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HR & People Management Startup

3 Effective HR Practices every Entrepreneur should Implement in their Organization

As an entrepreneur or a small business owner, it is normal and sometimes even necessary to don many different hats at the initial stages. But if you want to make your business profitable and successful in the long run, your management-related tasks must be handed off to a skilled and talented HR professional.

Companies that invest in their human capital achieve their business goals and promote a positive culture. A study by Darwish, T.K., Singh, S., & Mohamed, A.F. (2013) and Huselid, M.S., Jackson, S.E., & Schuler, R.S (1997) published in Forbes indicate the importance of aligning human resource strategies to achieve business goals and improved business performance.

We all have heard about the old metaphor, “jack of all trades and master of none”. But the fallacy of this idiom does not fit in the modern world. In doing so, it may lead entrepreneurs to make costly mistakes in terms of money and time.

Not only your business may face some serious consequences because of the lack of skills and knowledge. But it is completely unrealistic to build a successful business without building people, especially in a startup.

So whether you are a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, or a wantrepreneur if you want to create a professional and efficient culture in your company, here are three best HR practices that will guarantee a more productive culture in your organization:

1. Hire the Right Candidate

No desperate hiring, please! Because the hiring of the wrong candidate is detrimental to the startup business. Along with the essential skill set and a positive mindset, it is also crucial to consider the cultural fitment of the candidate.

Ensuring that the purpose of the position is met with the desired candidature of the job applicant is very important. Why? Because it ensures personal and professional aspirations being met. Developing a consistent interview process is also necessary as inadequate job descriptions attract less-than-best candidates.

Hiring the right candidate with a positive approach can help to create a culture in the organization where everyone feels welcome and participate. Select people who are self-motivated, goal-oriented, talented, and driven by passion and also share your vision. Keep your staff updated with the latest market trends by providing them essential training for futuristic skills. An improved and enhanced team will remain motivated. This will eventually accelerate your business growth.

2. Implement People Friendly Policies

The employees should be empowered to mold their work environment within the defined boundaries. Also, a set of policies that define the boundary within which it is to be carried out staying in alignment with the values professed by the organization.

Here a handbook comes in handy! The Policy or the handbook forms the foundation of the agreement on service conditions with the hiring candidate. This needs to be signed during the acceptance of the offer and every time the offer is amended.

3. A Performance-driven culture & a defined Improvement Path

When you invest in a financial scheme, you get returns! Similarly, when business owners invest in their employees, they, in turn, invest back in the business. Performance drives the success of any organization.

An agile and motivated work-force is every organization`s biggest strength. Whether you are an entrepreneur or an HR working in a large organization, it is necessary to ensure that your staff members are fully satisfied with their role in the organization.

Employees should have clarity about their current job role and growth opportunities as ambiguity can lead to non-performance. Encourage your employees to do self-evaluation. Try to nip the problems at the early stages.

An employee`s growth could be vertical as well as horizontal in which an employee is skilled and is made more capable.

As an entrepreneur, you must retain good employees and promote growth within the organization by making the entire staff skilled.

One of the most standardized and common initiatives that entrepreneurs can implement is new employee orientation. An orientation program will inculcate a sense of commitment in the employees, and thereby encourage a sense of ownership.

If the business size is small, it is advised to have a systematic performance review. A quarterly performance check would make more sense in a start-up. If you want to scale up your business and promote its growth, be honest about the performance.

Creative ideas, proactive solutions, emerging trends, and innovation stems out of a fully engaged workforce and not otherwise. Looking for a bit of expert advice on how to build a high-performance workforce? Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RszxzBYiZpQ&t=791s

You can also take our Everything about Entrepreneurship course that will provide in-depth knowledge from starting a startup to expanding your business. Learn from the top industry leaders on the front line. To know more click here: https://www.badabusiness.com/?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HR & People Management Startup

7 Important Tips for Building a Winning Team!

The value of a high-performing team has long been recognized. Probably, this is the reason why every organization wants to hire and retain the best employees.

A high-performing team is at the core of every successful business. When the employees work together towards a common goal, everyone wins! One of the best and easiest ways to get things done in any business is to build a great team.

