching it. 

Categorizing tools as per the departments

Before adding new apps or tools to the existing technical stack, it is wise to categorize them as per their functions. Each organization has multiple departments like marketing, advertising, sales, e-commerce, customer support, etc. Each of these departments might have a tech stack of its own.

Therefore, while adding new tools or apps to the existing technology stack, one must focus on adding tech stacks for each department according to their requirements.

For example, a marketing tech stack could require lead generation tools, email marketing solutions, CMS (Content Management System), ASO tool, scalable web hosting, and SEO tools. Similarly, developer stacks would include programming stacks, front-end tech stacks, back-end tech stacks, IT stacks, coding stacks, etc.

An e-commerce stack would need payment processing software, an inventory management system, an online catalog application, and other tools. 

Brainstorming ideas

Before adding new tools in a particular process, the companies must engage with the immediate users to learn whether they have some ideas. If they do not have ideas, extensive research must be carried out to find tools and apps that the process needs. 

A comparison must be made on their features, pricing, and other details. If a free trial option is available, it should be tested for usefulness. 

Creating a budget estimate for the new tools

After analyzing the departments’ requirements and identifying the gaps, it is time to add new tools or applications. The companies must hire an expert to estimate the tools’ budget. If some old tools are replaced with new ones for cost-cutting, they should also be included in the overall budget planning. A separate budget could be created for each team by taking the input of the team leaders and managers. 

SMBs, i.e., small and medium-sized businesses, might not have enough budget to integrate new tools. However, they can benefit from the free, open-source community that offers many tools and applications. The developers wanting to contribute to the technological revolution have created tons of free technologies and tools that can be leveraged to build new products. 

The developer team can use open source software to build an application stack or developers stack. Taking assistance from open source platforms will enable small businesses to cut down on the cost of implementing new technologies or tools. Eventually, it will give them the required technical support to compete with the best companies or industry giants. 

Implementing new tools as pilot projects

The team managers will decide which tools to keep based on the budget constraints. Once all the teams finalize the tools, they must be implemented as pilot projects. It will not only help them to understand the new tools but will also help them to determine whether they add any value to the process or not. 

Measuring the business impact of tools

Once the pilot periods of the tools are over, their performance must be evaluated. For instance, if a new sales application was implemented, its performance in terms of percentage growth of sales after implementation should be measured.

If a new payroll app was installed, did it reduce the payroll processing time or improve operational efficiency?

Similar questions for each tool or application can be asked to measure their performance precisely. Team managers would have their suggestions and feedback regarding the performance of these tools. 

Inputs should be taken from employees and users who use the tools regularly. If a specific tool or application would fit in a particular process and fetch the desired results over the long term, it should be incorporated immediately. 

Preparing for the future

Some companies do not believe in hiring or purchasing existing technology. They trust their experts to create new and robust solutions to meet their ends. However, creating new technology from scratch can be a challenging task. The developers should not only consider the current requirements but also be able to scale. It could be challenging to make changes or add services to the applications as the company expands vertically or horizontally. Therefore, all the possibilities should be considered while designing a new application or tool. 

Also, building multiple tools and apps to create a comprehensive tech stack will need time and resources. Companies usually rely on trusted apps and platforms due to the same reasons. 

Conclusion 

These were some ways to ensure that the best tools are integrated into a tech stack. Small businesses usually run on a single tech stack, but they may incorporate additional stacks as their business scales. If they don’t have a dedicated team of developers at their disposal, they can outsource this. Budget constraints can be set after creating a detailed plan for adding new tools to the tech stack. Also, creating a plan for adding tech stacks without taking input from the end users is not a good idea.

B2B companies should take suggestions from their clients before making any significant change in their existing technology stack. Finally, everyone using the new tools and technologies should be accounted for and, if required, be trained to handle them.

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In this blog, we’ll explore seven types of organizational structures, including their advantages and disadvantages, to help you determine which structure is best suited for your business.

What is an Organizational Structure?

The organizational structure of a company is how the company is arranged in terms of hierarchies. It also includes how different powers, functions, and responsibilities are distributed among the different roles within the organization. Additionally, it determines how tasks are performed and how communication flows within the company.

Why is an Organizational Structure Important?

• An organizational structure establishes clear lines of authority and responsibility
• It defines how to perform tasks
• Helps ensure that all members of the organization are working toward common goals

What are the 7 Types of Organizational Structures?

Functional Organizational Structure

In a functional organizational structure, employees are grouped based on their specialized skills and functions. Each department has a specific function such as finance, marketing, or human resources.

Pros of a Functional Organizational Structure

• Expertise and Efficiency: This structure allows employees to specialize in their areas of expertise, which can lead to increased efficiency and productivity.
• Clear Career Paths: The functional structure provides a clear career path for employees, with defined job roles and responsibilities, which can increase employee satisfaction and reduce turnover.
• Economies of Scale: The structure facilitates the efficient use of resources and the ability to standardize processes, which can result in cost savings through economies of scale.
• Effective Coordination: The functional structure encourages coordination and communication within departments, which can lead to better decision-making and problem-solving.

Cons of a Functional Organizational Structure

• Silos: The functional structure can lead to a siloed approach to work, with employees focused on their own department’s goals rather than the company’s overall objectives.
• Slow Decision-Making: The structure may result in slow decision-making, as decisions have to go through multiple layers of management before being implemented.
• Lack of Flexibility: The functional structure may be inflexible in responding to changes in the market or shifts in business strategy, as departments are focused on their specific functions.
• Communication Challenges: The structure can create communication challenges between departments, as different functions may have different priorities and communication styles.

Divisional Organizational Structure

A divisional organizational structure is one in which employees are grouped based on the products, services, or geographic regions they are responsible for. This structure is common in large companies that have multiple product lines and geographies that they cater to.

Pros of a Divisional Organizational Structure

• Focus on Customer Needs: The divisional structure enables companies to focus on the needs of specific customers or markets, which can lead to better customer satisfaction and increased revenue.
• Faster Decision-Making: The structure allows for faster decision-making, as decision-making is decentralized to the divisional level rather than being centralized at the top.
• Greater Flexibility: The divisional structure enables companies to be more flexible in responding to changes in the market or shifts in business strategy, as each division can adapt to its specific market or customer needs.
• Accountability: The divisional structure provides clear accountability for each division’s performance, which can lead to greater efficiency and productivity.

Cons of a Divisional Organizational Structure

• Duplication of Resources: The divisional structure may result in duplication of resources across divisions, which can lead to increased costs and inefficiencies.
• Coordination Challenges: The structure may create coordination challenges between divisions, as each division may have its own priorities and goals.
• Limited Knowledge Sharing: The divisional structure may limit knowledge sharing across divisions, which can result in missed opportunities for innovation and learning.
• Potential for Competition: The divisional structure may create competition between divisions rather than collaboration, which can lead to conflicts and a lack of alignment with the overall company goals.

Matrix Organizational Structure

The matrix organizational structure combines aspects of both functional and divisional structures. In this structure, employees are organized by function and product, and they report to both a functional manager and a product manager.

Pros of a Matrix Organizational Structure

• Flexibility: The matrix structure enables companies to be more flexible in responding to changes in the market or shifts in business strategy, as employees can be reassigned to different projects or departments as needed.
• Collaboration: The structure encourages collaboration between departments and teams, which can lead to more innovative ideas and better problem-solving.
• Expertise: The structure allows employees to specialize in their areas of expertise while also working on cross-functional projects, which can lead to increased efficiency and productivity.
• Improved Decision-Making: The structure provides different perspectives and expertise, which can result in better decision-making and problem-solving.

Cons of a Matrix Organizational Structure

• Conflicting Priorities: The matrix structure can create conflicting priorities between functional and project managers, which can result in disagreements and delays.
• Communication Challenges: The structure can create communication challenges between employees and managers, as employees may have to report to multiple managers with different communication styles.
• Increased Complexity: The matrix structure can be more complex than other structures, which can lead to confusion and inefficiencies if not properly managed.
• Higher Administrative Costs: The structure may require additional administrative costs to manage the complexity of the matrix organization.

Flat Organizational Structure

A flat organizational structure is characterized by very few hierarchical levels between the top management and the employees. It has a relatively small chain of command, making it easy for employees to communicate with management.

Pros of a Flat Organizational Structure

• Better Communication: The flat structure allows for more direct communication between employees and top leadership, which can lead to better alignment and faster decision-making.
• Empowerment: The structure empowers employees by giving them more autonomy and decision-making power, which can lead to increased motivation and job satisfaction.
• Streamlined Decision-Making: The structure allows for faster and more streamlined decision-making, as there are fewer layers of management to go through.
• Lower Costs: The structure can result in lower administrative costs, as there are fewer layers of management and less bureaucracy.

Cons of a Flat Organizational Structure

• Limited Specialization: The flat structure may not provide as much opportunity for specialization or career growth as other structures, as there are fewer layers of management and fewer specialized roles.
• Role Confusion: The structure may lead to role confusion, as employees may not have clear job roles or responsibilities.
• Limited Control: The flat structure may be less effective in controlling and managing large or complex organizations, as there are fewer layers of management to provide oversight and coordination.
• Lack of Hierarchy: The flat structure may not provide a clear hierarchy or chain of command, which can lead to confusion and conflict.

Hierarchical Organizational Structure

A hierarchical organizational structure is characterized by multiple levels of management, with each level reporting to the one above it. This structure is common in traditional organizations.

Pros of a Hierarchical Organizational Structure

• Clear Hierarchy: The hierarchical structure provides a clear chain of command and defined roles and responsibilities, which can lead to greater clarity and efficiency.
• Specialization: The structure allows for specialization and expertise to develop at each level of management, which can lead to increased productivity and efficiency.
• Control: The hierarchical structure provides effective control and oversight, as each level of management can monitor and manage the level below it.
• Career Growth: The structure provides opportunities for career growth and advancement, as employees can move up the hierarchy through promotion.

Cons of a Hierarchical Organizational Structure

• Slow Decision-Making: The hierarchical structure may result in slower decision-making, as decisions must go through multiple levels of management.
• Bureaucracy: The structure may result in bureaucracy and a rigid organizational culture, which can hinder innovation and adaptability.
• Limited Communication: The hierarchical structure may limit communication between employees and top leadership, as communication may be filtered through multiple levels of management.
• Over-Reliance on Hierarchy: The hierarchical structure may lead to over-reliance on the hierarchy, which can stifle creativity and individual initiative.

Network Organizational Structure

A network organizational structure is an organization comprised of independent, interconnected entities or individuals, rather than a centralized, hierarchical structure. This structure relies on partnerships, alliances, and collaborations between different entities to achieve their goals. 

Pros of a Network Organizational Structure

• Flexibility: The network structure allows for greater flexibility, as organizations can adapt and change quickly to respond to changing environments or market conditions.
• Collaboration: The structure encourages collaboration and partnership between organizations, which can lead to increased innovation and creativity.
• Specialization: The structure allows for specialization and expertise to develop within each entity or individual in the network, which can lead to increased efficiency and productivity.
• Cost-Effective: The structure can be cost-effective, as organizations can share resources and expertise without incurring the costs associated with a centralized structure.

Cons of a Network Organizational Structure

• Lack of Control: The network structure may lack effective control and oversight, as there is no centralized authority to manage and coordinate activities.
• Communication Challenges: The structure may create communication challenges, as there may be a lack of standardization and consistency in communication between entities or individuals in the network.
• Limited Accountability: The structure may lead to limited accountability, as there may not be clear lines of responsibility and ownership for activities or outcomes.
• Difficulty in Scaling: The network structure may be difficult to scale, as coordination and collaboration between entities or individuals may become more challenging as the network grows.

Team-Based Organizational Structure

In a team-based organizational structure, employees are grouped together into small teams, each responsible for a particular task or project. This structure promotes collaboration, communication, and innovation.

Pros of a Team-Based Organizational Structure

• Collaboration: The team-based structure encourages collaboration and partnership between team members, which can lead to increased innovation and creativity.
• Empowerment: The structure empowers team members by giving them more autonomy and decision-making power, which can lead to increased motivation and job satisfaction.
• Communication: The structure promotes direct communication between team members, which can lead to better alignment and faster decision-making.
• Adaptability: The structure allows for greater adaptability, as teams can respond quickly to changes in the environment or market conditions.

Cons of a Team-Based Organizational Structure

• Limited Specialization: The team-based structure may not provide as much opportunity for specialization or career growth as other structures, as team members may need to have a broad range of skills and responsibilities.
• Conflict: The structure may lead to conflict between teams or team members, as there may be competing goals or priorities.
• Limited Control: The team-based structure may be less effective in controlling and managing large or complex organizations, as there may be a lack of coordination between teams.
• Overemphasis on Teams: The team-based structure may lead to overemphasis on teams, which can detract from the overall goals and mission of the organization.

How do you Choose the Right Organizational Structure for your Company?

Choosing the right organizational structure depends on a number of factors. Such as the size and complexity of the organization, the nature of its business, and its goals and objectives. It is important to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each structure type before making a decision.

How can an Organizational Structure be Changed?

An organizational structure can be changed by redefining job roles, restructuring departments, and changing reporting lines. The change process requires careful planning, communication, and implementation to ensure a smooth transition.

In conclusion, there are many different types of organizational structures, each with its own unique benefits and drawbacks. Choosing the right structure for your organization is crucial. As it can have a significant impact on your company’s productivity, communication, and overall success. Consider the size of your organization, industry, and goals when determining which structure is best. By selecting the appropriate organizational structure, you can help ensure that your company operates smoothly, efficiently, and successfully.

The post The 7 Types of Organizational Structures appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

Sunk cost fallacy can be applied to simple things in life to analyze how we make wrong decisions to make our first decision right. For example, a person who buys expensive movie tickets continues to watch it even if the story isn’t interesting enough.

The sunk cost fallacy in a business can be due to managers who continue expanding a project despite not generating any profit. It is because they feel that all the time, money, and effort will go in vain if they do not see the project through. However, the money already invested cannot be earned back, irrespective of their decision to stop or continue the business.

We can only think about the sunk cost effects on a large number of businesses across the globe. Some businesses correct their decisions at the right time and prevent future losses. These businesses avoid wasting money, effort, and time by making decisions based purely on future goals. Their new decisions should be based on rationality and logic and not affected by past mistakes.

What are Sunk Costs?

A sunk cost is money spent for a specific purpose that cannot be recovered for any reason. In the business world, sunk cost refers to the invested funds that cannot be retrieved in the future.

Business decisions should ideally be based on predicted future expenses and business objectives.  As sunk cost cannot be recovered, business owners and managers must not consider it when making decisions for the future. However, they often tend to invest in the same project or business to try to recover these sunk costs. Sunk cost effects can affect a business’s future if decisions are not made basis data and changing conditions rather than recovery of costs. 

The History of the Sunk Cost Fallacy 

Sinking costs refer to those expenses gradually proving useless from a business point of view. Although it is a term associated with business, sunk cost bias is also based on an individual’s thinking. It is a cognitive bias that stops us from making the right decisions, and when we realize our mistakes, we’ve only sunk additional money.

The sunk cost fallacy is a term that evolved from cognitive bias, which was first used in 1972 by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Both were psychologists who laid the foundation for the study of sunk cost fallacy that evolved much later.

