What Are The Benefits Of Workplace Safety

Occupational health and safety remain the top priority for most companies, and rightly so. The success of your business depends on the productivity of those working within the premises. Therefore, taking care of your employees will ensure that they give their best in whatever duties assigned to them.

In addition, every worker has a right to demand for a safe working environment. As an employer, you ought to meet these demands to avoid any legal repercussions. Of course, the benefits of adopting a safety culture goes beyond the internal business operations. Read on to find out more about the impact workplace safety has on your company and the society.

1. Increases Productivity.

It goes without saying that the state of one’s working environment directly impacts their overall productivity. For instance, if an employee isn’t assured of their safety at work, they’ll not feel comfortable. Being uneasy and having the idea that something can go wrong might gravely reduce the quality of the tasks completed. The worker will always be on the lookout rather than concentrating on the job at hand.

On the other hand, if the company complies with all the necessary precautions, the workers will be comfortable and ready to attend to their duties. In addition, it’ll strengthen the bond between you and the employees since they feel appreciated. As such, loyalty is built between the two parties, which further increases productivity.

2. Prevents Unnecessary Expenses.

Every employer is expected to provide compensation insurance to each employee. Inasmuch as all companies have this included in their policies, injuries will always increase the basic expenses. Also, some business might be underinsured due to various reasons. In such a scenario, it’s the employer’s responsibility to cover the gap, which leads to additional expenses.

The expenses may also come in the form of time. When an employee is injured, they’ll need to spend some time away from the workplace for them to recover. During this time, the employer is expected to pay the worker all their dues. Since the person being paid isn’t working, it’ll have a huge impact on the overall profitability of the company. Maintaining a safe working environment will help reduce the amount and gravity of the injuries, which is beneficial to both the employer and employee.

3. Reduces The Risk Of Downtime.

When this subject is mentioned, the first thing that pops up in a person’s mind is the safety of the employees. However, this is a factor that cuts across both human and non-human resources within a company. For instance, an accident might cause a given machine to malfunction due to the force of impact or spillages. At the end of the day, the operations within the company will either be halted or slowed down while the machine is being repaired.

This time, wherein there are no significant tasks being completed due to machine breakdown, is what’s called a downtime. The same may also be experienced if an employee specialized in a given area falls sick and there’s no one to temporarily take their place. All these can be alleviated by establishing clear safety protocols that’ll guide the employees whenever they step into the premises.

4. Minimizes Legal Liabilities.

All employees have a right to not only feel, but also be actually safe within their working environment. As earlier stated, it’s your responsibility as the employer to see that these needs are met with utmost professionality. Remember, there’s a minimum threshold that must be reached for you to be on the right side of the law. However, even after taking all the precautions, accidents may still happen.

The insurance company and other relevant legal entities will check whether your company has complied with all the regulations. This is where your safety policies come into place. Any legal liability found within the premises will be used against you and the company could end up incurring a lot of money. In other cases, the business might be shut down immediately.

Conclusion.

Workplace safety is the responsibility of everyone working within the premises. However, the law states that the employer should be at the forefront in ensuring that all safety precautions are in place. Failure to meet these expectations may lead to downtime, employees missing their shifts, or even significant legal liabilities.

The insurance company will always look for the slightest of mistakes that can be used against you and your business. Therefore, it’s recommended that you come up with a set of policies that will be used as guide by anyone working at the company.

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6 Things You Should Look For In A Life Coach

A life coach helps you realize your true values and your passions in life. Despite many stressors, this wellness professional can help create a more fulfilling and positive life. Note that the benefits of a hiring good life coach are relatively endless, but you need to hire the right professional before you can reap these advantages.

Here are six things to consider as you look for the right life coach.

1. Authenticity and Certification.

The foundation of trust starts with honesty. Thus, one way to ensure that you’re taking the advice of a certified life coach is to ask for proof of authenticity.