Do you remember the 1983 World Cup cricket match? Even though the Indian cricket team was not in great form, they won the world championship for the first time. The Indian squad had Kapil Dev as the captain of the team, but the ‘man-of-the-series was Mohinder Amarnath’. However, it was the unwavering determination and serious efforts by all the players in the team that helped India won its first Cricket World Cup in 1983.

Be it a cricket match or an organization, when a group of independently talented people comes together in which they can merge their skills, the results are remarkable. Not only their creativity and productivity will be increased, the loyalty and engagement will also be greatly improved.

According to a McKinsey report that was published in 2017, when the team members of high performing teamwork together towards a common vision and achieve a common business goal, the financial performance of the organization increases by 1.9 times.

But, building a great team is like capturing lightning in a bottle! It remains as tough as ever. Ambitious, energetic, capable, and talented people are always a plus, but they often represent distinct functions, geographies, background, products, resources, and a lot of other factors.

Do you want to establish a high-performance team in your organization? Do you want to instill a healthy working culture that encourages team building and high productivity? Here are seven strategies for team composition and team dynamics that have long proved their worth:

1. Team Composition

Team composition is the first step towards building a high-performance team with essential skillset and a creative mindset. It is just like adding a cherry to your sumptuous cake. Just like the quantity of the salt has to be balanced to make the dish taste delightful, the team needs to be kept small- but not too small.

A small team that consists of around six to seven members is likely to result in poorer decisions because it lacks diversity. A small team will also lead to slower decision-making because of a lack of bandwidth. Hence, keeping the right number of team members can be a great start towards building a winning team.

2. Team Dynamics

It is one thing to hit the right composition. But, a team will deliver productive results only when they start working together. Once, the character of a team emerges shaped by team dynamics, only then they will be able to overcome challenges and achieve great things.

3. Build a team-oriented organization

Don`t just talk about teamwork. Instead, build your company values around teamwork. Put a clear focus on self-managing teams that are self-sufficient and empowered to make decisions. Also, show your employees the commitment by enabling teams with the authority to get their jobs done on their terms.

4. Assign Team Goals

Assign your team with important projects and assignments. Rope in all the team members when you are looking at innovative and new market trends. It is vital to keep a fresh perspective towards the market trend, which is why keep asking different team members for their opinions. Ask them to challenge the status quo and the conventional approach. This approach will help your company to stay ahead of the game.

5. Respect your Team Members as Individuals

A business needs to have a fresh and creative approach towards its goal to prosper. At work, you want your employees to a part of your team, but you also need a perspective. Every individual team member has a story of their own. They have come far in their lives without your company, and they presumably have rich and varied lives post work.

Hence, it is important to rope in the new team members when making an important decision. A robust team blossoms only when every member is respected and honored for their unique skills.

6. Motivate your Team Members

‘You get more flies with honey than vinegar’- an adage that great leaders swear by. In the real world, it simply means that it is effective to shape behavior with positive feedback rather than criticism. Also, the leader should be self-motivated. A highly motivated leader can inspire his team members to be goal-oriented. Resist the urge to criticize your team members` mistakes.

Rather, give them a positive environment by citing their behaviors and events that you particularly liked. You can encourage them to bring more of that as it is far more productive to keep your team highly motivated.

7. Reward & recognize the good performance

Every human needs appreciation, especially at the workplace. If you are a large organization and fortunate enough to rewards your employees with financial bonuses, you should do it. If you are a startup with little cash on hand, you can find creative ways to rewards your top-performing team members.

Want to know more about team building? With our ‘Everything about Entrepreneurship’ course, you can learn to bring together people with diverse capabilities to work towards a common business goal. To know more, click here: https://www.badabusiness.com/?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HR & People Management

What Is Diversity In The Workplace? Here Are 4 Key Benefits

Why is diversity in the workplace so important? In this article, we will discuss the advantages of workplace diversity. But first, let’s look at what exactly it means.

What Is a Diversified Workplace?

A diversified workplace means that a company employs a wide range of diverse individuals. This means the company’s workforce includes people of varying gender, religion, cultural background, race, ethnicity, languages, abilities, education, etc. 3 Essential Qualities of Great Leaders to Navigate through Uncertain Times.