Kahneman received the Nobel prize in 2002 for his research on cognitive bias in the decision-making process of businesses. His research work included the mention of sunk cost fallacy. In later years, profound scholars and economists attempted to find the exact reasons behind the sunk cost fallacy. According to Richard Thaler, people tend to use services or products if they have invested money in them. Scientists like Catherine Blumer and Hal Arkes have contributed to the evolution of sunk cost fallacy theory by publishing a journal called Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

According to their experiments, the notion behind sunk costs affects our decisions on a higher level than we think. For instance, suppose a person has brought two cakes, one that costs $40 and one that costs $50. Suppose he has the choice of eating only one of those two cakes. Now, if he chooses to eat the $50 cake even after knowing that the $40 cake tastes better, his decision was affected by the sunk cost fallacy.

How do Businesses get Affected by the Sunk Cost Fallacy?

Companies are expected to act logically and rationally while making crucial business decisions. However, companies are ultimately managed by humans who can sometimes make decisions backed by emotion and not logic. Sunk cost fallacy mainly occurs when the critical decision makers are thinking irrationally. Here are some reasons why companies fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy:

Time 

Students admitted to a degree usually don’t quit even after learning that they are not finding it interesting anymore. It is because they have invested much time and effort into it, and starting from scratch can be expensive. Similarly, individuals who invest their time, emotions, and money in a relationship might not call it off even if they find their partners have some major red flags. Eventually, they are trapped in a state of mind that can be referred to as sunk time fallacy.

In the same vein, imagine a decision-maker who has devoted a lot of time to plan a project and has used considerable resources to put an action plan in place. They might not be able to give up on the idea after spending so much time on it even if someone comes up with a better one. This emotional connection with time and resources used can lead to dead projects going ahead due to the sunk cost fallacy. 

Money 

Most businesses get trapped in the sunk cost fallacy because of their investments.

A company spends millions of dollars getting natural resources, government permissions, and NOCs to start a gas plant. Suppose that gas’s price is reduced by more than 75%. Now, the decision to continue with the business would be wrong because it may hardly cover the future investment costs. 

However, the company might continue the plant operations on a much smaller scale. The company’s key stakeholders might hope for the price to rise again. If the plans and strategies are well-researched and calculated, it might provide them with some benefits. However, if their hope is only due to the kind of money they have pumped into the project, they would eventually end up losing a lot more money than they would have if they abandoned the project. 

Energy 

Energy or efforts to start a business can go in vain. However, the business owner might make the same business decisions just by thinking of their enormous efforts to train the employees and set up the infrastructure. 

Usually, startups get trapped in sunk cost fallacy for the same reason. They start a business without a concrete plan, invest a lot of time and energy, and eventually fall into a debt trap. However, instead of pulling out at the right time, they stick with the same business plans and aggravate the problem further.

Resisting Change 

It is often hard to implement a new system in the company. The employees who are used to the old process are the first ones to resist change. Managers should effectively communicate the impact of the new system to all employees. Instead of focusing on the time and resources spent on implementing the old system, they must motivate the employees to embrace the change positively. 

Old technologies get obsolete due to disruptive technology. Instead of continuing with the old technologies, the companies should adapt to the newer technologies and gain a competitive edge in the market. Companies that use outdated technology that was relevant decades ago lose their relevance and become incompetent. 

Fear of Experimentation 

Companies that stick to the same old procedures don’t change their working ways because they fear experimenting with new things. Fear of trying out new things is nothing but fear of failing. 

We have often seen old managers and leaders reluctant to experiment with new systems and technologies. They don’t want the failure to tarnish their image and reputation. Companies should recognize new talent and give them opportunities to lead their respective teams. New people not only have new ideas, but they also don’t have the fear of failure. 

Unscientific decisions 

Making unscientific decisions is like investing in stocks without conducting market research and understanding the company’s fundamentals correctly. Decisions made scientifically are more accurate because they are based on facts and research. Today, companies rely on data-driven decisions because they fetch the desired results in a given time. 

One of the most common sunk cost examples can be a marketing team that goes with the same promotional campaigns without measuring the performance of their previous campaigns. It follows the sunk cost fallacy. Evaluation of various metrics will help them to fine-tune their promotional and marketing strategies. It will help them avoid past mistakes and create campaigns that impress more customers.

facing a business loss

How to Overcome Sunk Cost Fallacy?

We have often seen businessmen who keep pushing their ventures despite them bringing losses. They develop a bias towards the venture simply because they have put in too much effort and investments to start it. In this case, they can be either too committed or loss averse to see the right path. They choose to continue their projects to try and recover losses and to try to control the damage but end up losing more money despite knowing better. This kind of cognitive dissonance is harmful to any business. 

American writer Seth Godin has written a book called The Dip. According to him, every business goes through a challenging phase before reaching the top. However, entrepreneurs must realize when it is a dip and when a dead end. If it seems to be a dead end, they must quit the business immediately and realign their energy and efforts to some other project.

Here are some tips for entrepreneurs who want to avoid falling into sunk cost fallacy’s trap:

Integrate Creative Tension 

Businesses should build some tension in their creative process. Suppose that a software company is run only by a creative team. Now, if only the creative team is involved in designing a website, they might suggest many expensive designs and customizations. However, if a financial team is there to look after the budget, there won’t be any misuse of the available resources. This phenomenon creates tension in monitoring the process and avoid losses due to commitment and self-justification bias. 

Avoid Blind Bravado 

The sunk cost fallacy usually affects entrepreneurs who believe that a project will work despite it incurring heavy losses. Such entrepreneurs should keep their minds open to receive feedback and suggestions from their leadership team and team members. 

A healthy conversation among the team will allow them to see the red flags of a faulty process. Companies should take notice of these flags and make the necessary changes before it leads them to worse ones. 

Don’t Get Too Attached 

Too much personal attachment to a specific project or startup means the entrepreneur is emotionally invested in it and associates their identity with it. Entrepreneurs must conduct business only to make a profit and grow. They must avoid too many emotions and attachments to intangible things like processes and business ideas. In short, they must think practically and act rationally. 

Being Realistic and Futuristic 

Entrepreneurs must stop looking at the past and consider the investments, time, and effort they have put into a particular project. It will not only lower their morale but will also affect their decisions. Instead, they must stop and think about whether the goals they had set for their business are attainable in the present situation or not. 

They should be honest with themselves and set goals that are realistic in the future. Investing more in a failed project makes more sense when they have the ideas and grit to take on new projects and be successful. 

Tracking Investments More Closely 

Tracking investments closely is a habit that entrepreneurs can acquire to avoid any unnecessary loss in the business. Also, while keeping track of the investments made in the past and present, they must consider the expenses associated with new opportunities and businesses. Making a plan for each project and their cost estimates will help them stay a step ahead in the business. 

Ultimately, businesses must remain realistic and pragmatic about project prospects. They must be able to cut their losses and walk away from a situation at the right time. 

Have you faced a situation where the sunk cost fallacy has gotten you into a world of unnecessary trouble?  

The post How Does The Sunk Cost Fallacy Influence Businesses? appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

In this article, we go through the diversity vs inclusion debate, focusing on their differences, the benefits of having D&I in the workplace, and how it leads to the success of an organization.

Diversity vs Inclusion

The difference between diversity and inclusion in the workplace is that diversity is the presence of people of different races, ethnicity, gender, etc. Inclusion is the practice of making sure that people feel ‘included’ in the organization, embraced, valued, and safe. To further classify the distinction of diversity vs inclusion, let’s think of diversity as the practice of bringing different people into the same territory. 

Let’s tear down the definitions of both diversity vs inclusion:

What is Diversity in the Workplace?

Having diversity in the workplace means that the company employs people regardless of any differences and similarities like individual beliefs, characteristics, race, background, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Diversity is all the elements that an organization is composed of. 

In the U.S, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces a law that prohibits discrimination against employees based on their race, color, sex, age, disability, or genetic information. 

So what’s important to achieve a diverse workplace? The ability to embrace different perspectives. For instance, you can hire more Africans or Asians but if the culture at your organization doesn’t embrace different perspectives, it will be hard to have diversity. Be it diversity or inclusion, both cannot thrive in a close-minded culture that doesn’t look past their own perspectives. Similarly, you can’t have diversity without inclusion. Both diversity vs inclusion goes hand in hand.

What is Inclusion In the Workplace?

Inclusion, on the other hand, is the practice of building such a work environment that offers equal opportunities, resources, and autonomy to work for mutual goals. Inclusion is all about treating employees fairly and respectfully. In an inclusive workplace, every employee feels welcomed, valued, and has the opportunity to work their best no matter what background, religion, race, or sex they come from.

To have inclusion in the workplace, you need to make sure everyone feels seen and heard. However, creating an environment that is safe for everyone, doesn’t come without its challenges and needs constant support. As the diversity in the company increases, the importance of inclusion rises even more. In addition, all the team members need to feel psychologically safe and included to bring diversity’s benefits to light.

According to a Harvard study, out of diversity, equity, inclusion, inclusion is the most difficult metric to track. According to SHRM, you can take a few steps (more on this later) that promote inclusion in your organization for instance:

• Build an inclusive culture by forming an inclusive team that helps you set goals, hire and retain the workforce. You need to develop a baseline and goals for diversity and inclusion.
• You should highlight that you are a diverse organization. To do that take small steps like building a private space for mothers who breastfeed. And a prayer room for employees who practice their religion. Allowing 15 minutes every Friday for Muslims to pray means a great deal to those individuals. 
• Create groups that help employees feel safe, share thoughts, discuss their interests in a nonjudgmental way. For instance, having an employee resource group for all the women in the organization. Similarly, a group for the LGBTQ community. One benefit of this practice is that employees feel safe, valued, and respected for who they are. 
• To reflect a diverse workforce update your brand material and language. 

Benefits of having Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Having diversity and inclusion in the workplace comes with many business benefits. Let’s have a look at some of these:

Higher Revenue 

Hiring people from all kinds of backgrounds and allowing diversity in your organization means that you generate higher revenue. Research finds that companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians. 

Leads Path to Innovation

Having a diverse workforce means the generation of new ideas, new perspectives, and new experiences. D&I leads to the path of innovation. Research shows that The positive relationship between management diversity and innovation is statistically significant, meaning that companies with higher levels of diversity get more revenue from new products and services.

In addition, the research tells us that the innovation boost doesn’t come from one specific group of people. Whether it is females, employees from other countries, or a different race, all can lead to innovation.

Helps with Recruitment and Retention 

A Glassdoor survey reveals that 3 in 4 (76%) job seekers and employees today report that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. 

About 4 in 5 Black (80%), Hispanic (80%), and LGBTQ (79%) job seekers and employees report a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.

All the stats reveal that if an organization is doing more for diversity vs inclusion, they have a higher chance of recruitment and retaining the employees.

Attracts New Talent

Companies with a diverse workforce are more likely to attract a new market audience. On the other hand, those organizations that don’t promote D&I are less likely to receive new applicants. Nearly 2 in 5 employees and job seekers (37%) would not apply to a job at a company where there are disparities in employee satisfaction ratings among different ethnic/racial groups.

Reduces Turnover

High turnover rates can be costly for your organization. Practicing diversity and inclusion in the company is one step to reduce turnover. Nearly half of Black (47%) and Hispanic (49%) job seekers and employees have quit a job after witnessing or experiencing discrimination at work, significantly higher than white (38%) job seekers and employees.

Boosts Creativity 

Hiring people of different races, ethnicity, background, sex, or different religions leads to a creativity boost in the company. A 2017 Harvard Business Review study found that successful teams had more cognitive diversity. In addition, another Harvard study shows that teams solve problems more effectively when they’re more cognitively diverse.

More Profit and More Customers 

A study published in the American Sociological Review found that companies that focus more on having a diverse workforce have higher sales revenue, more customers, above-average market share, and high profitability.

How to Create a Diverse and Inclusive Environment at Work?

Now that we’ve established some understanding of both diversity vs inclusion, let’s take a look at how to put a plan into action. There are a number of ways to build a diverse and inclusive work environment and culture:

Diversity and Inclusion Go Hand in Hand

Diversity vs inclusion, both can’t operate without each other. To have inclusion at the workplace you need to make sure you practice diversity at your workplace. When those employees who ate different from the rest of the team are allowed to thrive in a similar environment, the company benefits from the new ideas, their creativity, skills, and innovation. Having an environment that promotes D&I, ultimately leads to high retention rates. 

Educate Your Leaders 

Everything begins with the leaders and therefore it is important for you to educate them on the importance of having diversity and inclusion in the organization. This should be done in order to prevent unconscious bias that is done when we make judgments about their race, color, or gender without realizing we’re doing it. Leaders are at the forefront of any organization and therefore educating them is important.

Form an Inclusion Committee

Forming an inclusion council with genuine influence and power that is dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion is another step to take. These committees should be committed to setting goals, planning hiring strategies, and planning retention strategies for the underrepresented employee groups. 

The councils should be diverse. Meaning they should consist of members of different ethnicity, race, or gender in order to promote genuineness and transparency at all levels. For instance, in the committee, the members can be women, people of color, and other minority groups.

Hear what Your Employees Have to Say

When you establish a diverse workforce, the net step is to ensure inclusivity. In order to cultivate an inclusive environment, you should be aware of what kind of environment your employees want. Creating an environment where all employees feel closely knit like a family is a key to establishing an inclusive workplace. Just like in a family people raise concerns, discuss their issues and work together to solve them, an inclusive environment follows the same footsteps. 

Make Meetings at Office more Effective

Danny Guillory, head of global diversity and inclusion at San Rafael, California-based Autodesk, a global software company, shares the following ideas to foster an environment of D&I:

• According to Guillory meetings are a great place to start with. Before conducting a meeting share the meeting material with everyone beforehand. This gives time to many employees who need time to prepare and is especially helpful to those employees that don’t speak English as their first language.  
• Make sure you have the right technology and equipment to facilitate participants. In addition, always welcome their queries and ask them questions. You should always provide them equal opportunity to participate in conversations in order to have a meaningful experience.
• For those employees who have time zones different than yours, rotate the meetings. Make everyone feel they’re valued so they don’t feel left out.
• Always appreciate ideas that your employees give. When someone is recognized for an idea that someone else put forward earlier in the meeting, point out who shared the idea originally, says Guillory.
• Make sure everyone feels seen and heard. You should also ensure active debate while being courteous. 

Set SMART Goals and Work on Them

Lastly, it’s important to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound SMART goals in order to achieve utmost success. Ask yourself questions like:

• What are our inclusive goals? 
• What are we doing to promote diversity and inclusion at our organization?
• How will practicing an environment of diversity vs inclusion help us grow and become successful?

Ready to Practice Diversity and Inclusion at Your Workplace?

The whole diversity versus inclusion debate tells us that both terms are complementary and depend on each other. Without one, you cannot have the other.  The article tells us that organizations that manage to make their diversity vs inclusion efforts work benefit from better financial results, a higher degree of innovation, and improved employee retention. 

However, building an inclusive culture can not be done in a single day. You can seek help from the ways mentioned in this article to promote diversity and inclusion in your organization and grow even more. 

The post Diversity vs Inclusion: What is the Difference? appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

Jack Welch saw stack ranking as a way to galvanize employees and raise competition between them even more because only a few employees will be rated as either exemplary or meeting expectations.

Today, companies like Uber, Yahoo, Amazon, etc have discovered that the rank and yank approach does more harm than good in the company. A toxic work environment, stalled innovation, increased turnover are just some of the issues that come with stack ranking employees. 

In this article, we discover what is stack ranking, see if it has any pros, an alternative to the approach, and its cons. Let’s unpack some definitions first. 

What is Stack Ranking?

Pioneered in the 1980s by Jack Welch the CEO of General Electric, stack ranking is a type of talent management in which employees are rated on a curve and then classified as either exemplary, meeting expectations, need to be on a performance improvement plan, or straight away fired.  This practice is a way of differentiating between the top-performing employees and the low-performing ones. 