It would be best if you understood that relatively anyone could become a life coach these days. For example, search for life advice on social media, and you can find several search results pointing to life gurus. However, many of these ‘gurus’ tend to give general suggestions, which might not be the advice you need. But wellness professionals attained certification in coaching to ensure you’re going to hear what you want to hear.

Seeking the help of a certified life coach lets you build a dynamic yet particular relationship with this expert. Therefore, the professional should offer specific suggestions based on different scenarios. This is because the right professional understands the different aspects of becoming a life coach.

For instance, you don’t want a ‘coach’ to tell you a vague suggestion like ‘be confident’ when you’re seeking ways to improve business relations. That ‘guru’ should know the required steps to help you improve relationships with clients and business partners.

If you hire a certified coach, you may have peace of mind as you know your money and time is going in the right place.

2. Specialization.

Different life coaches offer different pieces of advice. For example, a wellness professional with an expertise in building and sustaining couple relationships might not have the right suggestions for maintaining financial health.

Therefore, you should choose a life coach that coincides with your specific needs. As you’re searching for the right wellness professional, here are some of life coach certifications that you may look into:

• Certified Emotional Intelligence Coach (CEIC)
• Certified Goal Attainment Coach (CGAC)
• Certified Life Coach (CLC)
• Certified Motivational Coach (CMC)
• Certified Personal Development Coach (CPDC)
• Certified Career Transition Coach (CTC)

You can also find a wellness coach who specializes in providing meaningful advice for specific fields, like religion, relationships, wealth, and general health and wellness.

3. Empathy.

Empathy is one of the most important aspects of life coaching. This trait allows your wellness coach to relate and feel different scenarios, helping you see the bigger picture of your situation. A coach without empathy tends to focus on their feelings instead of their customers’ emotional and psychological states.

You’ll know if a certain life coach empathizes with their clients by the way they talk. Your coach’s tone shouldn’t be condescending. Instead, it should be full of feeling that shows that they understand what you’re going through in life.

With that in mind, hire a coach with experience in traveling or working in multicultural environments. If so, that professional may acquire the skill to see things from a different perspective, allowing you to take advantage of ‘outside-the-box’ solutions.

Thus, your chosen wellness expert should help you understand the correct feelings by empathizing with your current emotional and psychological state. In turn, you can develop actionable plans to help you grow as a person for the short- and long-term.

4. Positivity.

A wellness professional that lives a positive life will radiate positivity for their clients to absorb. Note that a positive attitude is essential to a coach, especially if they work with clients with several concerns. Also, positive thinking helps you focus on solutions instead of problems. This scenario paves the way for constructive thinking instead of concentrating on life’s faults.

A positive life coach incorporates motivation in their suggestions. It’s the ability to deliver energy and ‘zest’ in the goals you need to accomplish. For example, you might consider traveling from Point A to Point E in a straight line. But you might miss out on the wonderful things that you might miss from Points B to D.

Therefore, your chosen life coach, which exudes positivity, might teach you how to look at life from a different angle. In other words, see the forest for the trees instead of constantly trying to find a way out.

5. Accountability.

Always keep in mind that life coaches aren’t superior beings. These individuals are humans, much like yourself. Therefore, as humans, these professionals can still commit mistakes. Remember, an accountable coach is a humble coach.

Your chosen wellness professional should also be coachable and self-aware about the mistakes that they make. But it doesn’t mean that this individual should submit to all of their customers’ blame and complaints. Instead, the coach should know when to put their foot down when things seemingly get out of hand.

Furthermore, an accountable life coach will help you start reaching goals, instead of leaving you to look at them from afar. That accountability will resonate within you, helping you remove a perfectionist attitude that might set unrealistically high objectives.

If so, the wellness professional can help dictate the small steps you need to reach those large goals. In turn, you may see the best version of yourself. But always keep in mind that these positive results will take time.

6. Strategic Mindset.

If that person gives you vague pieces of advice, consider changing your life coach. Instead, opt for a wellness professional that shows you the steps on how to turn dreams into reality.