The benefits of a diversified workplace are immense. It improves productivity, employee retention and company culture. Here are some key advantages of diversity in the workplace.

Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace:

Improves Productivity

Productivity and diversity go hand in hand. Diversifying your team can boost productivity by 35 percent, research has found. Employees from different cultural backgrounds bring their own individual skills to the table. 4 Ways Start-Ups Can Improve Internal Communication for Better Productivity.

Increased Creativity

Diversity in the workplace brings creativity and innovation. People from different cultural backgrounds have different experiences and thus different prospectives which leads to higher creativity.

Faster Problem Solving

Organisations with higher workplace diversity solve problems faster. Research has found that diverse teams are able to solve issues faster than cognitively similar people.

Better Company Reputation

Diversity in the workplace boosts the company’s reputation. Companies that are dedicated to promoting diversity in the workplace are seen as more socially responsible organisations. As people from different walks of life work in your company and your brand, it opens doors to new markets and customers.

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HR & People Management

3 Essential Qualities of Great Leaders to Navigate through Uncertain Times

Post-pandemic the nature of the world has changed, forever. Though businesses were already becoming more accustomed to deal with uncertain times, the COVID 19 pandemic has magnified it.

A strong leader can help an organization to stay afloat in the best of times, and in the ones that try us the most. It will be foolish to assume that the blissful stability that once existed will return. Hence, strong leadership is more important than ever!

What constitutes a great leader? What are those essential qualities that make for great leadership? Here are five qualities that make for great leadership, and the more we nurture these qualities, the better leaders will become during the crisis and beyond:

  1. Listen Completely

Listening and hearing have a hairline difference between them. Hearing is passive, while listening is active-and the great leader is someone, who understands the difference between the two terms.

Real listening is essential for effective communication. Listening not only involves ears but many other aspects like body language, expressions, and gestures. What`s not said is just as important as what is said.

A great leader will take cues from all other aspects and help people in the organization who might lack the courage to speak up. We need leaders who listen and are intentional about their conversations.

  1. Communicate Clearly

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to communication. But, successful communication begins with transparency. But to keep lines open and clear across the business, we must be careful not just about putting our messages across, but also about the mediums, too.

While businesses around the globe are adapting to the change unleashed by the pandemic, great leaders are trying to find the right balance. Good leaders today have to difficult decisions such as furloughs, and staff reductions.

  1. Act Quickly & Confidently

Many leaders talk, but they do not execute and do. And it is doing that separates the real leaders from the rest. When your words match your actions, people learn to develop trust. It is more impactful when you take an action on what you are hearing from your employees. Leaders who act quickly and confidently often must make difficult decisions, and for that it takes grit.

We are in uncertain times, where the dynamic of business is constantly changing. Leaders, who have clear objectives, are certain, and committed to their passion and perseverance are the ones who will continue to build trust in these uncertain times.

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HR & People Management

4 Ways to Keep Your Employees Happy & Motivated

The most important asset a business has is its Human Resource. A good and motivate team is the first and foremost step towards business’ success and survival. Hiring efficient employee is half the battle won, keeping them motivated and making them work to their full potential is the actual victory. A determined employee can make a less competent plan to highly rewarding and successful. The firm’s success is to a large extent dependent upon the the efficiency and dedication of the human resource, hence it is necessary to keep the employees motivated and happy. 3 Top Investment Schemes in India to put your money at!

There are certain monetary and non monetary incentives to keep the employees motivated and give their 100 per cent to the firm. A business manager can appease its employees in the following ways :

Adequate Compensation:

One of the biggest incentives for employee to work efficiently is compensation. A adequate remuneration to compensate the work done by a person is not only her right but also a great motivational tool in the hands of the management. Proper monetary incentives including a basic pay, medical and health benefits, provident fund, paid leave among others keep an employee motivated to give her best to the firm.

Listen to Employees:

Another important way to refrain the employees from getting laid back or demotivated at work is by lending a listening ear to their problems and complains while providing them quick and effective solution. If an employee feels she is valued by the firm, her work performance also improves and she won’t hesitate to keep the organisation’s interest above her individual ones. 4 Effective Bookkeeping Tips for Small Businesses.