Welch also popularized the 15/75/10 curve for the top, middle, and bottom employees. This gives the employers means to differentiate and award the top-tier employees and weed out the employees with subpar performance. 

The need to rack and stack employees arises when companies are looking for efficient and effective ways to have performance appraisals. The goal is to build an environment where all or most employees are high performers. However, stack ranking limits autonomy in the workplace and is accompanied by several other negative aspects. 

Is there any Positive Side to Stack Ranking?

Before we dig into why stack ranking isn’t the best solution to evaluate performance lest see some pros of it.

Boost Employee Morale

Although ranking people can lead to negative feelings and loss of productivity in employees some may consider it an opportunity to better themselves. Ranking employees helps boost employee morale. The process of distinguishing and appreciating high performers makes it easier for organizations to draw out and follow through the necessary steps to retain them. On the other hand, low-performing employees may see their rank as a challenge and opportunity to improve themselves in order to rank better on the system. 

Benefit for the Organization 

One pro for the company of stack ranking is that it can help managers quickly identify patterns in performance and draw out their top talent. They can then use a similar pattern to train another employee in order to have more talent within the organization.

In addition, it also helps top-performing employees boost productivity while helping low-performing employees work on specific goals and areas to improve and develop, and then increase their performance levels.

Why Stack Ranking is Problematic?

A 2011 study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) revealed that the number of companies using forced ranking fell from 49% in 2009 to 14% in 2011. Today stack ranking for good reasons is becoming obsolete. Let’s see why:

It Hinders Innovation 

Like many other companies, Microsoft too had been using stack ranking as a performance evaluation tool. But not a lot of time had passed it failed to compete with tech giants like Apple and Google as they paved the way to innovation. The reason? A series of astonishingly foolish management decisions as told by Kurt Earticle who wrote an article on how Microsoft lost a decade to stack ranking.

“If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good everyone was, two people were going to get a great review, seven were going to get mediocre reviews, and one was going to get a terrible review,” said a former software developer. “It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.” said a former Microsoft employee.

Leads to Increased Turnover

In the same article, a former Microsoft employee explains:

“Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed—every one—cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees”.

Stack ranking is, therefore, a big reason for increased turnover which in turn s highly costly for the company. A report by SHRM tells us that the direct cost of replacing the employee who’s leaving is between 50-60% of their annual salary. It is especially high since the entire process includes onboarding training and developing the substitute employee. 

Similarly, with a departing employee, some loss of tribal knowledge and institutional knowledge is inevitable.

Leads to a Toxic Work Environment

The need to rack and stack employees also lead to toxic work culture and that is highly unhealthy for any organization. One reason for this is that stack ranking creates competition between employees. When that happens, employees become distrustful of others, fear feedback from their managers, and dread performance reviews. 

Trust between the workers is important if an organization wants to be on a path to success and high work productivity.  

Triggers Fear and Shame in Employees

If a person sees themselves ranked below another person, they’re likely to feel ashamed and embarrassed. Stack ranking employees trigger this quality and therefore lead to negative tendencies. Not to forget how shame can trigger a person’s mental health leading to aggressiveness, lack of empathy, etc. 

Loss of Teamwork and Dedication

Stack ranking makes employees feel they’re competing with each other. It creates an environment that encourages unproductive behavior and inappropriate behavior.  In such an environment, teamwork is lost and innovation suffers.

Uber’s reputation was tarnished due to inappropriate use of personal data, sexual harassment, and inappropriate workplace behavior. Many people claim the cause was stack ranking and employee reviews because it created a culture that favors achieving revenue targets at any cost and doesn’t care about anything else. 

Taking a Modern Approach Instead 

Forced ranking became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Many companies, such as GE, Ford, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, 3M, Goodyear, and Hewlett Packard used it. However, companies that use forced ranking soon realized stack ranking isn’t the best solution when it comes to evaluating employee performance. So how about taking a modern approach to managing performance instead?

With the changes happening in the world of work, most companies find the rank and yank system an obsolete way to manage employee performance. With the shift towards more knowledge-based work, companies are now realizing the need to give more autonomy and foster collaboration at the same time.

Companies that previously believed in the stack ranking employee performance evaluation system, have now turned to something more positive and healthy. Let’s see an example below:

Amazon Stack Ranking

One stack ranking example is Amazon the American multination technology company that used to stack rank its employees up until 2016 when it decided to drop the practice. 

“We’re launching a new annual review process next year that is radically simplified and focuses on our employees’ strengths, not the absence of weaknesses,” the company confirmed in a statement to GeekWire.”

Now there are two lessons we get from this statement. First, it is the strengths of an employee that matter and the company should focus on, and second, finding weaknesses in an employee surely isn’t the best way to help them and the company grow. 

Ever since the stack and rank system was introduced in the 1980s, the world has fairly changed today. Today companies that focus on their employee’s strengths, curating a positive culture, and helping employees become the better version of themselves each year are on top of their game.

Building a Positive Culture 

Instead of finding out which employee has the worst performance, companies should focus more on building a positive culture where employees get to share their goals and help each other. Here are a few things to do:

Know What Your Employees Want

You should be aware of what your employees value and what kind of environment they are expecting from your company. Many people today prefer an environment that enables flexibility, autonomy, and a place where everyone works for shared goals. In order to avoid ranking the employees, you should also be mindful of what kind of people you want on your team. 

Help Employees Speak Up

Employees like to work in an environment where they feel safe to share their idea,s opinions, and suggestions. You should encourage employees to speak up about every experience they go through and if they find something bothersome at the workplace. Managers need a system that encourages employees’ participation in setting shared goals and then working to meet them.

How to Stack Rank Employees

The next question is how to rank employees’ performance using the rank and yank system. Let’s see what you’ll need to rank your employees:

Your Employees Names

Begin with the names of employees that you want to rank.

Performance criteria

This is the criteria for which you will be ranking your employees. It can be their communication skills, their problem-solving skills, or their attendance.

A Scale of Measurement

This is the scale you’ll be scoring them against. It must be a numerical figure that you’ll use to rank the employees. For instance, an employee needs an 8+ score out of 10 in attendance to be an exemplary employee. You can score out of 10 or 100 it depends on you.

A Criteria Weight

In stack ranking, one criterion may be more important than others. For this part, think about the performance criteria and how they relate in importance. This will help you assign more weight to more important criteria. 

Stack Ranking Template

A downloadable template of stack ranking is given here.

The Takeaway

Stack rankings come with issues and complexities, but they could still have a positive impact on your organization. That is only if it is conducted to encourage productivity and growth. What you need to do is keep a check on your employees, what they value and what they need in order to work to their full potential. 

Lastly, by creating a work environment where feedback is considered a useful tool, you help employees in coming closer to their professional goals. That in turn provides the organization with the skills and people it needs for success.

The post Stack Ranking: A Good or Bad Idea? appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

Interestingly, this behavior isn’t just limited to bosses but also prevails in coworkers. Such coworkers are rarely liked by others. A bossy coworker can make life in the workplace frustrating and even difficult. 

In this article, we talk about micromanagement, its effects on the employees, and ways how to deal with a micromanager, boss, and coworker. Additionally, we’ll also take you through some tell-tale signs of a micromanager. 

What is Micromanaging?

As the term tells us, a micromanager is a person who manages everything extra closely and intervenes in their employees’ activities. Micromanagers closely observe the work of their co-workers too. Although most micromanagers have good intentions, micromanagement isn’t considered a healthy thing to do because it allows very little freedom within the workplace. Being micromanaged at work can lead to many negative emotions in the employees besides lowering their productivity.  

Jenny Chatman, a professor of management at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley who researches and consults on organizational culture says, “It’s more about your bosses’ level of internal anxiety and needs to control situations than anything about you,”  

Signs of a Micromanager 

Look for the following signs in someone you think may be a micromanager:

• They become over-involved in every task
• They dislike it if someone makes a decision without consulting them
• They are rarely satisfied with any result
• Thye set unrealistic deadlines
• They focus on trivial details
• Takes great pride in correcting or changing people’s work
• Micromanagers frequently communicate with their employees outside of office hours
• with such managers, turnover rates are usually high
• They prefer to be in the loop of every decision
• Is reluctant to delegate
• They may have severe mood swings 
• Applies the same level of intensity and scrutiny to every task and never prioritizes. 

How to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss?

Dealing with a micromanager boss can be exhausting and frustrating but you as an employee can take several steps to make things easier.

Understand What Triggers Them

Bosses micromanage when things don’t go their way. It can also mean employees are repetitively doing things that are triggering them. One way to manage a micromanaging boss is to understand what triggers them and stop doing those things. For instance, you need to understand why they are micromanaging you. Implementing the findings can help you become better and avoid being micromanaged often.

Ask What You Can Do Better

If you’re an employee with a micromanager boss, ask them how you can improve? Being direct is always a great solution. Asking what you can do better to address their managing needs. This will help set an intention of collaboration and support that will help you become a better employee. 

Think From Your Boss’s Perspective

Sometimes putting yourself in another’s shoes can sort most things out. Do this and think from the perspective of your boss. You will understand why they feel the need to intervene in every task that you do. Ask them questions like what results do they expect out of this or how often do they want to be given status updates.

Have Productive Conversations

Set a positive intention for work with your boss. Identify which behaviors may trigger the micromanagement needs of your manager. Talk to them about the feeling you may have after certain behaviors are directed towards you. Try giving feedback on how their behavior and micromanaging affect you. If something doesn’t work for you, come to a solution that does. 

Dig Deeper

Probe into the micromanaging method of your manager. If they ask you to do something, you can go into details and ask them what would happen if they did this? Or what outcome will doing this task generate? Once you do get into the details, you both will find it easy to be on the same page. You will know what they expect of you and they will know you’re working just fine on your own. 

Find the Root Cause

Sometimes, it’s good to keep an eye on your own work as well. Finding the root cause of why your manager feels the need to micro-monitor everything is a great start, to begin with. Ask yourself questions like what am I doing that made my boss say that? Am I delivering the work just like they want? Is my performance okay?

Build Trust

It always comes down to building trust between you and your manager. A person feels the need to micromanage, overanalyze and intervene in someone’s work only when there isn’t enough trust. Building trust is the key to reducing such behavior on the part of your micromanager. 

Meet the Expectations

Most micromanagers have good intentions towards their employees. One solution can be to meet the expectations they have set. Understand what’s important to them and then meet those expectations. Focus on building trust by consistently delivering results.

Join the Forces 

Partnering up with your manager is another solution to putting the need for micromanaging to an end. Both you and your manager want the company’s success. It’s a good idea to join hands with them and take their advice. Invite conversations with them and talk about what advice you like and which you’d rather not take. 

Provide Guidance

Sometimes micromanagers aren’t aware that they are micromanaging you. You can always guide them on that front. If you don’t like a certain behavior directed at you, question it. You can always say things like can I have y take at this task? Can I take things my way on this project?

Welcome the Suggestions with a Smile

Welcome, all that your micromanager boss may throw at you, with a smile. If it’s something you dislike you can always ask them do you not trust me on this? And if you think you’re doing the task well enough then assure them that you’ve got this. Again building trust is the key.

How to Deal with a Micromanaging Coworker?

There are control freaks at your workplace that often make a workplace toxic. Although you can’t control your boss or coworkers, you can control how you respond to their behavior. 

Set Boundaries

Don’t let your micromanager coworker ruin your day. Stay calm and rise above the drama. Set clear boundaries and clearly communicate where you don’t want them to intervene.  Sometimes when you’re being nice it can be hard to say no. But it’s important to recognize when you’re being manipulated and micro-managed. Set clear limits on things you aren’t willing to do.

Control How You Response

You can’t control how a micromanager may behave toward you but you can always choose how to respond to that. For instance, if you find that micromanager coworkers talk about their self-proclaimed high standards that you and others fail to meet, leave that conversation. Stay calm and let your anger go. Just focus on how you can better yourself without having to worry about others. 

Don’t Take Orders

When you will continuously do as they ask you, you’ll feed their controlling personality even more. Learn to refuse to take orders. Make them understand that they’re, not the boss.

Face It

Sometimes that best option is to directly say no. Refuse to be micromanaged at work at the hands of mere coworkers. If you don’t like how they come at you, confront the situation, tell them you perceive specific comments as hurtful, and you’d rather prefer them to talk in some other way.  

Keep it About Work

Not everything that everyone says is meant to be taken personally. Keep it all about work. Listen to them but at the same time keep calm, do your work and remind yourself that this is about work and your co-worker. 

Think from their Perspective 

Just like it’s for micromanager bosses, it’s the same for coworkers. Learn to gain perspective from your coworkers and think about why this might be happening. Some reasons can be that they have more experience than you and therefore want you to be doing things the same way. 

Question Yourself 

It’s always a good idea to keep a check on yourself as well. You may want to change your way of doing things that may be triggering their micromanagement behavior. In some cases doing things, as they say, may prove beneficial for you.

Building Synergy and Trust

Again, trust is important. Assure your coworker that you’ve got this so they can stop micromanaging every move of yours. 

Notice Things Around You

See if the micromanager coworker is behaving like this with everyone or if it is just you. Ask questions like ‘Are they the same towards everybody? Is someone else also saying something?’ If it’s with everyone, you need to think about how this can be avoided. If it is just with you, chances are things may be above micromanagement for you.

Raise Your Opinions

We all know that control freaks tend to think their methods and tactics are superior to everyone else’s. But if you disagree with some of their suggestions or advice, don’t hesitate to speak up. Question their way and make them believe there are other people who can think of better ideas. 

Don’t Argue

Arguing with a micromanager coworker isn’t going to get you anywhere, It will instead drain more of your energy. The best way to deal with people like this is to stay calm and avoid arguments if you realize you both aren’t going to be on the same ground. 

Have a Mediator

When you both realize things are only going south, consider involving a mediator. Although it may seem childish, it’s a great solution for issues like this. Set up a meeting with your boss where both of you present your cases. Only then a manager can decide which method they think is better to reach the results. 

Learn to Ignore

In some situations–especially if the bad behavior persists despite your best efforts–it may be best to try ignoring it. Ignoring what they may have to say to you can derail them off their strategy and might even prevent it from happening again. If nothing, it will help stay peaceful.

Seek Support

There are likely many other coworkers who are frustrated by this person. You can always seek additional support from these coworkers if your manager isn’t taking notice. 

Lead by Example

When you treat everyone around you in a polite and better way, they’ll notice. Leading by example can be a good way to tackle such people.

The Bottomline

Micromanagement, be it from a boss or a coworker isn’t the greatest trait. Both managers and coworkers need to avoid this. Instead, they should focus on establishing and maintaining open, honest communication and setting boundaries. With the right mindset and the right attitude, you can deal with such micromanagers effectively.

The post How to Deal with a Micromanager? appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

Let us now see why it is important to understand what charismatic leadership is, and how it can help people in transforming their workplaces. 

What is Charismatic Leadership?

Charismatic leadership is practiced by those who rely more on communication skills, charm, knowledge, and persuasiveness over the actual power their position wields.

In the modern business world, where leaders must influence and charm their team, charismatic leadership has become the norm. These leaders can inspire and motivate their employees without any monetary incentives, and with the state of the economy, it is really gaining prominence.

The characteristics of such leaders are usually translated through their speech, work, and actions. They have a unique set of abilities that helps them in overcoming problems quickly, and their charisma makes them highly influential. Many charismatic leaders share the same skills and features, some of which are discussed below.