However, how would you know if the wellness coach you hire has a strategic mindset? You can listen to the way that person speaks during the initial interview. Find key points in the way they talk, such as:

• Connecting instead of correcting
• Respecting instead of confronting
• Bringing self-insight instead of telling
• Encourages your assessment instead of providing vague suggestions
• Provides clarity and stimulates critical thinking instead of relying on familiar habits

Looking at the points mentioned above, you may denote that the right life coach may have different thinking patterns than the average human being. For example, that expert might ask you, ‘what are the strategies you need to apply to take you to the next level in life?’

Remember, life coaches help you provide answers by letting you develop problem-solving skills. Hence, these professionals won’t have the answer to everything you ask of them.

Final Words.

Life coaches help their customers reach different life goals, ranging from career-oriented objectives to building meaningful relationships. Acquiring the help of a reliable and certified wellness professional can help you achieve your various life goals. But, first, consider the factors mentioned above to ensure you’re getting the professional help of a certified coach.

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Tips For Launching Influencer Campaigns For Your E-Commerce

If you’re an e-commerce site, you’re probably always looking for new ways to generate more sales. And if you can find influencers to promote your e-commerce on social media, you may be able to achieve this goal.

Did you know that 87% of consumers say they’ve made a purchase based on content they saw from influencers? If you’ve already launched influencer campaigns, hopefully you saw similar results. And if you haven’t yet dabbled in influencer marketing, now’s the time to try it out.

Keep reading for five tips for launching influencer marketing campaigns for your e-commerce business.

1. Take a look at your social networks.

If you want to launch an influencer campaign, you need to have social media accounts. And before launching any campaigns, you should make sure your social networks are up-to-date and appropriately branded. If your brand has no presence on social media, it may be difficult to find an influencer who wants to collaborate with you.

Therefore, make sure you have a biography or about section, include a link to your website, list some ways to contact your company, and publish content to your feed. Likewise, on your website, put links to your social media accounts so that users can move easily between the two. Aim for consistency and coherency between the content, aesthetics and information displayed on your website and social networks.

If your profile is on a network that allows reviews, try to get some recommendations from past customers. You could potentially offer customers an incentive – like a discount code – in exchange for their positive review.

Further, if the social network allows it, you should convert your accounts to business accounts. Having this type of account will provide you with more information about your profile and audience. On Instagram, for example, you can do this by accessing Settings.

Little Crow Design is an e-commerce from Sydney, Australia that sells home decor items. You can see that their Facebook page is clearly linked to their website.

2. Define your campaign objectives.

For all marketing campaigns, the most important part is deciding on the goals you want to strive to achieve. Although for e-commerce shops the primary goal might be to increase sales, there are other valuable things influencer marketing campaigns can bring to your company. You may want to drive traffic to your website, increase your followers on social media, or boost the visibility of your products.

In order to effectively track your campaign’s success, you should have an account with an analytics service that can report on metrics like web traffic, sales, and clicks of specific links. This is also the time to set up any campaign-specific mentions, hashtags, links or discount codes you plan to use. These elements will help you track your analytics later on.

@kallie_carson advertising her discount code for @magnoliaboutiqueindianapolis, an online clothing boutique.

In addition, set up your campaign schedule and budget. When do you want to achieve your goals? Just remember that not everything always goes according to plan. Your chosen influencer may be busy, or you might encounter unforeseen shipping delays. Retain some flexibility in order to deal with any hurdles along the way. Likewise, know what you can offer each influencer in terms of incentive, and remember that down the road you may have to negotiate that.

3. Target the right type of influencer.

Once you know what you want out of your campaign, it’s time to find influencers to help make your dreams a reality! But while it’s easy enough to find any influencer, locating the right one for your brand can be a bit tricky. Here are some things to consider when you start your search.

First of all, which social network are you launching on? Make sure you choose an influencer who has good metrics on that platform. And keep in mind that metrics differ a bit across the different networks. Engagement isn’t the same on Instagram and Youtube, for example.