Workplace Aesthetics:

The surrounding of the workplace effects the mood of an employee directly. A dull, dirty, mismanaged workplace makes the employee disoriented. Management should ensure that the workplace has adequate lighting, preferably natural light. Clean and hygienic indoors and rest areas are a must. It adds to employee’s productivity.

Give Them Constructive Feedback and Appraisal

Employees should be given proper feedback and time to time appraisal on their work performance. It should be given in a constructive manner, not discouraging or inappropriate. Such feedback encourages the employee to make the necessary modification in their work styles and helps their personal growth and development.

Employees are the most crucial asset a firm has. The management should make continuous efforts to keep the employees happy and motivated. It helps to increasing their productivity and performance standards thereby proving to be highly rewarding for the business in meeting its end objective.

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HR & People Management

4 Ways to Build Customer Loyalty Naturally!

Customer loyalty is important! Today, many organizations have separate departments dedicated to brand and customer loyalty. Why? Customer retention is more profitable than customer acquisition.

  • A study by Harvard Business School revealed that new customers cost 20-40% more to gain than old customers are to retain
  • According to a survey conducted by Gartner 80% of your future revenue comes from 20% of your existing customers.
  • Repeat customers are more likely to spend twice as much as their original expenditure after they have been a customer for more than two years a Harvard Business School research revealed.

While most small business owners (entrepreneurs or solopreneurs) focus on attracting new customers, the key to increase business sales lies in retaining the existing customers.

If you too want to create a large database of repeated customers, follow these tips that will help you to create customer loyalty towards your brand:

  1. Build Your Product As Awesome As Humanly Possible

A business is built around a product. Your customers purchase that product. And you market the product. This proves that a product is a BIG DEAL! It is the foundation of any business.

Retaining customers will be an impossible task if the product you have built is not top-notch. You can always improve your products, but you must offer the best you possibly can.

  1. Give your customers Love, Attention & Care

Customer service is as important as the product. It can be vital for the health of a business, depending on your specific industry. It is a concept that should be integrated into every facet of the business. From product design to marketing strategies, everything should be created with a customer-centric approach.

Some customers care more about how they feel like a customer than how your product performs.

  1. Customer Loyalty Programs

According to a survey by Harvard Business School, online loyalty programs are stronger online than brick-and-mortar loyalty programs.

One of the most brilliant customer loyalty programs is the Amazon Prime membership. It is a subscription-based service with annual fee offers.  It offers its subscribers free-shipping and streaming capabilities through Prime Video. The program had proved to be a great success for Amazon.

  1. Unique Experience for Customers to make them feel special

Every customer wants more than just a product in return for a purchase. However, offering customers a unique experience sometimes requires more than just discounts alone.

Starbucks offers its customers a unique experience by providing their coffee in a mug with their names on it. It also provides its customers with one of the most successful mobile apps ever. The Starbucks app is used by around 23.4 million people. (source: https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/the-most-popular-mobile-payment-app-isnt-apple-pay-its-starbucks/)

Just like business success, customer retention is more about a mindset. Creating great products is also a mindset. The existing customers are like a gold mine if only we realize how invaluable they are for the business. To apply these tips and see your customers become loyal towards your brand.

Adopt the mindset of a customer retention master with our Everything about Entrepreneurship course. To know more about this course and how it can help you, click here: https://www.badabusiness.com/?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

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HR & People Management

4 Employee Engaging Factors to Retain Top Performers in a Company

Employee Retention! While hiring the right talent in the organization helps it to grow, retaining the same talent helps a company to attain its goals. As millennial have become a major part of the workforce, employee retention has become paramount for most of the organization.

According to a survey report published in Forbes, “60% of millennials were open to a new job, while 21% had switched jobs within the prior year”.

“Approximately 50% of the organizations admit to encountering difficulty in retaining employees, and 70% have trouble replacing the former employees who leave” according to the survey.

Today, top performers are just a LinkedIn message away from finding a new job in a rival company. Employee turnover is costly and leaves a negative impact on the organization.

If your company is also struggling with the retention of employees, here are 3 essential employee retention factors that you might be ignoring:

  1. Work Schedule Flexibility

The old clock-in, clock-out is the concept of the past. With the recent pandemic situation, the companies have realized that an equal amount of work can be done remotely as well. Employees today value flexibility and the employers must prepare themselves for a new workforce`s sense of individualism.