Skills of Charismatic Leaders

These combinations of skill sets and qualities help them in transforming remote workplaces into interactive and amazing places to work:

Infectious Creativity

Charismatic leaders have an unmatchable creative power. They don’t like doing things the ordinary or traditional way. Rather they choose to pick unique methods and think out of the box. They not only express their skill sets but also inspire people around them to match their energy.

The major power of these charismatic authorities is the ability to show their teammates different ways to think about and solve a problem. They reveal that there are no problems that can defeat your will or creativity. At the same time, they also keep inspiring people who share the same talent. With their expertise and contagious positive approach, not only do they help their team but play a vital part in the success of the organization.

Transparent Communication

When you think clearly, you speak and do things the same way. Charismatic leadership involves the same premise. People who fall in this category have command over their speech, mind, and actions. They even transform the remote workplace by making communication transparent, clear, and continuous. These leaders practice open communication with their team members and foster an atmosphere where the team doesn’t fear repercussions for mistakes made. In fact, mistakes are merely looked at as stepping stones to success. The leaders designate clear roles to their team and explain their goals but they’re given enough room to come up with their own solutions.

Trustworthy and Safe Work Environment

These leaders have a great sense of how to create a healthy work atmosphere. But they also know the importance of empathy for having a safe workspace for the team. Charismatic business leaders actively create a trustworthy environment where everyone feels comfortable. These people are good listeners, having a willingness to hear every problem and giving ideas to tackle it. It creates a positive ambiance in the organization and works wonders, especially in a remote workplace. 

What are the Pros and Cons of Charismatic Leaders at Workplaces?

Is charismatic leadership important to the organization? How many charismatic leaders are good enough, and what if you have too many of them in your workplace? Here are some of the good and bad sides of these leaders at workplaces.

Pros of Charismatic Leaders

• As we have already seen, the presence of charismatic authority acts as a boon for the entire workplace. They not only motivate but inspire workforces that improve their overall productivity.
• They encourage and drive home the importance of teamwork, camaraderie, and collaboration in the entire organization.
• One of their features includes good listening skills that result in complete employee satisfaction. Whatever their queries, doubts, or complaints, it never remains unheard.
• They also create an overwhelmingly positive work environment. 

Possible Cons of Charismatic Leaders

• They may sometimes consider themselves the center of the team and begin to exhibit narcissistic tendencies. 
• Many famous charismatic leaders might become self-serving because of the importance they get from the people in the workplace.
• They may sometimes choose to lie and cheat their way to positions of influence.

But these are extreme cases where things can go tragically wrong. For the most part, charismatic leaders are empathetic leaders who build personal connections with the team and work towards common goals.

How to be a Charismatic Leader? 

Charismatic leaders aim to create a healthy environment in the organization. But that’s not easy, especially when you are in a big firm. But there are some features of a charismatic leader that can be adopted by most managers. 

Maturity

Maturity indeed comes with experience and time. But for a charismatic leader, maturity comes with knowledge. All of this makes them powerful and dependable people in the organization. While working in remote workplaces, when you can’t see people face to face, it counts a lot how you motivate and counsel people to work for you to their full potential. 

Conflict Resolution

Humility is known for the way a person treats others. For a leader, it is imperative to respect and treat others equitably. One of the qualities of these charismatic leaders is the ability to listen patiently to everyone, irrespective of their level in the hierarchy. There can be a communication gap or a misunderstanding between two members of a team while working remotely. But these leaders can overcome that situation and are quick to resolve conflicts.

Substance

Charisma in a person can exist even without any substance or value. People love and get attracted to the glamorous appearance of these leaders, but what about the values? After some point or the other, people would want something substantial from their leader. It is better to build it from the base. Get substance in your character right from the beginning.

Confidence

One of the most essential features of a charismatic leader is having confidence in them. Once they start believing in their potential, they keep spreading the same amongst the employees. It’s their confidence that influences and motivates people around them. They should be well aware of their capabilities, and they know what they can achieve. After the self-analysis comes the other part, where they influence and guide others.

What are the Benefits of having a Charismatic Leader in a Remote Workplace?

Now, before hiring a person, the management always considers and rates them. More as an asset than a person. Whenever a leader is hired, the organization analyzes their potential and usefulness to the company. But a charismatic leader is an integral part of the ecosystem, especially in a remote workplace. Here are some benefits of having them in your team:

• Making professional life better and less problematic for the employees. 
• Building courage or conviction so that every individual takes ownership of their work.
• The charismatic authorities are open-minded and stand up to the people having a different perspective and opinion.
• Filling the communication gaps between the organization and its employees.
• Boosting the morale of the employees and inspiring them to become better leaders and increase their productivity. 
• Promoting team building as well as collaboration.

What are the Important Aspects of a Charismatic Leader?

The final question that comes to our mind is how to become a charismatic leader and transform the workplace. Let us look into them.

Knows How to Build a Connection

Having authority can help you in becoming a successful leader, then you are highly mistaken. Even in this field, you have to step up in your game. It is better to build a connection with your team members and help them expand their interest in teamwork. Don’t make them feel like you are the boss.  It will also trigger them to take ownership of their work. This also prevents zoom fatigue to a great extent, know more by clicking here!

Can Become Light and Productive

Survey results claimed that the productivity of the employees increases when the work environment is relaxed. All the top-quality leaders do the same for their team. They create a bubble environment for their team which is light and relaxed. Keeping the tension at bay, people can focus on their work, and that helps the members of the team to perform well. 

Should know How to Trigger Honesty and Trustworthiness in People

Honesty and trustworthiness are two critical attributes in life and an organization. These two qualities are going to help people in your team get to a better position. As a leader, you too have to nurture these qualities inside yourself. But they come with experience and time. If you have both of these, remain assured you have two sought-after charismatic leadership qualities within you. It is going to help you in becoming an inspiring leader.

Examples of Charismatic Leaders 

We have been talking about charismatic authorities right from the beginning but haven’t yet given a single name. Here are some leaders who you can follow and learn from. These people have worked a lot on their skills in their particular fields. Here are some examples of charismatic leaders:

• Jeff Bezos- One of the richest men in the 21st century and also the founder of Amazon Inc is a person who has created the largest e-commerce business in the world. 
• Elon Musk- A man with ambition and knowledge. He is a person who inspires people with his words as well as actions. What makes him a person to look up to is his personality and how he motivates people to make a difference in the world. 
• Warren Buffet- If you want to motivate yourself and understand how to gain wealth, you should follow Warren Buffet. He is not just a charismatic leader but much more than that. 
• Bill Gates- The founder of Microsoft is also a man with a charismatic personality. He not only motivates people to think beyond their wildest dreams but is also a philanthropist. 

Conclusion

To wrap this up, you need to understand that those who have the potential of persuading, motivating, and influencing people are known as charismatic leaders. These people have the ability and charm to boost the productivity of every individual that also improve the overall productivity of the organization.

The post How Can Charismatic Leadership Transform Remote Workplaces? appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

A performance evaluation is not just an evaluation and assessment by the employer and HR. It also includes self-evaluation or self-assessment by the employees themselves.

A good self-evaluation has multiple benefits. In this blog, we are going to talk all about it and how you can guide your employees to evaluating themselves efficiently.

What is Self Evaluation?

Self-evaluation, also known as a self-assessment or self-appraisal, is a process where the employees evaluate their own performances. It requires them to analyze their strengths and weaknesses so that they can perform better.

Here are three important questions that the employee needs to ask themself while writing a self-assessment.

• What should I keep doing?
• What should I stop doing?
• What should I start doing?

Correctly answering these three questions can clear a lot of things, both for the employee at the time of self-assessment and the subsequent assessors. 

In today’s scenario when organizational structures are multifaceted and multigenerational, competition is high. Self-evaluation plays an even more important role as assessing one’s performance gains relevance.

But, is that the only reason self-evaluation is important? No. Let’s find out why self-appraisal or self-evaluation is important.

Why is Self Evaluation Important?

If you know the answer to this question, you’d know why HR conducts self-evaluation practices for employees. You ought to know the importance of it. Here are a few reasons:

Ownership

Employee self-evaluation gives them a sort of ownership at work. This indirectly means they are more accountable for the work they do. Indeed, managers are not absolved of their responsibilities and they are still the ones overseeing the work of the employees, but self-evaluation makes the latter more responsible.

Motivation

Self-assessment also gives a sense of motivation to the employees. Employees feel empowered as they feel they matter and they are no longer seeing the company grow from the background. Self-evaluation gives the employees the chance to play at a level field, identify their issues and talk in a more confident tone about them. This also leads to more confident one on one discussions and fruitful review meetings.

Better Relationships

Employees who are more self-aware when it comes to their professional shortcomings and know how to deal with them are also the ones who manage to foster better relationships with their teammates, including their supervisors and subordinates. Self-evaluation plays a huge role in boosting their morale, thereby improving their communication skills.

Growing Career

Self-assessment also helps the employees in improving their career trajectory as they are aware of their strengths and weaknesses and also how they can harness the former to minimize the latter. This can help them look for better opportunities in the future, whether within the organization or outside it. This also helps the employees assess what exactly they are looking for, which directly affects the way they discuss their roles at the time of appraisal meetings.

No discrepancies

Last but not the least, self-evaluation is a great way to minimize any sort of discrepancies that may arise due to miscommunication or distorted employer-employee relationships. Separate evaluation forms submitted by both the manager and the subordinate help the evaluation process where the manager may better understand where it is that they are differing from their subordinate when it comes to assessing and evaluating the performance. This helps remove any communication barrier, which, of course, leads to better relationships and performances.

What are the Steps to Writing a Good Self Evaluation?

Writing a good self-assessment may seem easy, but requires a lot of skill and finesse. That’s why you need to guide your employees on how they can write one in the best way possible. Here are the steps.

Goal Identification

There are usually two types of goals per employee; the ones that are assigned to them and the ones attached to them personally by their managers. The employees need to identify both with the manager for a good self-evaluation and then set SMART goals for themselves.

Few good examples of personal goals are being better at time management, improving communication skills, etc. The employee should be able to discuss anything that they wish to improve to refine one’s professional skills, whether or not it is related to the organization.

Assigned goals, on the other hand, refer to their assigned tasks or KPIs and are related to the job at hand. A part of self-evaluation also requires the employees to know where they are falling short when it comes to achieving these goals as well.

The overall goal is to identify the goals. This is the first and foremost thing to do while drafting a self-evaluation.

Review Comparison

It is always good to measure growth with respect to a certain parameter. In terms of self-evaluation, the best possible parameter is the last evaluation process. The employee should compare and measure growth since the last appraisal and evaluation process and figure out what has been achieved and what remains.

Managers cannot remember the pitfalls and strengths of each team member. It thus falls on the team members to evaluate themselves correctly. And the best way to do it is by comparing their last self-evaluation report with the current one. This helps them know what they have worked on during the year and what they need to do when it comes to achieving personal or assigned goals (as discussed above).

This is also a great exercise for the employees to know if or not a certain solution worked for them. If not, they can put that forth in the current review so that a new solution can be found.

Growth Plan

Companies nowadays have an array of Employee Development Plans that aim to help employees do their work better and be in a cycle of continuous improvement. But, what about the employees themselves? Encourage the employees to come up with their growth plan based on their growth trajectory. Ask them to share their strengths, weaknesses, and a way to come around the same.

This will help the management in coming up with customized courses and plans that can help each employee rather than a one-size-fits-all approach which is more of a formality than a fruitful solution.

Company and Personal Core Values

Another important part of employee self-evaluation is combining personal core values with that of the company. As we have already mentioned, it is important for the employees to not only work on assigned goals but personal goals as well. Similarly, they also need to list down what are their core values and how they sync in with the company’s core values. The reason being, the two need to match to some extent for a good employee-organization relationship. If the core values are drastically different, the next exercise is to find a spot of synergy to mitigate the differences. 

Peer Review

Performance appraisal and review is no longer just about the employee and manager. It is also about the team. Hence, it is important what the peers or colleagues think. How difficult or easy is it to work with the said employee? Now, this is the answer that they need to find out and put in their self-evaluation. Yes, in most cases a third party, mostly the HR or the manager is the one asking this question in team review sessions (one on one). But, passing the baton to the employee can prove to be a good reality check, one that goes unfiltered. Agreed, there are chances of them not getting accurate feedback in one go, but over time, this will help employees get better and more honest with each other concerning individual performance, leading to better peer reviews.

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Good Self Evaluation Examples or Questions

Here are a few examples of self-evaluation phrases that you can pass on to your employees while training them on how to craft a good one.

Self Evaluation Examples – Communication

1. I need to communicate my expectations clearly to my team.
2. I should be tactful enough to pass on difficult feedback.
3. With my skill set, I need to look beyond just doing a great job and create processes that can be followed by new hires.
4. I need to strategize well enough to approach sensitive situations.
5. I will appreciate and acknowledge my team and colleagues’ efforts more.

Self Evaluation Examples – Job Performance

5. I should like my work and job enough to value it.
6. I need to voluntarily participate in company activities and events.
7. If I have not been able to measure up in certain tasks and areas, I should figure out the specific percentage.
8. I should map out the specific percentage by which I have improved in achieving my personal and assigned goals.
9. I should challenge myself and my team to perform better.

Self Evaluation Examples – Reliability

10. I should follow up on my own and the team’s commitments to the clients.
11. I have to up my efficiency in meeting the deadlines.
12. Sometimes I get caught up in minor issues and should prioritize the quality of work and deadlines equally.
13. If I am not able to juggle communication and work at the same time, I should figure out specific hours during the day when I answer emails and messages.
14. I should introspect my timeliness when it comes to showing up on time and completing work on time.
15. I should be prompt when it comes to seeking help and guidance.

Self Evaluation Examples – Innovation

16. I should constantly look for ways to improve my work and work process.
17. I should list down any ideas or innovations by me that led to a specific increase in my and the team’s performance.
18. The solutions I look for should work for everyone and not just myself.
19. I have to figure out innovative solutions to overcome the challenges and seek help where I cannot.
20. I should approach each challenge with enthusiasm and look for solutions.

Self Evaluation Examples – Growth and Development

21. I should start setting personal goals for myself.
22. I should update myself and read up on industry trends.
23. With my skills, I should look for learning opportunities to create my own curve.
24. I should commit myself to my team’s and my own growth and development.
25. I should have a long-term plan for my personal and professional growth.

All of these and many other self-evaluation questions are what the employee needs to answer at the time of writing a self-evaluation.

It’s a self-assessment, a 360-degree evaluation of self. That’s what needs to be conveyed to the employee when they are being trained on the assessment technique.

Some Tips for a Good Self Evaluation

It is not that difficult to write a self-evaluation. However, the employee should know certain core tips and principles before submitting the same.

Be Honest

It is important to be transparent and honest about the performance. An exaggerated self-evaluation is of no use. The purpose of self-evaluation is to know one’s shortcomings, rather than write a far-fetched essay on one’s achievements. The employees need to know this.

Be Critical

It is better to criticize yourself rather than be criticized. Encourage employees to look at themselves critically =. This would help them be more accepting of their pitfalls and how to work on those.

Be Proud

Being honest and critical is good, but so is being proud of one’s achievements. Encourage your employees to list down theirs and know exactly what they did right to achieve those numbers. This helps boost their confidence. Self-evaluation is a mix of strengths and weaknesses. Push the employees to not lean heavily towards either and rather create a balance of both while writing their self-evaluation.

