Year: 2016

Starting a new job is daunting enough, but imagine doing it another country? For a new employee who’s moved from overseas, it can be a difficult adjustment in many ways. Offering support to get them settled in will help them feel like part of the team, while also helping them to feel at home in their new country. Read below for some great ways to help a new employee settle in from overseas.

Give them information in advance

People like to be prepared before starting a new job, so any information you can give them in advance about the company and what a typical working day is like will be useful. For an employee joining your company from another country, they might need even more information that will benefit them when they arrive. Provide them with a welcome pack that includes details of your location, commuting, etc. that will make it easier for them to prepare for their new start.

Set them up with a work ‘buddy’

Giving someone a ‘buddy’ is a great way to help them get settled into the workplace. Choose a member of the team who’s been around for a while and is friendly and informative, who can help answer any questions that new recruits have. Having someone they can go for coffee or lunch with, who will introduce them to other members of the team will make them feel more at ease than being introduced to a lot of different people at once. There are plenty of known advantages to the buddy system and is something that is used in many workplaces all over the world.

Provide for an adjustment period

When a new employee joins a team, they will usually require some time to settle into the culture of the office and how it all works. For employees who are not only moving jobs but moving location – there will be even more for them to adjust to. Finding somewhere to live, dealing with finances and getting to know the local area will take some time, so whatever support you can offer will be much appreciated. Some people will be moving their families with them, and you might need to consult a family and immigration lawyer to deal with visa issues that might happen. Some flexibility on your part will help them take care of these issues so that they can begin working properly once they’ve got everything else in order.

Hire A Global Mobility Expert

If you’re an international company sending your talent around the globe, then you already know that moving your employees around to new countries and helping them settle isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. It can be stressful for the employee – and a lot of admin for your business.

That’s why I’d recommend using Global Mobility strategies to support your employees and improve their performance oversee. Having a global mobility plan will save you, and your employees, a lot of time!

Arrange social events

Social events are a great way to bring colleagues together and create a friendly office environment. No matter what industry you work in, it’s good for colleagues to get together and blow off some steam and is a nice way to introduce a new recruit to the team in a more informal way. Try organizing a welcome lunch, dinner or after-work drinks that will give them a fantastic introduction to the company and perhaps help them make friends too.

Giving new recruits a proper introduction to your team is a big step towards creating a happy and contented workforce from the outset. Offer a warm welcome and plenty of support to new employees and look forward to what will hopefully be a lasting, positive partnership.

It won’t take you long to find out everything an employer needs to consider when it comes to safety and health in the workplace. There are millions of articles and guidelines out there for all to see. But because there is so much information on that particular subject, it leaves employees a little expectant on their employer’s responsibilities, rather than their own. The truth is that as a company worker, you have an obligation to safety, too. In today’s guide, I’m going to go through a few ways that you can step up and be accountable, both positively and proactively. Let’s take a look.

Get involved

Sadly, many employees don’t pay a blind bit of notice to safety and health rules. They might see something that isn’t working properly, and they’ll just ignore it – leaving many others at risk. So, if you do see something unsafe, make sure you do something about it. Stop working immediately, report it to your line manager or boss, and make sure you don’t wait until disaster strikes.

Follow the rules

Your employer has a responsibility to provide a health and safety program. You must support it. If you have an accident at work that isn’t covered in those rules, then sure – you can contact a personal injury lawyer and make a claim. However, if you don’t follow the guidelines, you’ll be left to suffer the consequences. You might even lose your job – so make sure you are always working within the rules.

Clean your workspace

Your employer has a responsibility to provide you with a healthy and safe working environment, but they aren’t responsible for your untidy desk. Keep things clean, tidy, and ensure all wires and equipment are well out of reach. You should also make sure you keep gangways and corridors clear, as per your employer’s guidelines. You might end up being sued yourself if you are responsible for someone else’s accident.

Take part in the safety training

We all know the incredible boredom that being in a safety meeting can cause. Nonetheless, it’s a necessary part of everyone’s working life, and it’s essential that you actually listen and take part. Who knows, perhaps the information you are told will lead to you saving a life, or preventing someone from being horrendously injured? Not many people take these safety meetings seriously, but if everyone did, there is no doubt workplace accidents would fall in volume.

Know your job

Finally, no one in your company should know how to do your job better than you. And if you know something is unsafe, or you use equipment that you haven’t been trained on, there’s a good chance it will end in tears – or worse. Speak up if you have concerns, and offer suggestions on how to make things safer. Not only will you be fulfilling your employee responsibilities, but you’ll also be preventing danger to others.