  1. Health & Wellness Benefits

Not only free coffee and food, today, but employees also give more preference to workplace wellness. More than 60% of waking hours are spent at the workplace. So, the workplace has a huge impact in shaping employee lifestyle, overall health, and eating habits.

Hence, a gym membership reimbursement or a health spending account simply shows that employers care about their employees` health and well being

  1. Appreciation & Recognition

When milestones or targets are achieved, are your employees rewarded or recognized for their contribution? Rewarding an employee for his immense contribution throughout the year will make them feel appreciated.

However, most of the managers forget to often do that. The reason behind it is not only ignorance but also the poor employee management system. So, it leads to an environment where the top performer doesn`t feel like going the extra mile.

  1. Employee Engagement

Most of the HR personnel feel that employee engagement means organizing an event filled with fun activities on weekends. Though that too is a good idea, it doesn’t help in the long run. Assigning your workforce with creative assignments or projects is what promotes employee engagement.

Giving monotonous projects or work that lacks creativity is the best way to have a top-performing employee looking for an exit.

With the surge in demand for highly-skilled employees, hiring managers need to be realistic about working smarter and harder to retain their valued employees. The grass is always greener on the other side, especially when employees are getting more flexibility, money, or interesting projects.

Want to know how you can enable your HR department with deep knowledge and insights that will help you retain your prized employees? Take our Problem Solving Courses. Click here to know more: https://www.badabusiness.com/psc?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

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HR & People Management

Latest Amendment in labour laws: Employee Compensations May See Major Changes!

India, which is one of the most labour-intensive countries in the world, has finalized rules under the four labour codes, or laws that will take effect from April. The country has finally taken a leap-of-faith and codified 29 of its national-level labour laws into 4 codes.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment will complete the process of bringing the latest amendments in the four new labour codes soon that will provide the companies with the flexibility of four working days in a week. However, there will be a maximum of 48 hours of work in a week.

Most of the labour laws in India are almost 70-80 years old. The economy of India has changed considerably since then. Hence, this is a bold and progressive move by the government as these age-old labour laws in India needed to change.

According to the latest amendments in labour laws the new definition of ‘wage’ will exclude pension and PF contribution, statutory bonus, HRA, conveyance allowance, overtime and gratuity. If these exclusions result in more than 50% of an employee`s CTC, the excess amount will be added back to the wage for calculation of social security benefits.

Once these codes will be implemented, the companies will have to restructure the employee compensation packages or CTC. The companies will also have to modify an employee`s CTC because under the new rules, all travel allowances such as house rent, leave travel, overtime, and conveyance, have to be capped at 50% of the CTC.

The Code on Wages was notified by the government in 2019. However, the remaining 3 codes- the Industrial Relations Code 2020, the Code on Social Security 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020, were approved by the government on September 29, 2020.

The newly introduced codes appear more as an act of consolidation rather than reform. The codes mentioned in the new reforms will bring several changes that employers in every sector, location and size will need to scrutinize closely.

Want to know how you can restructure the payroll through an effective HR management? Take our Problem Solving Course that will help you to understand the in-depth knowledge related to Human resource management. To know more about this course, click here: https://www.badabusiness.com/psc?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

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HR & People Management

Employee Performance Evaluation: What is it & Why it is necessary for an Organisation?

As 2020 winds down, employees all across the world are gearing up for their annual performance reviews. The past year has been like no other in human history.

Covid-19 has made certain targets unattainable while presenting a lot of challenges for both employers and employees. This has also forced employers and employees alike to adopt creative ways to stay relevant and productive. As a result, 2020`s performance review must also put the past year into consideration while reviewing employee`s performance.

Why employee performance management is necessary?

Performance management, if applied constructively can establish a channel of continuous communication between employers and employees. The main goal of effective performance management is to increase the overall employee productivity and efficiency to attain organizational goals.

With some simple tweaks in the process and mutual honesty, employee performance evaluation can become a valuable tool for managers and team members, equally. Here is how you too can adapt and improve employee performance:

  1. Set Performance Standards

Setting out clear performance standards for employees in a specific role can provide a clear understanding to employees about their roles and responsibilities. The same standards should apply to every employee who holds the same position.