Strive for Continuous Growth

The purpose of self-evaluation is to strive towards continuous growth. That’s why companies are continuously coming up with improvement plans and courses for the benefit of the employees. Employees too, via their self-evaluation, show interest in such growth plans and suggest if they need something more to help them grow professionally.

Back Insights with Hard Facts

Statements are far-fetched unless backed by hard claims. Encourage your employees to measure their performances, whether by single tasks or overall percentage attribution to other goals.

Is Self Evaluation a Better Way to Assess Performance?

Not a better one, but certainly a crucial one. A good performance appraisal is a combination of self-evaluation, peer review, manager’s review, and HR’s review. Self-evaluation, however, plays a huge role in boosting the self-confidence of the employees and also helps them realize their professional problems on their own. This self-realization helps them work better. The same can be achieved via manager reviews as well, but self-evaluation has better results.

Does your organization conduct self-evaluation sessions? Do connect with us at @HarmonizeHQ and let us know all about it.

The post The Comprehensive Guide to Employee Self Evaluation appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

In this article, we’ll take you through the definition of CA SI, who pays for it, the eligibility criteria, and if employers are allowed to opt-out.

What is CA SDI?

CA SDI or the California State Disability Insurance program provides benefits in case of temporary disability to eligible employees. Employees who cannot work due to a short-term illness or injury can take advantage of CA SDI. The California SDI provides wage replacement to the employees who qualify for the Employee Development Department or EDD Disability.

Under this program, the employees may collect weekly pay till they recover from their temporary, non-work-related illness. The compensation is tax-free in the hands of the employees. Employees can avail of these short-term disability benefits for a maximum of one year. The benefits under CA disability tax max out at around 60-70% of the employee’s salary in a quarter.

Who Is Accountable for CA SDI: Employer or Employee?

Employees who have a short-term disability in California can claim CA SDI benefits. Employees pay for California Disability Insurance from their monthly salary each month. Employers can deduct CA SUI SDI tax from their employees during payroll. In online portals, employers deduct employees’ contributions toward short-term disability insurance automatically. 

Employees should enter the details of CA SDI tax when they file their W2 form. Further, they can find details of CA SDI on the W2 form in Box 14. Note that the deduction makes provision for financial assistance under the CA disability tax. After that, it lowers the annual income of the employees and reduces their tax liability.

Employees can get California State Disability forms from the website of the EDD and fill them to avail of the benefit. They are available under the heading EDD disability forms on the website.

What Is the Rate of CA SDI?

The rate of CA SDI is the percentage of tax withheld from the employee’s paycheck to contribute to the CA SDI program. California disability pay cover provides financial aid to the employees who are unable to perform their duties. The reason could be physical or mental illnesses not related to their job.

Historically, the CA SDI rate has ranged from 0.9 to 1%. But the CA SDI rate for 2021 is 1.2%. The taxable wage limit is $128,298 annual pay and the maximum amount that can be withheld for CA SDI is $1,539.58.

What Is the Base Period Determination for CA SDI

It is essential to understand the base period for calculating the SDI benefits. California SDI provides financial assistance for up to one year. The benefits under this scheme equal 55% of the employee’s average gross income in the base period.

For California SDI, the base period is four quarters preceding the current and the previous quarter. The amount of benefit an employee will receive depends on their average pay.

What Are the Eligibility Criteria For CA SDI?

It is paramount to know which employees are eligible for California Disability Insurance. All the employees working in California can avail of this benefit irrespective of their citizenship or immigration status. If an employee cannot work because of a temporary illness, they must receive this compensation. The employees must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Should be unable to carry out their office duties for a minimum of eight days continuously.
• Must have earned a minimum of $300 as wages in the last 12 months.
• Employers must have made a deduction for CA SDI from their salary in the previous 12 months.
• Must be unable to earn their wages due to their disability and not for any other reason.
• Should be working or seeking work while applying for disability payments in California.
• Must consult a licensed physician or practitioner for the first eight days of the illness or disability. They should be under medical supervision and care.
• Should claim the EDD disability cover within 49 days from the start of the disability. They cannot claim the benefit before nine days of the disability.
• Must ensure that their physician or practitioner has completed a medical certification of disability.

Employees can log in to the EDD disability portal to claim short-term disability insurance. People who are self-employed or are working as independent contractors can take advantage of the California State Disability program. They can make individual contributions to the EDD Disability Insurance Elective Coverage scheme. If an employee is not eligible for the California SDI program, they can opt for the DIEC program. However, they need to pay quarterly premiums for cover under the Paid Family Leave and Disability Insurance programs.

Is CA SDI Taxable?

Employers and employees must know whether CA SDI is taxable or not. No, the government of California has not made California SDI taxable. If an employee leaves their job temporarily due to disability, they are entitled to receive disability benefits. These EDD disability benefits are exempt from taxes in the hands of the employees.

It is significant to note here that disability benefits paid as a substitute for unemployment benefits are taxable. If an employee is unemployed, they receive unemployment benefits. While receiving unemployment benefits, if they fall ill or become disabled, they receive disability benefits. These disability benefits are taxable.

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Types of Claims under California SDI

There are several kinds of claims under CA SDI.

Disability Insurance Claim

Employees in California can apply for disability insurance to get short-term monetary assistance. People who cannot work because of a temporary disability or illness unrelated to their job can get wage replacement benefits.

Pregnancy

If an employee cannot do their job because of pregnancy, they can get a pregnancy claim. During pregnancy, the disability period starts four weeks before the delivery and continues to six weeks after delivery. Furthermore, in Cesarean delivery, the period extends to eight weeks after the delivery. Some employees may have a lengthier disability period owing to medical complications.

Paid Family Leave Bonding Claim

Employees can avail of the Paid Family Leave (PFA) Bonding claim to establish a bond with a new child. They might take time off to take care of the newborn or adopted child.

Paid Family Leave Care Claim

Employees can also seek help under the Paid Family Leave Care claim. The claim is advantageous if they have to take care of a family member. To specify, the family member could be the parents, child, spouse, grandparents, grandchild, sibling, or parent-in-law. However, the family member must be seriously ill and require constant care and support.

Paid Family Leave Military Assist Claim

PFL also gives benefits to employees who take temporary leave to be a part of a qualifying event. A qualifying event could be a military event or an urgent need arising from a family member’s deployment call.

Part-time Worker Disability Insurance and PFL

Part-time workers can also apply for Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave. EDD assesses the eligibility of their claim before they receive the disability benefits.

Reduced Wages Disability Insurance and PFL

If an employee has suffered a wage loss and is working at a lesser pay due to disability, they can apply for these benefits.

State Disability Insurance and Non-Industrial Disability Insurance for State Employees

The Non-Industrial Disability Insurance covers state employees. Here, the employees receive partial wage replacement if they cannot perform their duties due to non-work-related disability, illness, or injury.

Benefits of SDI Online

Employees can submit their Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave claim forms online too. It is convenient and safe to submit claims online. To do so, employees and employers can log in to the EDD website to submit the forms. Online form submission has the following merits:

Time-saving

The online process of form submission is time-saving. It takes less time to process the claim online.

Confirmation

Once an employee submits the claim, the portal or website confirms it immediately. 

Access to Information 

Employees and employers can access the information by logging into the portal. The portal saves the data. Therefore, employees can access it and check the status of the claim anytime.

Secure

The online process of claim submission is secure and safe. It has the required security safeguards to trace and mitigate fraud.

Employer Responsibilities Regarding Making CA SDI Information Available

Employers must understand and shoulder their responsibilities regarding CA SDI.

In the case of this social security program, employers don’t need to contribute funds towards this insurance. But they need to be meticulous with the contributions of employees toward California SDI. 

Employers need to tell their employees about the employment laws and guidelines, working conditions, and employee benefits. Additionally, an employer should post these posters containing relevant information about EDD disability programs.

Notice Regarding Paid Family Leave/ Disability Insurance/Unemployment Insurance (DE 1857A)

The poster contains crucial information regarding an employee’s right to claim Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Paid Family Leave benefits. However, the employer should file Notice DE 1858 for the employees if the Unemployment Insurance does not cover them.

Notice Regarding Provisions of Disability Insurance (DE 2515)

Employers must give this brochure to new hires. The new hires can then go through the brochure and learn their rights. Further, employers should also duly inform their employees who want to take a leave because of temporary disability. 

Notice Regarding Paid Family Leave Benefits (DE 2511)

Employers should give the brochure containing this notice to all the recruits. They should also provide this information to employees who take leave to take care of a newborn baby. Moreover, employees taking time off to take care of a critically ill family member should read this information.

Employer Duties Regarding Disseminating Information About CA SDI

The employers are responsible for disseminating information regarding the provisions of CA SDI to employees. In addition to this, when an employee files a claim for California SDI, an employer must respond accordingly.

Disability Insurance Claim Filed (DE 2503)

The employer receives the form for Disability Insurance Claim after the employee has claimed it. Therefore, employers should complete the form and submit it to the Employment Development Department within two days. You can submit it online and verify the employee’s claim.

Paid Family Leave Claim Filed (DE 2503F)

The employer receives the form once an employee files a Paid Family Leave Claim. After that, they should complete the form and submit the hard copy to the EDD. Finally, they should ensure to submit the form within two working days after verifying the claim information.

Opting Out of CA SDI

Organizations can opt out of California SDI if they want. However, they should have a private plan for providing voluntary disability insurance to their employees. Additionally, the voluntary one must meet the following requirements:

• It should provide and include all the benefits given by CA SDI.
• The voluntary plan must have one extra benefit not included in California SDI. It should be better than the EDD Disability cover.
• The cost of the voluntary plan should not be more than CA SDI.
• The employees of the organization should approve the voluntary plan before employers implement it.

A voluntary plan is beneficial as it allows employers to give better coverage to the employees. Employers can provide more benefits without any additional cost. If the claim rate is low, employers can use the contribution to give extra advantages. Moreover, employers should get the voluntary plan approved by EDD. They need to create a security deposit with the EDD to ensure that it meets all the conditions.

The Bottom Line on California SDI 

CA SDI is advantageous for both employers and employees. Employees benefit because they continue to get monetary assistance during the disability. Simultaneously, employers also benefit as they do not have to pay for the disability benefits. They must only make deductions from the employees’ salaries to provide for disability benefits. 

The post The Comprehensive Guide to CA SDI appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

In this article, we focus on how transactional leadership works. In addition, you will see some characteristics that such leaders possess along with some examples of this leadership style. Let’s begin by defining the term.

What is Transactional Leadership?

Transactional leadership is based on a system of supervision, control, and group performance. A transactional leader believes in the system of rewards and punishments to improve their employees’ performance. There are a few assumptions of transactional leadership:

• Employees perform their best under a clear chain of command
• Incentives and punishments motivate employees into giving the best results.
• In order to keep an eye on employee performance, leaders need to continuously monitor them.

A transactional leader helps their employees in making and meeting short-term goals for the organization. They make sure that everyone is on the same page in maintaining stability at their organization and that everyone’s duties are clear to them. They expect their employees to fulfill these responsibilities and then either reward or punish them depending on the outcome. 

For example, a CEO as a leader doesn’t actively participate in day to day functions of their organizations but closely monitors what outcomes they return. For every great performance, they give employees an incentive and to underperforming employees, a performance improvement plan is handed. 

Transactional leadership is generally split into the following three dimensions:

Contingent Rewarding

Transactional leaders use incentives for employees showing incredible performance at work.

Active Management By Exception

In active management by exception, the leader actively participates in day-to-day functions at the organization. They help their employees by monitoring their progress regularly. 

Passive Management By Exception

Passive management by exception is a characteristic of transactional leadership in which the leader only intervenes if the employees don’t meet the standards or expectations. 

Laissez-Faire

One possible characteristic of this leadership style is Laissez-faire. In this, the leader creates an environment where the employees get to make their decisions without help from the leader. The leader themself doesn’t participate in helping them with making these decisions and therefore employees lack a sense of direction in this style.

Transactional Leadership Characteristics

A transactional leader follows the following practices:

Extrinsic Motivation

A transactional leader is good at extrinsically motivating their employees in a balanced way. Sometimes extrinsic rewards like praise, money, or bonus do not motivate employees. In this case, they know what to do and when to completely rely on this method. 

Rigidity

One characteristic of transactional leaders is they are rigid in their way of dealing with things. Unlike transformational leadership, this style of leadership is more about control and rigidity rather than flexibility.

Critical Mindset

A transactional leader thinks critically and logically rather than creatively. They’re more left-brainers than right-brainers. One of their traits is that they follow an inside the box thinking. With a very linear thinking approach, they sometimes find it hard to find flexible solutions to employees’ problems.

They Follow Rules

Transactional leaders are bound to follow a straight path and make their employees do the same. They are fairly opposed to change and completely follow orders. With this type of leadership, creativity and out-of-the-box thinking are hard to practice. 

They’re Practical

Transactional leaders are practical. They consider all hurdles and challenges before deciding on something.

Strong Personality

They are able to make decisions, set goals for their employees, monitor them, and take necessary action based on whatever the outcome is. 

Directive and Structured 

They follow a very directive and structured approach. There is very little room for testing new things and enhancing creativity under transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is more effective for employees who find it easy to follow a fixed pattern, follow instructions, and deliver results as is expected of them.

Timely-Results

One good characteristic or advantage of transactional leadership is that it is good for reaching short-term goals. This is because employees know they’re being monitored for their performance. When they know they will be rewarded or punished for their outcomes, they work fast and deliver timely results.

Setting Expectations Beforehand

Another characteristic of transactional leaders is that they set their expectations beforehand. They must be specific about what goals lie ahead of their team and what will be the result if they fail to meet those expectations. To make sure the team is on the same page, a good transactional leader conducts one-on-ones with the employees and monitors their progress.

Transactional vs Transformational Leadership

Both styles of leadership have the following differences:

Nature 

Transactional leadership is a strict form of management based on controls and processes. On the other hand, transformational leadership is more about inspiring others to follow the correct path. It focuses on collaboration and cooperation rather than constant supervision and control.

Concept

Transactional leaders focus heavily on their relationships with their followers while transformational leaders emphasize on needs, values, and ideals of their followers. 

Level of Control

Transactional leadership talks about making employees do certain things in certain predetermined ways. While transformational leadership is leading others through motivation and inspiration.

Transactional leadership is about making employees fulfill their responsibilities and meet goals in exchange for an incentive. This is agreed upon beforehand. Transformational leadership, however, focuses on transforming employees through awareness and enthusiasm.

Rewards and Punishment 

A transactional leader gives their employees rewards for good performance and punishment for subpar performance. A transformational leader however focuses on inspiring others, motivating them, and making them enthusiastic to work and reach goals. 

Focus

The transactional leadership style focuses on goals and expectations. While the transformational leadership style focuses on vision. In transformational leadership, leaders like to take things smoothly and in an intrinsically positive way. In transactional leadership, the concept of rewards, punishments, and control exists.

Way of Bringing Change

Transactional leaders focus on changing the organization through group performance and control. Transformational leaders focus more on bringing change within the organization. 

Situation-Based

Both leadership styles are effective depending on the situation. Transactional leadership is better effective for small and medium-sized organizations with entry and mid-level employees. On the other hand, in larger organizations, CEOs and managers prefer the transformational leadership style more. 

Led By

Transactional leadership style is usually led by a single leader while in transformational leadership, more than one leader performs this duty.

Transactional Leadership Examples

Consider the following examples:

• Your organization just recently launched a new product. You, as a transactional leader, tell your employees whichever department will help in bringing the most users will get an additional bonus. In this way, you control the environment and fix a reward for reaching the goal.
• The big board meeting is coming up this week. You tell your employees to represent the company in an impressive way and whoever succeeds in closing the most deals will be rewarded with a compensation raise. As a transactional leader, you instruct your employees and make them follow a directed path. You only help them when a problem occurs. This is another example of this leadership style.