Don’t assume that your employer is the only person responsible for your safety – you are, too. And failure to hold up your end of the bargain could result in a nasty surprise.

When is it time to get your tech replaced and upgraded? It’s a good question and one that doesn’t always have an easy answer. You need to watch out for the signs that your tech is getting too old to function effectively. So, here are the signs that you’re due a replacement for your computer and other technology and what the issues that you’re experiencing could mean.

Slow And Not At All Steady

A slow computer can mean one or two problems. For instance, you might have a virus. Viruses do regularly slow down computer systems to the point where they reach a snail pace. Usually, this is because the virus is using a program or software that is taking up a lot of the computer’s power. You’ll feel the effect when you try and search online, watch a video or even type up a word document.

The other issue is that your tech has gotten very messy indeed. Files should be neatly stored together, but after a while, the data gets strewn around the hard drive taking up more space. Think of it like a suitcase. When clothes are neatly folded, you can fit more inside compared them being stuffed in. Again, that’s going to slow down your system.

Do these issues mean you need a new computer? It depends whether you can remove the virus and whether it’s possible for you to sort out your systems by clearing up the mess. If the answer to either of these questions is no, you do need a new system.

I’m Giving Her All She Has, Captain!

Issues with power support for your computer or charging can be a major problem, and you’ll need to rectify them if you want your laptop system to work effectively. Sometimes you can rectify an issue with a battery for a laptop by removing it and giving it a delicate clean. That’s fairly simple in most laptops. However, you might find that the system constantly overheats. In this case, it is once again going to reduce speeds leaving you with a laptop that can’t handle the jobs you need it to. At this point, getting an upgrade really is your only option. Luckily, there are some great options for upgrades on the market with all the info you need at sites like laptop.review. Here you’ll find specs and prices so that you can make an informed decision about your next laptop or computer.

Yellow Light Of Doom, Blue Light Of Death. White Screen Of…You Get The Idea

Every piece of tech that you own has an error or issue that tech experts deem to be unfixable. It’s scary when your laptop screen goes blank for no reason. Hopefully, it switches back on, but occasionally it will go into a restart, reboot loop. At this point, usually there is only one way to fix the system, and that’s a complete reset. This works rather well if it’s a problem with the software, but it does put you back to square one. There will be absolutely nothing on the laptop at all. Everything you ever did or created will be gone. In other cases, it’s a hardware issue, and that really is completely unfixable. Try what you like, your laptop won’t work, and it will be time to buy a new one.

I certainly hope this helps you troubleshoot the issues with your tech and decide whether it’s time for an upgrade.

Having your employees work from home might seem like a risky switch. But if they spent most of their time sitting in front of a computer in the office, what’s stopping them from doing that at home if they’re comfortable with that? It doesn’t have to mean a loss of control or negative outcomes for your business. In fact, quite the opposite can be true. Here are some of the reasons why it’s a better idea than you might think.

Time Won’t be Wasted on Commuting

Many productive hours are wasted each year because of commuting and transport running late or breaking down. That doesn’t need to be the case if you allow your employees to work from home. They will not need to leave the house before they get to work, so lost time of that kind won’t become an issue for your business. It’s also much better for the environment if your employees don’t need to commute to work.

Productivity Should Rise

There are many ways to monitor employee productivity. And time and attendance software can be used even when they’re working from home. You should find that people become more productive when they’re free to work in their own environment. People are generally more comfortable at home than in the office, and when people are more comfortable, they tend to be more productive as well. So, that’s one reason to definitely give this idea a try.

Employees Will be Happier

Employees are often happier when they’re given the option to work from home. It provides them with more flexibility, and as mentioned above, they don’t need to deal with the stress and frustration that often comes with commuting. They’ll be able to spend more time with their families rather than sitting in traffic jams or running to catch that train. It’s an easier and more laid back way of starting and ending the working day.

Office Costs Can Fall

If you don’t have too many people working for your company in the office, you won’t need a huge office space. For many small businesses, the costs of renting an office can be pretty high, especially if you want to be located in the middle of a city. It’s much easier to allow people to work from home and then operate a slightly smaller office that meets your needs precisely.

Your Net Will Widen

To put it simply, you will be able to attract more talent to come and work for your business if you offer the flexibility of working from home. If you only hire people who live near your headquarters, then you’re immediately limiting your business. But if you allow people to work from home, in theory, you could hire anyone, no matter where they are located in the world. That helps you widen the net and maybe uncover new talent.

As you can see, there are plenty of good reasons to allow employees to work from home. So, be sure to give some serious thought to this option.