Always ensure that all the performance standards should be achievable and they should match with the person`s job description.

  1. Set Specific Goals

Unlike performance standards, specific goals should be set for each employee by keeping their capabilities into consideration. Goals are specific to the strengths & weaknesses of the individual employee. They can further help them to enhance their skills or can encourage learning new ones.

  1. Focus on Employee Potential

While evaluating an employee`s performance, always focus on the future and the potential that an employee holds. Avoid criticism of past mistakes as the lessons learned from them are invaluable.

  1. Avoid Comparing Employees

The purpose of an employee evaluation is to provide feedback to every staff member against their Key Performance Indexes (KPIs). Comparing one employee with another will not only lead to unhealthy competition, but it can also lead to employee dissatisfaction.

Creating a productive environment for employees is essential for the development of an organization. Always ensure that an employee evaluation is a two-way street in which both the evaluator and the employee can exchange their perspective.

However, feeling a bit overwhelmed with employee performance management is common. Get adequate knowledge related to Human Resource Management that will help you increase employee engagement, efficiency, and productivity as well. To know more about our HR Problem Solving Course, click here: https://www.badabusiness.com/psc?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

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HR & People Management

Steps For Human Resource Department Of A Company To Handle a Harassment Complaint At Work

The human resource department has to deal with a lot when it comes to satisfaction of a company’s employees. Helping the employees solve their issues while adhering to the company norms especially makes the task challenging at times. One such particular situation which is very fragile and demands very careful considering is harassment against the employees. This becomes even more complex when the issue is related to a case of sexual harassment at the workplace. In spite of having company laws towards the act, the HR department is expected as well as supposed to act in a very fair and just manner, so that relevant action is taken. It is best to break down the entire procedure into several steps to ensure the needful is done at the best of the capability of an organization at the earliest. Here is how a successful HR manager can handle sexual harassment cases:

Considering and recording a complaint: Be it official or unofficial, the HR department should consider every case related to sexual harassment to be recorded. Sometimes an employee might not be comfortable in communicating the issue via mail but instead choose to communicate verbally. In some other instance, the HR department may get to know about the incident through a second person, most probably a colleague or friend of the person who has faced harassment. The HR department must in such cases register and record the issue as a complaint of sexual harassment without any second thought.
Creating a safe environment: As soon as the complaint is received, it is crucial to create a safe environment for the person who has been harassed before any investigation begins. Moreover, there may be other people who have been harassed by the same alleged harasser but couldn’t come up. Thus, it is the first and foremost responsibility of the organization to put the alleged harasser at a distance from the person who has been harassed. Some of the ways of doing this could be to work from home, leave without pay, or shift the harasser to another location.

Informing both the parties: Both of the parties involved i.e., the person who has been harassed and the person who has been alleged for harassment must be informed about the steps the HR department will be taking in order to proceed with the investigation.

Investigating: It is important for the HR department to have an impartial perspective throughout the investigation. There is a need for the HR Department to have a fair look at both sides of the coin. This not only prevents missing an important part of the conversation but also prevents any false accusations.

Getting to a conclusion: Depending on the investigation, the HR and organization need to take very strict action so that it sets an example of zero-tolerance against any such activities. Make sure you take an action according to both the company norms and the laws set by the local government on the issue. These may include termination or pursuing a legal case against the harasser.

Communicating results: While the harasser will know the result as the organization takes an action against it, the HR department needs to keep the person who was harassed informed about the steps that have been taken to ensure the safety of that particular employee, other employees, and ensure no such incident occurs in the future.

Following up: Regularly follow-up with the employees including the complainant, victim (if both are different) to ensure that they are feeling safe at the workplace and if no such issue is being continued.
Sexual harassment is a delicate issue and needs to be handled very carefully. In such a case, the HR Department is required to work responsibly. HR department often faces challenges in relevance to the satisfaction, safety, and happiness of its employees. The Human Resource Problem Solving Course guides organizations on how they can fulfill their role. To know more or to register https://www.badabusiness.com/psc?ref_code=ArticlesLeads