Some real-life transactional leadership examples are as follows:

Bill Gates

Bill Gates as a transactional leader would ask his team difficult questions until he made sure each of them fully understands the goal. According to him “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

Vince Lombardi

Transactional leadership is common in athletics. One such example is Vince Lombardi who was a coach for the Green Bay Packers. What he did was he made the Packers run through the same plays in practice over and over again. He made sure his team never lost.

When is Transactional Leadership Effective?

So which type of organizations prefer a transactional leadership style? 

For Small-Medium Enterprises 

A transactional leadership style is more effective in small and medium-sized businesses. Under the transactional leadership theory, completion of the assigned tasks results in a reward from the employer. This reward or incentive can either be in a form of recognition, a job promotion, a bonus, or a raise in compensation. On the other hand, if an employee fails to comply with the given tasks, they are punished in the terms of either a loss of benefits or deduction in salary or sometimes even a disciplinary action against the employee. 

Most organizations prefer having a mixture of both these leadership styles. A transactional leadership style is however more preferred in organizations that are already well established and require a little change in the ongoing processes. Organizations that require huge changes in the company system should rarely opt for this leadership style. 

For Large Organizations

In large organizations, the transformational leadership style is more effective than transactional leadership. For example with senior management, a leadership that focuses more on collaboration, cooperation, and motivation makes more sense than giving them a reward or taking negative action against them. Similarly, CEOs and other senior leaders prefer working as transformational leaders because of the flexibility it comes with.

Limitations of Transactional Leadership

Lacks One Size Fits All Approach

A transactional leadership style lacks a one size fits all approach. It means that if it is effective for a particular department at the organization, it may not necessarily mean that it will benefit every other department as well. Secondly, especially the Laissez-faire leadership characteristic where the leader doesn’t provide their employee help in making decisions. therefore the employees often feel left out and puzzled about what to do. 

Doesn’t Focus on Building Relationships

Another drawback to this leadership style is that it doesn’t focus on building relationships with others. Rather it focuses on controlling and rewarding the employee for good performance or punishing for poor performance. It doesn’t focus on the actual reason an employee didn’t perform well or why they performed extra good on one task. 

Hard to Motivate Every Employee

The third limitation is that it isn’t always easy to find rewards for motivating employees. If an employee is motivated by getting a raise, another employee may not be motivated by some extra money. For some employees, a tangible reward doesn’t mean anything at all and they are more motivated by providing value in the lives of customers. A motivational reward doesn’t always suit every situation. Sometimes health insurance would mean more to an employee compared to a bonus. Therefore, it’s hard to keep employees happy with incentives every time. 

Lack of Flexibility

A transactional leadership style focuses more on control and creating a strict management style where the leaders reward or punish the employee for their performance. This leadership style focuses more on rigidity than flexibility. In the 21st-century workplace, employees like working in an environment where employers provide or offer them more opportunities, collaboration, and cooperation.

No Creativity

This style of leadership doesn’t promote creativity because all the goals are preset. In this way, a waste of skills and potential is seen with many talented employees. 

The Takeaway

Transactional leadership has many benefits for your organization when applied in the right way. Although it has its benefits and so does transformational leadership, most organizations prefer a blend of both these leadership styles. It is however best if you take into account your employees, their needs, and what they want to learn before they learn through any type of leadership.

The post What is Transactional Leadership? appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

No wonder employee engagement and retention are the top priority for HR leaders and managers. Employee dissatisfaction can happen due to many reasons, including low pay, fewer growth opportunities, and no company-wide recognition. Skilled employees feel motivated when they get recognized for their efforts. This is why one way to boost employee morale is creating an employee of the month program for employees beyond blue-collar workers.

The employee of the month program in SMEs for domain experts is a necessary recognition process for modern workplaces. Employees are not just looking for a paycheck. They want to be a part of organizational success and growth. While developing an award and recognition structure can seem complex, it’s worth spending money, time, and resources if you want a healthy workplace.

You may consider taking professional inputs from HR experts to develop a sustainable program. They can assist you in all aspects, including deciding award categories, finding creative employee of the month templates, and award ceremonies. 

Why Does Your Need the Employee of the Month Program?

Every project starts with the identification of the problem and a clearly defined objective. Before setting up the employee of the month program, you must specify the goals. It may be increasing productivity, sales target, employee engagement, or reducing absenteeism.

The importance of answering this “why” is enormous. If you don’t have a goal, you will never know if the recognition program is effective or not. Once you have your goals, you can develop a plan and create an overall employee of the month template.

The next step is to determine the budget for the employee of the month program.

Define the Budget for Employee of the Month Program

Defining and keeping aside a budget for a rewards and recognition program is a crucial step. You must figure out how much you can afford to spend sparkling up the workplace with enthusiastic and engaged employees. It is also vital to maintain a balance sheet and evaluate program success.

As per the US workplace engagement survey, disengaged employees cost more than USD 500 million every year. Investing in employee satisfaction can reduce this loss and turn the wheels to make your organization more profitable. The budget must cater to overall costs, including the following:

• Creation of award program
• Number of awards and frequency
• Designing employee of the month certificate and trophy
• Awards and prizes to be offered
• Awards promotions and ceremonies
• Committee for periodic evaluation 

Identify the Awards: Employee of the Month Ideas

The size and type of organization play a significant role in identifying the award and recognition programs. If your organization has limited departments and fewer employees, you can go with a higher frequency. For example, set bi-monthly instead of monthly awards. The aim should be to cover a maximum number of employees and yet keep the awards meaningful. Remember not to give away too many prizes at the award ceremony as it will devalue the awards. 

In most cases, monthly employee recognition awards are the most suitable. The recency effect means employees know that their efforts are being noticed and rewarded instantly. Categorizing the award is an excellent way to mix them up for the best results. For example, you can have a team member of the month versus an innovator of the year. Moreover, monthly awards winners can become the nominees for annual awards. 

Here are a few award categories examples that should help you:

• Best Manager of the Month
• Team Member of the Month
• Excellent Customer Service Person
• Best Innovation of the Year
• Annual Service Recognition Awards

Define the Parameters for All Awards

A straightforward process requires clearly defined parameters. They could be the nominations, selection, or the changes in the employee of the month program. The aim should be to develop a transparent and non-biased reward and recognition program for your workplace.

The Eligibility Criteria

A well-defined criterion for employee of the month awards provides a solid foundation for employee engagement. Employees should know what they need to do to win the prize, and crucially, it removes bias creeping in. Here are the primary aspects that can help you define awards eligibility.

Minimum Service

Employees must have completed minimum service in the business. You do not want someone on probation to be competing with a tenured employee. One-year service is the most common criterion that most organizations prefer.

Performance and Quality of Work

A good way of evaluating performance is looking at numbers, such as sales, conversions, and customer feedback. However, the quantity of work needs to support the quality of work. For example, imagine the award is for your customer service employees. In this case, it should include the number of resolutions and the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score.

Team Spirit

The success depends on the entire team, not a single employee. The employee of the month awards should consider instances where employees performed as team players.

Leadership and Ownership

The employee rewards and recognition programs give an excellent opportunity to identify and nurture future leaders. The selection criterion must include ownership and accountability as crucial aspects.

Once you have defined the values you want to reward, the next step is drafting the selection process roadmap.

The Selection Process

After you have finalized the selection criteria, the selection process becomes relatively easy. There should be an award committee for final evaluation and 360-degree representation. It can comprise a leader or manager from a different department, HR leads, and senior managers. Remember that the selection process must be in sync with the values you want to reward. For instance, an unbiased way to find out if someone is a team player or not is through peer recognition.

Here are the steps of the employee awards selection process: 

Communication

Every employee must receive timely communication with awards categories, eligibility parameters, nomination deadline selection process, and awards details.

Accepting the Nomination 

The committee should collate and evaluate all duly filled nominations forms by respective managers and votes by peers.

Announce the Awards 

Make the employee of the month announcement special! It should follow the communication shared with the employees. A rewarding way is to send an organization-wide email with the names of winners and citations.

Further, you can follow it up with personal emails to winners by their head of department or the CEO.

Award Presentation 

Ensure that winners get awards as per the schedule. The employee forums and the company website must display winner details, citations, and achievements. 

Awards Should Be Meaningful

The employee of the month awards should have a core ideal that HR is trying to achieve.

For example, to promote a work culture that values top performers, domain experts, and team players who exceed expectations. Hence, it becomes incredibly critical that awards have a specific value. While cash incentives are fantastic, try to include non-monetary awards as well. A special trophy can create a lot of excitement and pride among winners.

You can design an employee of the month certificate with creative templates. There are a lot of online resources that offer customizable employee of the month templates. Therefore, you can choose the one that suits your need.

The awards must be exciting and fun. Here are a few unique employee of the month examples and ideas: 

• The choice between a cash voucher or paid time off for a day
• Option of picking a designated office parking spot for the entire month
• Lunch or dinner with leadership
• Happy Fridays, where the winners can leave early every Friday for one month
• Tickets of local sporting events or concerts
• Donation to charity on behalf of employees
• A paid family vacation 
• A thank you card, followed by the CEO greeting the winners at their desk

People love appreciation and cherish it forever. Hence, the experience of receiving the award should be memorable. Getting a coffee mug with the company name may not be expensive or challenging. Yet, it has a far greater perceived value than a cash prize. 

Publicize Employee of the Month Award Winners

Make the winners feel special. Advertise them as much as possible, whether on the company website, local newspaper, or office newsletters. By publicly showcasing the winner’s qualities and achievements, you also promote your organizational values in the market. Another notable benefit is that you create role models for the rest of the workforce.

When you have carefully defined awards parameters, budget, selection method, and choice of awards, it’s time for the last step. Now, go all out and launch the awards with fanfare.

A Grand Launch

How to announce employee of the month programs is a tricky question. You have done all the hard work. However, it is critical to present the overall idea and objective to your employees. Communication plays a crucial role in the success of any project. Further, employee rewards and recognition are all about connecting with employees and promoting transparency at the workplace.

Build the Interest

Do not send a long email that goes into the trash automatically.

Before the launch of the employee of the month programs, you must catch your employees’ attention. The best way is to start sending intriguing and creative teasers. The teasers can go out even when the program is in its initial stages. Further, they may also contain tentative launch dates and schedules.

Conduct Surveys and Polls 

Employee polls are a great way to generate interest and get input. Questions can include:

• How would you like to be rewarded?
• Do you prefer a cash incentive or a family vacation?
• How about getting a free paid company parking spot?
• Do you have any employee of the month voting ideas?
• What do you prefer- an employee of the month certificate or trophy?

They can work as both surveys and teasers that create a buzz around the upcoming launch.

Make the Event Huge

Do not make your employees wait too much. When you have everything in place, it’s time to get the ball rolling!

A ceremonial town hall or conference call that includes the leaders is ideal to launch the programs. The event should cover all essential aspects, including eligibility criteria and what is at stake. A well-planned and executed launch event means your employee understands that the award program isn’t a gimmick. On the contrary, you mean business and are eager to make it an ongoing process.

Don’t Forget the FAQs

The launch event isn’t complete with the ceremony. The rules and regulations must be easily accessible to the employees. Employees must get frequently asked questions (FAQs) in their emails when the event concludes. Some key questions include:

• Am I eligible for the award?
• How is the winner selected?
• Can there be more than one winner?
• What are the different selection criteria?
• Can an employee be nominated for more than one category?
• How is transparency maintained?
• What happens if there is a dispute?
• How to nominate someone for employee of the month?
• Can I exchange my award?

Make the FAQ document comprehensive by adding as many details as possible.

A special launch event of an employee of the month program is just the beginning. The real deal begins from here. You must stick to the plan and adhere to the rules and regulations. Most critically, be open to making changes as and when needed.

Evaluate the Awards Periodically

The biggest mistake is to get too busy in the ongoing awards and recognition process. Giving an employee of the month certificate or trophy to your employee is not enough. Remember, the program needs rigorous and continuous evaluations, followed by improvements. It is impossible to be 100% correct in the first phase. Rest assured, after a couple of awards cycles, you will start seeing gaps and potential areas of improvement.

The awards committee must convene, analyze the program’s impact, and seek inputs from the winners and other employees. Minute details like changing the employee of the month template by including the winner’s photograph are vital. The employees’ opinion is the key to the program’s success. A quarterly or six-month review period is preferable.

When is Your Next Employee of the Month Ceremony? 

The employee of the month programs help you develop healthy competition, enhance employee retention, and optimize productivity. While the program may not provide a 100% guarantee to solve all employee engagement problems, it has been proven to boost employee morale. When your employees feel valued, they play a vital role in organizational success.

Remember, the follow-up and evaluation of the program are as crucial as setting up and launching it.

The post The Guide to Creating Employee of the Month Programs appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

What is a Fixed-Term Employment Contract?

In a fixed-term contract, the organization employs an employee for a fixed tenure. The organization hires employees for a pre-decided duration under a fixed-term contract. Usually, employers hire fixed-term employees for a year, and their employment ends at the end of the contract.

Employees governed by a fixed-term contract are not on the payroll of the organization. 

Key Features of Fixed-Term Contracts

• Length of Employment

A primary feature of a fixed-term contract is the length of employment. Fixed-term employees are not permanent employees of an organization. They are appointed for a specific time and dismissed when the predefined term ends. It is short-term employment. The period of employment may vary according to the nature of the work and the organizational requirements. Generally, fixed-term contracts are for one year.

• Salary

Fixed-term employees have a fixed salary determined by organizations. It remains the same for the entire period of employment. Employers cannot change the remuneration before the expiry of the contract. As fixed-term employees are not permanent employees of an organization, they are not on the organizational payroll.

• Notice

For fixed-term positions, the employer does not give any notice period to the employees. The contractual relationship between an employer and a fixed-term employee ends after the expiry of the contract tenure. 

• Renewal of Fixed-term Employment Agreement

Employers can renew fixed-term contracts. Both parties should be willing to continue the relationship. If a fixed-term employee continues to work after the expiry of the defined period, the contract renews. However, if the employer fails to terminate the contract after the defined term, the fixed-term employee becomes permanent.

Suitability of Fixed-Term Contracts

Fixed-term contracts are best suited for the following kinds of work.

• Seasonal Work

Business organizations may require an additional workforce during the peak season. They prefer to hire fixed-term employees in such conditions as it provides flexibility and meets their needs during high season. For instance, hotels may require additional staff during the summer holidays to attend to the onslaught of visitors. Therefore, they may hire fixed-term employees during peak season and terminate them after the season.

• Project Work

Organizations prefer fixed-term employment when they have a project that requires a specific skill. The employer may not need a specialist once the project concludes. Therefore, they would hire employees on a fixed-term basis in such cases.

• Maternity Cover

Business enterprises hire fixed-term employees to fill in a temporary gap when a permanent employee goes on maternity leave. The fixed-term employee takes care of the duties of the employee on leave. They work till the employee on leave returns. 

At-will Employment vs Contract-based Employment

At-will employment means that there is no written contract between the employer and the employee. The employer and employee are free to leave the job without any prior notice. Further, the employer can terminate the employee whenever they wish to. Similarly, the employee can also leave the job whenever they want to. 

Both the parties work together as per their will. For that reason, it is a no-term agreement between both parties. The employer cannot force the employee to work for them. In the same way, the employee also can not bind the employer to hire them. Both parties have equal rights to terminate the contract.