When you start a business, you know how important the staff can be to your cause. Without an effective workforce, you can bet that your business will not run to its full capabilities. It’s for this reason that you should ensure that you are doing everything you can as a business owner to keep your staff happy and content in their roles.

Every employer knows of the important benefits that they must offer their employees: wages, healthcare and sick pay being just three of them. Happy employees are those who are productive and loyal, and this makes for happy employers, too! Staff retention can be a big issue for companies as they try and keep people on board. Employees tend not to leave bad jobs, only bad employers and it’s for this reason that you should be getting creative with your perks. There are some unique perks that your company can offer that others wouldn’t, and it’s these that will cinch keeping your employees close!

1. No Set Hours. Your employees are people as well as cogs to your machine, and allowing for flexible working encourages productivity rather than discourages it. Introducing a policy whereby employees are measured on the level of work completed rather than the hours in the office can keep the people in your office happy while still completing their work.
2. Insurance. Most employers offer health insurance for their employees, but if you have people who have signed a tenure or a long-term contract with you, then it makes sense to offer something from wholelifeinsurance.co. The security that you’d offer for a whole life insurance as part of their contract can make a huge difference to their feeling of security.
3. Family Time. The law says a lot about maternity and paternity leave, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow the law to the letter. By putting an emphasis on family time and paid leave after a child is born, you are far more likely to retain employees that become parents while they are working with you. By offering this type of support, you will gain respect and ultimate loyalty from your people.
4. Further Education. Many companies offer onsite training to further knowledge for their employees in the business they are in, but there are places out there that offer college discounts and courses for those who wish to further their education beyond what they have right now. By offering staff the chance to further their own education, you are offering them an investment in their personal development.
5. Event Tickets. You know those employee perks for getting the job done and done on time? Usually these are cash bonuses, which everyone appreciates! However, you could get to know what your staff love as individuals and capitalise on it. Local festivals and overnight concert tickets on offer to hard workers are excellent incentives.
6. Company-branded gear. Not only does it help advertise the business, many employees take pride in wearing clothing with the company logo, espeically if it is provided for free. A cool hoodie or rain jacket, or even a duffle bag or polo shirt, are great gifts that make employees feel better and help the business.

Your staff matter and if you are offering ways to make them feel that way, you can be sure that you will retain staff for a long time.

It’s so important for any business to find their spot in the market if they want to achieve success. Consumers have an abundance of options in every industry imaginable, so they’re spoilt for choice, in a sense. The only thing that can move potential customers within your target market to your business over the businesses of your competitors is something new.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; consumers aren’t always looking for a brand new innovative good or service. Sometimes, offering the same thing as part of a better package (either in terms of price or quantity) is all it takes. Of course, there are many other ways to make your mark on the industry than this. Here are just a few ways in which you can find your gap in the market and perhaps they’ll help highlight just how important it is for your business to find its niche.

Improve your efficiency.

Again, your business doesn’t always have to reinvent the industry in order to impress consumers and cause them to flock from your competitor to you. Sometimes, simply going the extra mile to provide a similar service but in a more impressive package is all it takes. You could focus simply on being the most efficient business in your industry. If your competitors are all promising to sort out a problem for consumers in 7 days then find a way to offer the same service in 5 days but without compromising on the quality.

There are always ways to streamline operations within a business and many of your competitors might have missed them; that could be the gap in the market you’ve been looking for. You could use technology to improve your business, for example. Automate administrative processes so that your employees can focus more of their time on the aspects of their job which can’t or shouldn’t be automated, such as helping customers and putting more time into the actual products or services that you put out to the market. It’s all about offering great customer value, at the end of the day.

Targeted marketing.

It’s so important to reach your consumers wherever they may be. In the modern age, you’ll find your target market online. Forget posters, billboards, and other traditional methods; not only does online marketing save your business money but it’s simply the best way in which to reach potential customers. You can craft your content in a specific way to reach a specific group of people, and that sounds like the perfect solution for a company which is trying to find a gap in the market and promote to consumers that it’s found that gap. Your goal is always to make things easier for customers.

You need to work on your website in order to push yourself up the search rankings and reach potential customers before your competitors. You could look into WordPress maintenance and support services to help improve your business’ blog because it’s a big selling point for consumers when a company offers substantive content and answers to their problems.

Always set new goals.

It’s not enough to strike gold once. You need to constantly reinvent your company to keep pulling in new customers. You might have found a solution to a problem that your competitors missed and that might have helped you win those customers over to your business but that won’t stop your competitors from simply offering the same service once they’ve seen what’s happened. Keep looking back at the plan and set new goals. Improving your business is an ongoing battle and you need to remain one step ahead of the game.