Next, consider what category of influencer you want to contract. Think outside the box here, too. If you’re an e-commerce that sells home decor items, you may want to look into influencers who fall into categories like lifestyle, fashion, mommy, or DIY. While those categories might not be exactly how you define your brand, exploring them could introduce your products to new audiences.

Finally, think about which of the influencer tiers you want to target. For both big and small brands, micro influencers are a great option. They’re considered experts in their fields, they have some of the highest engagement rates on social media, and they’re budget-friendly.

@t.rinluck, a Thai micro influencer with 20.2k followers, has collaborated with @morphebrushes, a cosmetics e-commerce site. 

4. Analyze influencers.

Finding and choosing influencers will be much easier with an influencer marketing platform, which can guide your search as well as provide important analytics to help you make the right decision.

When comparing influencers, two of the most important metrics to analyze are their number of followers and engagement rate. Engagement shows the level of interest in an influencer’s content. This metric is extremely important, as it provides an indication of how much interest could be generated in your brand should you choose to collaborate with the influencer.

In addition, take a look at the influencer’s audience. If you’re using an influencer marketing platform, you’ll have this information available. But if not, you’ll have to ask the influencer directly for their audience metrics. However you acquire this information, make sure the influencer’s audience matches your target’s audience. If not, you may miss opportunities.

For example, imagine you want to increase sales of your products in Spain. You choose an influencer based in Madrid. However, you fail to realize that most of that influencer’s audience is based in Latin America, where your company doesn’t ship. Now, you might end up with some brand awareness in Latin America, but you won’t achieve your campaign goal, as that audience can’t buy your products.

An influencer marketing platform can help you analyze important stats about an influencer’s audience. 

Last but not least, make sure the influencer’s feed meshes with yours. You’ll want someone who embodies your brand values. You’ll also want someone with a similar aesthetic style, in order to maintain a sense of coherence in your branding.

5. Reach out!

Once you’ve selected some influencers who match your brand’s image and goals, it’s time to contact them. Maintain open and friendly communications when negotiating collaborations. Take the time to tell the influencers exactly what you hope to achieve and how you want to do it. Answer any questions they may have regarding your product, content or brand.

If you’re working with nano or micro influencers, you can probably close a deal for product alone. However, some micro influencers, and nearly all top influencers, will also ask for an economic fee. Negotiate until you find something agreeable to both parties.

After the campaign launch, monitor the published content and its results. If your campaign is successful, don’t hesitate to work with that influencer again in the future. And if the results didn’t meet your expectation, analyze why. As long as you keep an open mind, there’s always something to be learned to help you improve next time.

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In This Sink-Or-Swim Business Environment, Now Is Not The Time For Your Creative Teams To Go Wild

by Lonny Kocina, CEO of Media Relations Agency and author of “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing: The Book Every Marketer Should Read Before Their Boss Does“

Since the pandemic started, it seems businesses are either growing or going under. Marketing is a necessity to remind customers why they should be doing business with you, but spending money without a systematic approach is scary. If you’ve ever laughed at a funny TV commercial but had no clue what it was advertising, you know how costly a marketing mistake can be. A simple, proven marketing process can help keep creative people on point, ensuring smart use of  your budget.

Creative ideas are great, but only if we remember why we’re marketing something. Unfortunately, too many companies allow the creative tail to wag the dog. They allow their marketing folks to go nuts without giving them clear direction. It’s unfortunate how much money is being wasted and sales missed over something that is relatively easy to solve.

In my Axiom award-winning, Amazon bestselling book, “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing“, I outline a six-step marketing process called Strategically Aimed Marketing, or SAM 6. It gives business leaders a simple way to keep campaigns on track.

Following SAM 6 will assure creative people stay focused, on track and doing their best work. If you give creative people structure, they will produce amazing results.

I’ve worked with hundreds of clients across the country. I get to see what’s behind the scenes. I can tell you, the companies that follow a logical process are the ones getting the most bang for their marketing dollars.