Fixed-term Employee vs Contractor

Fixed-term employees are like regular employees of an organization. They work for a specified duration with the organization but are not contractors. Contractors work independently and render their services to the organization for a predetermined period. They have the autonomy to decide their working style and are not under the control of the organization. Further, contractors can have a flexible work schedule if they want. 

However, fixed-term employees are under the total control of the organization. They cannot work according to their whims and fancies. Fixed-term contracts, like contractors’ contracts, are for a definite period. Still, the nature of the relationship between the two is different. In fixed-term contracts, there is an employee-employer relationship between the parties. On the other hand, in contractors’ contracts, it is a business-to-business relationship.

Fixed-term Contracts and Pregnancy

Employers should have knowledge regarding employees’ rights in fixed-term contracts. Fixed-term employees have the right to avail of maternity leave. Employers pay the fixed-term employee on maternity leave in the same way as they pay the permanent employees. In some cases, the employee qualifies for statutory maternity pay during the tenure of their fixed-term contract. If so, they continue to receive the statutory maternity pay even if their tenure has ended. It would be unjust if the fixed-term contract is not renewed owing to pregnancy or maternity leave.

Fixed-Term Contract and Redundancy

It is crucial to understand what is fixed-term contract redundancy, and what are the rights of fixed-term employees regarding claiming redundancy benefits. Fixed-term employees are entitled to receive redundancy benefits since they are like the regular employees of the organization. Entitlement to redundancy pay depends on the length of the service period. If a fixed-term employee works for an organization for more than two consecutive years, they become a permanent employee. In such cases, they can claim redundancy benefits. Organizations must pay fixed-term employees redundancy benefits if they have served the organization for more than two years.

Advantages of Fixed-Term Contracts

• Flexibility

A fixed-term employment contract benefits both parties. It offers enhanced flexibility to the organization and the employees. The organization can easily meet its requirement for additional staff during peak periods by hiring fixed-term employees.

• Cost-savings

Fixed-term employment also leads to increased cost savings. It allows companies to hire when required. Organizations dismiss the employees once the project finishes and the requirement ends. Further, the firm does not needlessly bear the burden of employees. Fixed-term employment is beneficial when the job is seasonal or for a definite period. It does not alter the budget of the organization.

• Provides Maternity Leave Cover

Fixed-term employment is used to hire an employee to work in place of a permanent employee on maternity leave. Companies recruit a fixed-term employee for a specified duration to take care of the responsibilities undertaken by the employee on leave. It is an effective tool in such circumstances, and organizations use it to their advantage. 

• The Benefit of Special Skill

With the help of fixed-term contracts, the organization can take advantage of the unique skills of an employee for the desired period. Organizations prefer hiring fixed-term employees for projects that require specialized knowledge and skill. It is not feasible to recruit permanent employees for such jobs as they are not recurring in nature.

Fixed-Term Policy

Organizations should understand the critical factors involved in fixed-term contracts to avoid legal hassles. The regulations governing fixed-term employment may differ in different countries. Therefore, firms should draft the fixed-term policy, keeping in mind these regulations. The HR department should understand and implement the following mandates.

• Reason for Fixed-term Employment

In certain countries, organizations can hire fixed-term employees only for a justified reason. For example, the Peruvian government allows fixed-term contracts only in the establishment phases, emergencies, or seasonal jobs. 

• The Proportion of Fixed-term Employees

Certain countries restrict the number of fixed-term employees to the total workforce. Organizations can not hire fixed-term employees more than the sanctioned limit. For instance, in Lithuania, fixed-term contracts cannot exceed more than 20% of the total employment contracts.

• Duration of Fixed-term Contract

Many countries determine the length of fixed-term contracts and the number of times they can be extended for an employee. In Greece, the total duration of fixed-term contracts cannot be more than 24 months, including four renewals. Further, in Germany, the aggregate duration can not exceed 24 months, including three renewals.

• Written Contract

Employers must draft a fixed-term contract with utmost care and diligence. It must be a written contract stating all the terms and conditions clearly. Both the parties should agree to the terms of the contract and abide by the same. Moreover, both parties should sign the contract.

• Discrimination

In certain countries like Japan, there is no discrimination between fixed-term and permanent employees. Organizations are required to treat fixed-term employees the same as permanent employees. 

• Working after the Expiry of Contract

If a fixed-term employee works after the expiry of the defined term, it may result in an indefinite-period employment contract. In countries like Canada, if fixed-term employees continue to work after their term expires, they are deemed permanent employees of the organization. Their contract is considered to be renewed automatically for an indefinite period.

Are Fixed Term Contracts Better? 

Business organizations prefer fixed-term contracts over indefinite-term contracts because they provide for easy termination of employees. However, organizations should draft fixed-term agreements carefully because they are subject to local regulations. It might lead to legal complications and litigation. Hence, organizations must understand and comply with the requirements of fixed-term contracts.

The post Fixed-Term Contracts: A Flexible Solution for Modern Workplaces? appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

When effective communication in the workplace occurs, it means that there is an open dialog between all employees, and there are no communication barriers in the workplace. In this article, we’ll take you through the meaning of communication, the 7Cs of communication, and tips to facilitate communication in the workplace.

Communication Styles in the Workplace 

There are mainly four basic communication styles in the workplace:

• Assertive
• Aggressive
• Passive
• Passive-Aggressive

To make communication effective at the workplace, it is important to understand when and where to use which style.

Source

The 7 Cs of Communication

After understanding the styles, it is a must to know about the 7Cs of communication as it will help in choosing the right style of communicating 

Good communication in the workplace is only possible when you know and understand the seven Cs of workplace communication. They are fundamental to understanding the importance of communication in the workplace.

Concrete

The message should be concrete so that the receiver gets an accurate picture of the same. Poor communication in the workplace leads to the audience re-imagining things and distorting the message. Always ensure that the communication you are making supports suitable data.

Coherent

It means following a sequence when you communicate with employees. The message decoder should clearly understand what to decode and from where the message originated.

Clarity

A message decoder should be clear about the format used for decoding the message. Make sure that the receiver of the message is not scratching their head to understand the message and making false assumptions about it. Try to keep your sentences crisp and speak in an active voice.

Commitment

It plays a key role in avoiding all communication problems in the workplace. Commitment to delivering a clear message will make a stronger impact on the employees and also boost their morale.

Consistency

Diction and word choice matter in workplace communication. Use the least possible words to communicate in the workplace. Maintain consistency in content, tone, and voice in the whole message. Do not repeat your words and sentences.

Completeness

Avoid leaving sentences incomplete as it may be interpreted as a lack of communication in the workplace. Complete communication in the workplace effectively, ensuring to cover both the purpose to inform and the action required. Following this strategy answers the question, “how to communicate better at work?”

Courteous

For good communication in the workplace, try to be respectful, honest, polite, and open. Avoid using offensive words, especially when you are communicating office policies.

Source

Why is Communication Important in the Workplace?

For meeting the business intent, improving communication remains a top priority. When there is effective communication in the workplace, it makes it easier to identify good leaders from great ones. It makes it easier to define the company’s goals because it is a fundamental work practice for making the workplace more productive. Interpersonal communication does the following:

• Helps in avoiding confusion
• Creates a positive environment in the workplace
• Makes each of the employees accountable for their job responsibilities
• Make employees clear about achieving their goals and objectives

Different Tools in Communication

• Listening
• Oral communication
• Adaptability
• Written communication
• Public speaking

Tips for Effective Communication in the Workplace

Quality Content

Content plays a key role when you want to communicate. So, it is necessary to ensure that your communication is clear and information is correct. It is only possible when you are using the right platform. If communication is meant for the masses, prefer to use emails. Secondly, if a topic is highly serious, try to communicate personally or through Google Meet.

When you are making informal communication in the workplace, try to avoid discussing controversial topics or any emotion-evoking discussions. It sometimes becomes the reason for the loss of professional credibility.

Appropriate Styles in Communication

Apart from focusing on the content, it is also necessary to focus on how to improve communication in the workplace. Sometimes a communicator is required to reflect on the methods of interaction, such as how to use the appropriate tone and body language. The other thing to focus on is the manner of responding to coworkers’ communication.

Nonverbal Communication in the Workplace

Nonverbal workplace communication could be done in many ways, such as through body language or the tone you are using. Some effective communication in the workplace examples includes maintaining eye contact, maintaining good posture, dressing up nicely, keeping the tone moderate, and ensuring the listener remains engaged and does not get bored.

These are the best ways of guaranteeing effective communication in the workplace.

App for Team Communication

Using an app makes it easier to manage interpersonal communication in the workplace. It is a time-saving process that helps avoid long email threads. These apps are known as team collaboration apps where all the employees can communicate in groups while working on the same project. It is one of the simplest ways of dealing with all communication problems in the workplace.

Apps like Slack and MS Teams are the best choice. If you’re on either one of them, you could look at the 8 best apps for MS Teams and the 8 best HR apps on Slack for outsourcing.

Incorporating Inspiration and Information in Communication

Do not communicate just for the sake of passing information to the employees. To improve communication, plan the message you want your employees to retain. If you are expecting any action or response from the employees, let them know.

Practicing Active Communication

All employees who have good listening skills always perform better at work. Listening is as important as speaking, and it should not be taken for granted. The more one listens, the more clarity one has about that information.

Important Elements of Listening

Ensure to incorporate the following elements of listening, as it is one of the most important facets of all communication styles in the workplace:

• Make eye contact with the communicator
• Respond appropriately
• Avoid interrupting the speaker
• Check and examine the body language of the speaker

Open-Door Policy for Workplace Communication

The most challenging thing in the workplace is having an honest dialogue with team members and higher management. If you are an employee and are feeling uncomfortable sharing your thoughts with your supervisors, it is probably due to a lack of communication in the workplace.

To avoid such a situation, a company must create an “open-door policy” where employees feel encouraged to meaningfully interact. It helps in creating a positive work environment.

Follow-ups for Effective Communication in the Workplace

It is one of the most popular facets of communication. Whenever many meetings happen in the office, keep following up on them, whether in person or writing. It is one of the best ways of refreshing the information in the employee’s mind, resulting in improved workplace efficiency.

Improved Accessibility to Minutes of the Meeting

Minutes of the meeting may get distorted if not conveyed properly. So, frequently sharing documents and knowledge is one of the best strategies to improve communication in the workplace. Make a section on your company website for the employees to easily access knowledge about current events.

You can even use certain software as robust internal communication platforms for employees and employers. It makes it easier for employees to speak, and share their thoughts and beliefs. It is one of the best ways to create a judgment-free environment.

The demand for installing intranet software is growing faster and acts as one of the best ways to run a business smoothly.

If you use desktops in your office, it is easy to engage employees by sending notifications of upcoming news and events in the organization, awards for employees of the month, or other announcements.

Try this to make it a part of your communication strategy; it will help in getting more traction from the employees.

Refraining from Assumptions About Employees’ Performance

Another way of making workplace communication effective is to avoid forming a quick judgment. If, as a manager, you feel that your employee is lacking in any area, never make assumptions about their performance without appropriate communication. It is necessary to understand things from the employee’s point of view before naming someone a slacker. A manager is in charge of keeping an open line of communication for employees to generate better productivity at the workplace.

Focusing on Reward Mechanisms

Have expectations from employees if you want them to deliver. On meeting the expectations, never forget to recognize their achievements. As human beings, we love being recognized for good work and achievements. For employers too, it works in encouraging other employees to work better. By communicating the expectations through actions, one can easily make communication in the workplace effective.

The most common reward mechanisms include gamification tools or providing badges to employees.

Making Employees’ Profiles Accessible and Open

You cannot make communication effective if you are not aware of the employees’ profiles in the organization. So, one of the best ways of doing so is encouraging each employee to build interesting profiles in your communication platform. Filling out an employee profile is not limited to basic information. Ask the employees to provide photographs and write about their likes, dislikes, and interests.

Whether your business is large or small, having a complete employee profile builds connections and starts conversations.

AttendanceBot provides a great solution for this where we have an Employee Self Service portal where employees can create their profiles in this way.

Trusted Human Resource Department

If you are looking for ways to improve communication at the workplace, remember the HR department is responsible for handling the concerns and policies. Ensure that HR personnel in the workplace are easily accessible and approachable. 

Attending Conferences as a Team

Many companies organize conventions and conferences annually. To kickstart effective communication in the workplace, invite the team to attend those events. Organizing and attending these events helps open up a great communication channel and team building.

Strong Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Communication should be effective in the workplace, not only among the employees but also with customers. So, provide your employees with the most effective and reliable communication tools, such as the CRM platform. Using this software, the employee can easily track customer queries and concerns. It is of great help in accelerating the turnaround time while offering customer support services. It is one of the best ways of improving customer loyalty and value. For teams or individuals looking to streamline their interactions and follow-ups, adopting the best personal CRM can be a game-changer in building meaningful client relationships.

Removing Communication Barriers in the Workplace

To make communication effective in the workplace, frequently check on internal networking platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, regarding the ongoing tasks and the upcoming projects in your account. Hosting daily, weekly, or monthly meetings keeps everyone on the same page. It also eliminates pettiness in the workplace.

Due to the pandemic situation, we are mostly working from home, so Microsoft Teams and Google Meet are the best places to connect online. They help in maintaining the same communication level as working from the office.

Effective Communication is a Work in Progress 

Effective communication in the workplace is a constant work in progress. Communication works mutually, and to make it effective, one needs to have good listening power, care, and patience. If you cannot effectively communicate at the workplace, it may lead to the loss of work opportunities, including outstanding business deals and promotions. So, having employees with strong communication skills is an asset and the backbone of the company.

The post The Guide to Effective Communication in the Workplace appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

All of these roles have various roles to play and have their importance in the organization. However, in this article, our subject will be one of the entry-level HR positions: the HR generalist. 

What is an HR Generalist?

One of the most important designations in HR is that of an HR generalist. The HR generalist has various roles to play in the office. From resolving disputes to completing the onboarding of new hires, an HR generalist does it all. An HR generalist’s main role is to handle the day-to-day functions of any organization including the onboarding of new hires and their training. 

The HR generalist is an entry-level human resource position in HR who is usually hired to assist managers and HR specialists. They help the HRBP and other members of upper management in making policies and other procedures of the organization. 

We will get to the role of an HR generalist in detail in the next sections. 

HR Generalist Job Description

A template of an HR generalist job description is given below:

The human resources generalist manages the day-to-day functions of the human resource department and works closely with the senior management. We [company’s name] are looking for a qualified and resourceful HR generalist to help achieve the organization’s HR targets and provide assistance to the senior team. If you like interacting with others, planning events, and working in a fast-paced work environment, this job can be an exciting opportunity for you.

The HR generalist administers HR policies, programs, and procedures. The position carries responsibilities in the following areas of function:

• Development department
• Employee relations
• Benefits administration
• Employee training
• Policy administration
• Employee recruitment and onboarding 
• Compensation
• Organizational development

If you are interested in the job, email us your resume at [email address]

Now that we’ve understood what the job description of an HR generalist covers, let’s look at their responsibilities, skills, and the qualification that should be added to the position description. 

HR Generalist Responsibilities

What does an HR generalist do? At any organization, an HR generalist performs many roles. 