The six steps of the Strategically Aimed Marketing process are:

1. Gain competence in marketing concepts and principles.

Dentists know how to fix and preserve teeth. A competent marketer has a clear understanding of the broad concept of marketing as well as a working knowledge of specific marketing concepts and principles.

2. Create code sheets about your company and its products.

Code sheets are a means of documenting important information such as your product positioning, vision, mission, primary messaging themes and value points. Having all of these compiled in one place helps direct and control your creative staff.

3. Select the appropriate channels for each project.

The promotional mix channels you choose to employ depend on many variables including your message, the market and your resources.

4. Maintain a schedule calendar.

Your marketing calendar’s purpose is to figure out which products and messages should get the most attention. Scheduling will keep your promotions organized and help with budgeting.

5. Develop a control template.

Your control template provides the guidelines for your writers, designers and other creative staff to follow.

6. Engage your creative team.

You need to assemble the right people for the job, and then let these creative souls work their magic within the parameters you set. The composition of your creative team will depend on your calendar.

After more than 30 years of product marketing leadership, I have seen the benefits of well-orchestrated, integrated campaigns. Marketing is about the shortest, fastest, least expensive and most direct route to a lead, a sale and a brand. But marketing has always been about being persuasive. You’ve got to tell people what they need, and cause them to desire it more than their money. If you lose sight of that, you won’t see more leads and higher sales. What makes me feel good about the SAM 6 process is that it’s a good fit for everyone in business.

I predict that following the six-step Strategically Aimed Marketing process will bring order and clarity to your marketing. It will lead to more leads, higher sales and a stronger brand.

 

Lonny Kocina, CEO of Media Relations Agency is a visionary who is passionate about marketing. He pioneered the concept of Pay Per Interview Publicity® business model which enables clients to purchase publicity by the story. He currently teaches his popular Strategically Aimed Marketing (SAM 6) process, outlined in his best-selling book “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing: The Book Every Marketer Should Read Before Their Boss Does” to business leaders and those working within the marketing industry.

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How Can Tech Innovations Help Cerebral Palsy?

Technological innovations can offer incredible opportunities for advancement to people around the world. One of the groups with the highest potential to benefit is those who suffer from any sort of disability. For those dealing with cerebral palsy, tech innovations have the potential to completely transform their lives.

Cerebral palsy involves permanent movement disorders, and symptoms first appear in early childhood. There is no cure for cerebral palsy, but medical advances continue to be made regarding treatment. In conjunction with medical advancements (and until a cure for this disorder is hopefully found), tech innovations are already changing the way of life for many who are suffering from cerebral palsy.

Life-Altering Innovations.

There are amazing products out there to help with cerebral palsy. Unfortunately, like most new technology, these items don’t come cheap. By hiring a cerebral palsy lawyer, parents who face financial difficulties can be compensated. This compensation can help you cover the cost of the latest technological innovations that can help your child to live life to the fullest.

There are many technologies either already in use or in the testing phase for those dealing with cerebral palsy. Here are a few of the devices that are currently being used to change lives.

Robotic Crawler.

The robotic crawler, or to call it by its official name, the Self-Initiated Prone Progression Crawler, is a machine that helps give babies at risk of developing cerebral palsy assistance in crawling. The infant lays on a wheeled cart and is strapped into a harness that connects them to a three-legged robot with an EEG cap that fits on the child’s head and monitors their brain activity. When the child tries to crawl, the sensors tell the robot, and the machine rolls forward with the baby.

Children’s brain development benefits greatly from movement, and the process works both ways as brain development helps to aid in motor function. The Progression Crawler helps both areas develop as it aids the child in movement.

Motorized Ankle Brace.

Braces are common among children with cerebral palsy, both as a means of support and in improving mobility. Some hard shell leg braces end up immobilizing the leg and cause the muscles in the leg to atrophy from underuse. However, the motorized ankle brace takes the leg brace to the next level by using dielectric elastomer actuators, which are flexible “smart materials” that act as artificial muscles.

The brace is lightweight and non-constrictive, allowing the benefits of a standard brace to multiply by actually helping to increase the mobility of the leg and build up the muscle further while increasing range of motion.