An HR generalist helps the HR managers and HR coordinators carry out daily functions at the organization. While an HR generalist’s role is never limited to one responsibility, some of HR generalist duties are as follows:

Recruiting

• An HR generalist manages employees’ payroll and employee benefits.
• They manage the hiring process of new employees and their onboarding.
• They help with recruiting and if there isn’t a designated recruiter, the HR generalist has to directly manage to recruit.
• Before hiring someone, the HR generalist reviews their resume and then conducts the hiring process.
• The human resource generalist comes up with strategies to carry our efficient orientation for the new employees. Their duty is to make sure employees have a great first workday.

Management 

• Including leaves, bonuses they take care of absent management of employees.
• They help in regularly updating job descriptions for all positions in the organization.
• HR generalists conduct interviews for most employees and make recommendations about them to the upper management.
• They help conduct exit interviews to keep a check on employee behavior. Then they suggest ways to improve their organization. 
• They also handle the compensation and benefits within the organization.

Organizing

• One of their roles is to organize all the employee records either in hard or soft copies.
• A human resources generalist helps managers in maintaining the work structure. 
• They help in organizing seminars, conferences, and workshops for the organization. 
• They help set up training and development programs for the employees.
• One important responsibility of an HR generalist is to calculate analytics for employee turnover 

Documentation

• Another HR generalist duty is to prepare performance evaluation reports of employees.
• They conduct employee satisfaction surveys and suggest ways to improve their working experience.
• Their job is to take care of all the legal stuff of the organization and conduct investigations to ensure its legal compliance with rules, regulations, and labor laws

Employee Welfare

• Another job of an HR generalist is to support their employees in case a human resource issue arises.
• They take care of employee safety, by making policies and rules.
• Another responsibility of an HR generalist is to suggest ways to foster a positive and nourishing work environment at the workplace and a healthy relationship between the employer and the employee. 
• An HR generalist makes sure there is active communication for employees in all departments.

Policy Development

• An HR generalist develops and implements several policies in the workplace including dress code policy, anti-harassment policy, and code of conduct policy to name a few.

HR Generalist Salary

In the US a human resources generalist’s salary varies from state to state. However, according to Glassdoor, the average salary of an HR generalist in the United States is $60,174 per year.

HR Generalist Skills

To become an HR generalist, an individual should have the following skills:

Problem Solving

An HR generalist should be skilled at problem-solving. They should be able to analyze a problem and suggest multiple ways to resolve it.

Customer Service

They should be able to meet commitments when it comes to dealing with customers. They should know how to respond to their needs in a short time.

Oral Communication

A human resource generalist should be able to effectively communicate. They must be skilled in communicating clearly and persuading people.

Written Communication

HR generalists have a lot of writing to do. They must have at least basic writing knowledge. They should be able to write clearly without grammar or spelling mistakes and read written information with ease.

Business Acumen

They should have the desired business acumen to understand any possible business complications.

Strategic Mind

They should be able to think strategically and devise ways to cope with a problematic situation in a short time. They should also be able to think of strategies to meet the organizational goals effectively. 

Planning and Organizing Skills

An HR generalist should have exceptional planning and organizing skills because most of their work will involve organizing employee data and planning conferences in the organizations. They should be able to do that in an efficient way.

Professionalism

Professionalism is a must. They should be able to handle everything professionally, be able to react well under pressure, should treat everyone with respect, and tactfully approach them. They should meet their commitments, wear work-appropriate clothes, and should portray a positive image of the organization.

Time-Conscious

A very important skill for them to have is time management. They should be skilled in managing all their projects in a time-efficient manner. They should know how much time to spend on a particular task. 

Cost-Conscious

Within the given budget, they should be able to skilfully finish a project. They should carefully use the company resources.

Adapting Skills

They should possess great adaptability skills. They should know how to adapt to a changing work environment. Plus, they should be able to deal with frequent changes or unexpected events in the organization. 

Quality Management

They should be skilled enough to improve the organizational quality and be thorough and accurate in their work.

Accountability

An HR generalist should take responsibility for their actions. 

Punctuality

Punctuality at work is just another skill an HR generalist should have.

How to Become an HR Generalist? 

The required degree for an HR generalist’s job varies from company to company. However, most organizations prefer having at least a bachelor’s degree in the relevant field. Larger organizations however only accept individuals with a master’s degree. Let’s take a deeper look at the required qualification for this position:

Education

To become an HR generalist individuals need to have a bachelor’s degree either in human resource management, human resource administration, social sciences, or organizational development. Along with that, the individuals should have basic knowledge of subjects like accounting, business, English, employment laws, and basic statistical concepts.  However, for higher manager roles, a master’s degree in HR is generally required. 

Training

A little on or off-the-job training will benefit individuals in becoming human resources generalists. Attending workshops based on relevant training programs should strengthen their understanding of this role. Training areas include laws in HR, the role of HR in business, challenges in HR, and ways to resolve them.

Certification

Although certification is not mandatory for an individual to apply for this position, some organizations do prefer HR generalist certification. Some options we think are suitable: 

Professionals in Human Resources (PHR)

Senior professionals in Human Resources (SPHR)

Difference Between HR Generalist and HR Specialist

The role of an HR generalist differs from that of an HR specialist:

• An HR generalist is a person who is skillful in various work categories in the organization. They are capable of providing counsel in almost every field and handle all aspects within HR. On the other hand, an HR specialist is a person who specializes in one particular HR area.
• An HR generalist is typically a jack of all trades and master of none, while HR specialists are masters in one field. They help an organization to develop and grow and engage its workforce.
• Since a generalist is quite occupied most of the time, they take a lot of time to answer their employees’ queries. On the other hand, the specialist is part of a single support team that answers employee queries much quicker.
• For new hires, the HR generalist will begin with their hiring, onboarding, and training. However if for instance, an HR specialist has specialized in recruitment, once a person is hired, their work is done.
• HR generalists are usually a part of small organizations with limited HR requirements and budgets. While large organizations mostly prefer to hire HR specialists.
• HR generalists usually have a higher salary than HR specialists.

HR Generalist Interview Questions 

For an idea of HR generalist interview questions, refer to the list below:

General Questions

• What do you know about employee engagement?
• What do you like the most about the human resources field?
• Where do you see yourself five years from now?
• Why do you want to work as an HR generalist?
• Is there anything about this position you think will be hard for you to do?
• Do you enjoy paperwork?

Scenario-Based Questions

• What do you think of making reports about employee performance?
• Do you think you will be able to do employee appraisals?
• If you were to boost employee motivation, can you think of any two? Please elaborate.

Elaborative Questions

• Do you think personal bias can affect the hiring process? If yes, how can that be reduced?
• The role you are seeking has to do a lot with administration. How do you think you are a fit for this job?

Knowledge-Based Questions

• What do you know of 360-degree performance appraisal?
• Are you aware of the sexual harassment laws in the workplace?
• What steps should you take before terminating an employee?

Experience-Based questions

• In your experience, how do you plan or organize something?
• Do you have any experience in the recruitment process?
• Have you ever written an employee policy?
• Have you organized an event before?
• Do you have experience in arranging seminars and workshops?

Final Word

Lastly, the more you add to the job description, the better will be the chances of finding someone suitable for your organization. Be mindful of the tone, choice of words while creating a  job description. Although the duties an HR generalist will perform depend upon the size of your organization. Choosing the qualifications based on the needs of your organization will make hiring the right person easier. 

The post A Comprehensive Guide to the HR Generalist appeared first on AttendanceBot Blog.

The deadly virus that 2020 brought upon us has disrupted the working patterns. One of the biggest changes that the pandemic has brought is the shift of work from an office to remote work. Worldwide lockdowns led to the closure of many offices.

At the beginning of 2021, when the world finally saw some hope in the form of vaccines, many workplaces reopened. Not much time had passed and the delta variant wreaked havoc on the work culture once again. So we’re now quite sure that the pandemic is here to stay for a long time. We need to change our lives to accommodate the virus and make our work better by following the guidelines given by WHO, or by keeping everything remote.

In this article, we list some ways and strategies for employers to help employees adjust to the pandemic-stricken work culture. But first, let’s focus on the future of the workplace i.e. hybrid. 

Hybrid Workplace: What is it?

The pandemic gave rise to a system of work where employers constantly try to make sure their remote employees have the resources to achieve the organizational goals. Be it productivity. motivation or sanity, employers now find themselves at a crossroads making sure employees have them all. 

So what is the future of work? A blend of on-site employees and remote employees pave way for a system called the hybrid workplace. Whether you accept it or not, the future of work is hybrid, at least until the pandemic remains. 

A hybrid workplace combines both remote and office work. Although it varies, in a hybrid workplace the skeletal staff works on-site while others are allowed to work from home in most organizations. If you’re considering shifting to a hybrid workplace, you’ll see several benefits: 

Prevents the Spread

The whole point of a hybrid workplace is to have few people on-site to prevent the spread of the virus. When most people will work from home, with just some employees present on site, the disease will spread slowly. One condition that applies here is that people who work in the office should take precautionary measures such as wear masks to protect themselves and others.

Less Fatigue

Hybrid workplaces allow more flexibility. Employees get a lot of time to relax. Some employees like starting their day late and work till late at night and remote work allows that. When employees are well-rested and less stressed, they are likely to be more productive and face less fatigue. 

Leads to Happiness

A survey reveals that employees who work from home are more likely to be happy. When they are close to a loved one, work becomes fun. Secondly, not having to dress up formally for work every day is liberating and saves a lot of time. Other reports tell that employees find work more enjoyable if they’re with their pets.

Cost-Effective

One of the biggest upsides of setting up a hybrid workplace is that it cuts down the cost. Having a team working on-site consumes space, power, and other resources. So when most people are working from home, it ultimately cuts down that cost. 

While having a hybrid workplace is a good way to help employees navigate to work these days, it has some disadvantages. Let’s have a look at a few of them:

Employees May Feel Isolated

Perhaps a big downside of having a remote setup is that employers and employees both may end up feeling isolated. Working remotely can take its toll on employee’s mental health as well. With no one from work around an employee, they may feel left out.

Increased Burnout

Sometimes in hybrid workplaces, employees tend to work more than usual. They stay up late at night to finish the work and that leads to burnout. Not to forget the effect it has on employees’ physical health. Overworking and stress are also some of the biggest causes of fatal diseases like diabetes and heart problems.

Sedentary Lifestyle

Although a sedentary lifestyle is common in both the pre-covid and post-covid eras, it is especially increasing now. Before the pandemic began, workers would go to the gym and keep themselves healthy after working for hours. However, after the pandemic, there is a limit to going to places with a crowd. Therefore, diseases like diabetes are increasing.

Weak Eyesight 

Working in front of the screen for the whole day has drastic effects on our eyes. Be it attending meetings, submitting reports, working generally, everything is done on a screen nowadays. It has especially increased since the pandemic. Conditions like eye strain, dry eyes are commonly reported among many employees.

Connectivity Issues

Not everyone has the convenience of having the fastest internet connection. Sometimes employees’ work is disrupted due to poor connectivity. In a hybrid workspace, most of the work is done online, and without a stable wifi connection, this can be hard to accomplish.

16 Ways to Navigate to Work

After the pandemic began, ways to navigate the future of work are what we all seek. Employers need to help employees navigate through the workplace future and help them adjust. The good news is that most employees prefer working from home. According to statistics revealed by LeadershipIQ, only 9% of employees want to work from an office and around 59% say their work-life balance is better by working from home. 

Working remotely, in person, or a hybrid workplace, employers can help employees navigate to the future workplace in several ways. Listed below are 16 tips for both types:

For On-Site Employees:

When it comes to the pandemic, on-site employees need to take good care of themselves and others to prevent the spread. Here are some tips you can use to help your employees who are present on-site navigate to work:

Cater to Their Needs

So the first and foremost thing to help your employees navigate to work is to take care of their needs. For that, you need to ask them if they’re okay with working either on-site or from home. Listen carefully to their needs and then craft a work environment that best suits their needs. 

Keep a Check

Make sure to keep a check on what happens in your workplace. You should be aware of how happy or satisfied your employees are with working in such an environment. Besides, you should also be keeping a check on precautionary measures being followed.  Educate your employees on how to save themselves and others by getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and sanitizing. 

Enable Flexibility

Covid times are already hard on each one of us. In a situation like this, the least you can do is allow flexibility in the workplace. Although many employees prefer working from home, ask them if they would rather work on site. Home or office, make sure they feel productive and comfortable wherever they work. 

Set Priorities

Setting priorities is important. List all the tasks that require an on-site presence and those that can be dealt with remotely. If a task can be easily done at home then encourage your employees to work from home.

Regularly Check for Progress

Regularly checking the progress of employees helps you get an idea of where the team stands. It is especially important now when most of us don’t get to meet every day. Sometimes employees may feel lazy and procrastinate considering no one is checking up on them. So it’s always a great idea to regularly check what is currently happening with the team.

Keep an Eye on Issues

If an employee isn’t adjusting well to anything in this environment then consider changing it. Keep an eye on any issues that your employees may be facing with no one around to help them solve them. 

Establish Trust

Trust is the key. Make sure your employees trust you as their leader and likewise. For a healthy environment, trust must exist between both of you. They should be aware that you believe in them and pacify them by making them feel that we are all together in this crisis. 

Recognize and Appreciate 

For everything that your employees do for you, despite a deadly pandemic, recognize and appreciate them. In this way, they will feel valued and will be motivated to do more. Doing so is also a great way to let your employees know that they matter to your organization. 

Hone Their Skills

Who knows when the pandemic will go away. It is therefore your duty to hone your employees’ skills to prepare them for the future workplace. For that, you may need to equip them with resources to effectively manage both on-site and remote work.

For Remote Employees:

Below are some tips for your remote employees to help them navigate to work:

Prioritize Tasks

Just like it is important for on-site employees to prioritize their tasks, it’s important for remote employees too. Make your employees set a schedule for which tasks they should be taking up for home and which ones would need on-site presence.

Keep Everything Flexible

Working from home is different because sometimes employees can feel isolated as there is limited interaction. Make sure you have a flexible policy that allows employees to have a life out of work as well. Rigid culture isn’t successful at all now.

Allow Breaks

Working tirelessly in front of screens is exhausting. Encourage remote employees to take breaks and avoid working overtime. They should know how this can directly affect their health. Ensure a flexible leave policy especially a sick leave.

Make Sure They Have the Resources

Since hybrid workplaces are the future, ensure that your remote employees have the required resources at their homes. This can include a stable wifi connection, a place to work, or anything of that sort. Otherwise, this can cause hindrance in meeting organizational goals. Most companies now offer their remote employees allowance to afford a good internet connection, a desk, and a chair if they don’t have one already. 

Encourage Them to Rest

For those employees that make it everything about work, encourage them to rest. In some cases, employees end up working extra hours which isn’t always the best thing to do. Make them rest and encourage them to practice flexibility. 

Encourage Them to Stay Active

On-site workers come at a specific time and then go back to their homes to rest. Remote workers however often end up sitting on the couch all day, working hard to finish their tasks. They rarely get up to exercise or even take a walk. Make sure to encourage them to stay active and healthy. This doesn’t have to be a complex exercise. Even a walk for 30 minutes can help a lot. Employees can install apps and join online wellness programs to stay active and check progress. 

Regularly Follow Up

Lastly, remote workers are away from you. You don’t get to see them every day so it is often hard to keep a check on their progress. To help them navigate to work, it is a great idea to follow up regularly with them. If not daily, set up a recurring weekly meeting with them. That way you’ll know about their progress and if they’re facing any roadblocks in their work. 

The Bottomline

Now we know that the pandemic has turned our lives upside down and that a hybrid workplace is the future of work. It is your duty to help your employees navigate to work considering the future and adjust to this culture. Make sure you follow these tips when implementing your hybrid workplace policy. 

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