Eye Gaze.

Perhaps the most exciting tech innovation of the bunch, the Eye Gaze, has potential benefits for cerebral palsy patients of all ages as well as people suffering from a wide range of other movement impairments. Unlike the Progression Crawler and the motorized ankle brace, the Eye Gaze does not help with improving movement, but rather helps those with impaired movement to perform far more tasks.

The Eye Gaze is essentially a hands-free tablet that uses an invisible laser to read a person’s eye movement across the screen. The tablet can be programmed for a wide variety of functions, and all the user has to do to operate it is to look around the screen and stare at a specific item for a preset amount of time to select that item. The possibilities for this machine as it continues to develop are limitless.

The Future Is Bright.

With advancements being made in the fight against cerebral palsy on the medical front, hopefully, before too long, these technological advancements will no longer be necessary and will be adapted to fit other illnesses instead. Until that time though, these are exciting innovations for people dealing with cerebral palsy and with plenty of research still being conducted, other new and exciting ideas will be transforming into realities right around the corner.

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Third-Party Risk Management: What It Is And Why You Need It

Even the smallest companies rely on vendors to provide them with the supplies and services they need to stay in business themselves. Strong vendor relationships can allow your company to save money and work towards business goals while mitigating risk — and all vendor relationships come with inherent risk. The more essential the vendor is to your business, the greater those risks can be, and many of them are out of your control.

There’s the risk that the vendor won’t come through, that supply chains will be compromised, or that the vendor will damage your reputation, fail to comply with regulations, be affected by a natural disaster, or get hacked. Third-party risk management is the discipline of managing risks like these to prevent, or at least mitigate, any potential damage to your operation. A strong third-party risk management strategy will increase transparency, streamline operations, and cut costs.

Ins and Outs of Third-Party Risk Management.

In today’s business world, many companies rely on their relationship with one another to survive. It’s this very interconnectedness that has made third-party risk management so important for so many companies. Vendors and their clients often work together toward mutual business goals, with vendors privy to much of their clients’ sensitive data and operational strategies. Working closely with vendors is beneficial for many companies — for example, it’s cheaper to contract with a security vendor than to hire several new staff members, invest in security cameras and other equipment, and assume the costs of maintaining and replacing that equipment and keeping security positions staffed.

Third-party risk management, also known as supplier risk management or vendor risk management, seeks to mitigate the inherent risks in working closely with a vendor by ranking vendors according to the level of risk the relationship presents, and then taking steps to address those risks. That should involve hiring dedicated staff to manage vendor risks, perform due diligence when taking on new vendors, document the vendor relationship, and even put together the necessary contractual language to, for example, obtain a certain level of data security, or put other measures in place to mitigate risk.

Before you embark on a relationship with a vendor, perform your due diligence by screening the vendor for regulatory compliance, data security, reliability, and other factors that could make them too risky to work with. Designate an employee to steward each aspect of the relationship. Don’t be afraid to rely on vendor management software and other risk management technology — and be sure to standardize your risk management strategy so that the same guidelines are applied to every vendor relationship your company forms.

Benefits of a Strong Vendor Risk Management Strategy.

The obvious benefit of a strong vendor risk management strategy is that your company will thrive and enjoy a strong reputation, access to greater innovation, and increased profits. Laying out clear guidelines when a vendor relationship begins allows the vendor to meet and exceed your performance expectations — it fosters an atmosphere of transparency that allows everyone involved to complete their allotted tasks within the timeframes prescribed. When concerns come up, this transparency allows for issues to be raised through an established process.

A strong third-party risk management strategy can make your business operations more efficient, allowing you to go ahead and outsource aspects of your operations that would be too time-consuming or expensive to handle in-house. Partnering with vendors offers unique opportunities to fill gaps in expertise, finances, or time. You can cut costs by minimizing the number of employees and departments you have, paring them back to just what you need to accomplish only those things that your staff can do better and cheaper than anyone else. A strong internal oversight process can take the place of needing to control everything yourself.

Contracting with third-party vendors can help your company save time, reduce the need to buy expensive equipment or train new staff, and even give you access to the very supplies you need to run your business. These relationships can be risky, and that’s why you need a strong third-party risk management strategy. With the right oversight in place, you can enjoy all the benefits of your vendor relationships and experience none of the downsides.

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Faxing From Your Computer: Which Option Is Best?

Are you thinking about replacing your old fax machine with a computer?  Many years have passed since machines first entered the office equipment market, but despite the advances in digital technology, faxing is still preferred for sharing documents that need to be private and delivered to the right hands.

There are two main ways your business can embrace digital faxing: by subscribing to an online fax service and by using fax software to manage fax reception in-house. Here we will take a look at both alternatives.

1. Email fax services.

Faxing through a service is the preferred way of faxing these days because it brings all the advantages of a modern fax solution, including the ability to take care of documents on the go, schedule faxes and access them from any computer. Since fax services have a monthly fee and a number of faxes you can send/receive during that period, they are perfect for those that handle a determined volume of faxing per month and are looking to cut down costs.

These services allow you to send fax from email by linking your fax number to an existing email address. You send a fax in the same way you send an email with an attached file. You can learn more on GoogleOnlineFax.com’s Gmail fax guide.

Services are also the best option for people who want to receive digital faxes. They give you an email fax number that redirects incoming documents to your email automatically, from where you can download them or print them as you wish.

The only downside of fax services is that they have to be paid every month. That’s right; fax services work through a subscription that can be paid monthly or annually if you want to save some dollars.  It’s worth every penny though, as you can turn your faxing in an entirely hands-free process. Nowadays you can find excellent services with basic faxing capabilities for as low as $5 per month.

2. Fax software.

Fax software appeared before services, and for years it was used by people who wanted to fax from a computer. The use of software has declined a bit over the past few years, but it has not disappeared entirely. As a matter of fact, most people can find a program called “Windows Fax and Scan,” which is included in different versions of Microsoft’s Windows OS. You can send and receive faxes with a fax application, but you need a fax modem and a dedicated fax line that will be connected to your computer.

Although you can send and receive faxes with a fax application, be aware that you need a fax modem and a dedicated fax line that will be connected to your computer.

Today, software is a good alternative for big companies which need to have an in-house fax solution. They provide companies a great deal of flexibility, customization, and control. Examples of fax software are Essential Fax, Snappy Fax, GFI Fax, among others.

Fax Services vs Fax Software: Who Wins?

This versus is won by unanimous decision by fax services.  They are simply the best way to fax right now.  Perhaps software is a good option if you are in charge of a big company and want an in-house solution, through the use of fax servers, but that is not the situation in most cases.

Fax services have a lot of advantages over applications.  They are easy to get started with (you can create an account and start faxing in literally less than 5 minutes), and they provide a safe and reliable way to receive faxes by giving you a virtual number that will continue grabbing incoming faxes even if you are not at the office or in front of your computer.  Now, with the addition of fax apps by the top rated fax companies there isn’t a fax you can take care of on the go.

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The Struggles Of Small Business Don’t Bode Well For The Overall Economy

by Andi Gray, president of Strategy Leaders

The year 2020 can’t end quickly enough for most small business owners.

Across the country, the pandemic forced many of them to close their operations temporarily – or permanently – and the continued economic uncertainty threatens to kill the ambitions of entrepreneurs who planned to launch businesses but now must put their dreams on hold.

None of that bodes well for the overall American economy. Small businesses make up 50 percent of the gross-domestic product and also employ half the workforce. What happens to them determines what happens to the overall economy. We as a country cannot afford to fail them.

Look at the 2008-11 banking crisis, a disturbing example of how a national crisis can sabotage entrepreneurship. In 2008, for the first time, the number of business starts fell below the number of business closures. In other words, more businesses were killed off than were launched. And it wasn’t a one-time event. The problem continued on for years.

The ripple effects? By 2009 small business contributions to GDP fell rather than grew. By 2010 the economic contribution gap between large and small businesses widened four-fold as small businesses struggled to keep up with their large corporate competitors. People lost their jobs, exports dropped, taxes fell and economic opportunity disappeared as entrepreneurs fought to recover. It took over five years for the small business community to get back on track. But the damage was already done. By 2015, the U.S. was ranked 12^th among developed nations in terms of startup activity.

I worry such lingering effects could happen again – and be significantly worse this time.

Today’s COVID crisis is far larger and deeper than the 2008 crisis. I would not be surprised if it takes far longer than five years for the small business community to get back to producing GDP and employment numbers we took for granted at the beginning of the year.

In the meantime, small business owners hit hard by this latest recession must find ways to weather the storm. Here are a few suggestions for how they can do that:

Stay energized and focused.

The single biggest determinant for survival of any small business is the commitment, ambition, and drive of the owner. If you are feeling worn out, take time off to recharge. Keep your eye focused down the road, on what’s way ahead, and don’t waste too much energy and sweat trying to control what’s happening right in front of you day-to-day.

Take care of the finances.

If money is in short supply, investigate sources of capital. Put together a bankable plan that justifies increased investment and provides guidance on how best to use funding to recover, expand and weather future challenges. Talk to your banker, the SBA, reputable SBA lending consultants, and private investors to find out what kinds of capital might be available.

Figure out how to play the hand they were dealt.

Small business owners need to get creative and innovative. Rebuild as you protect cash flow. Find suppliers to replace the ones struggling to perform. Rethink your business model and evaluate customer viability. In addition, look for new markets to add size and profits, implement processes to cut out waste, and transition more and more customers to internet communication and ecommerce buying solutions. Decide what size business will be right for you in the future and lay out a plan to get there.

Pay attention to employees. 

As scared as small business owners may be about what the future holds, many of their employees are even more frightened. After all, you have the resources of your company to use to build solutions. Employees who live paycheck to paycheck may be running out of options and wondering how long they can hold on – or how long you’ll be able to let them hold onto their much-needed jobs.

The good news is that small business owners are known for being nimble, flexible, and resourceful. Many of them are finding new opportunities by solving problems that didn’t exist, or weren’t priorities, at the start of 2020.

 

Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders, a business consulting firm. Gray’s career started in sales, marketing and new business development at Xerox, American Express and Contel. Gray earned an Executive MBA from Columbia University while conducting research on success and failure drivers for entrepreneurial businesses. Gray is also the co-founder of the networking group BOHCA (Business Owners Hemp and Cannabis Association), where she helps industry specific owners grow their business through strategic planning.

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4 Reasons Why Smart Bloggers Are Also Influencers

Once upon a time, blogging was a way for people to share their thoughts with the world, and not expect much in return. While people still share their thoughts for free, smart established bloggers have found ways to make money for their trouble. It all started with the OG of blog monetization: Google Adwords. This was, and still is, an easy way to make a little money for your blog.

However, most people won’t get rich just using Adwords. Generally, it’ll cover basic costs and not much more. Smart bloggers, therefore, monetize more than just their internet real estate. Instead, they become influencers and make money that way as well. Let’s take a look at how this all plays out.

1. Bloggers are influencers, too.

These days, most of us think of “Influencers” as people who sell stuff on social media. In particular, Instagram has become a favorite place for visual sponsored content. However, there are influencers all over the internet. Any time that people consume content, there’s the potential for its creator to have some influence. Just look at the news media: it’s well known that the way in which news is presented tends to influence how people think about world events. There are also ways to spread influence through blogging.

Shared expertise.

One of the ways in which blogging as influence differs from some of the other content types is shared expertise. Many high-quality blogs exist primarily to share the blogger’s knowledge with the world. For instance, look at my website. On NealSchaffer.com, I talk about many different aspects of marketing. In particular, I focus on influencer marketing since I wrote a book about it. People visit my site primarily because they want to learn about this subject. As a rule, people check out blogs to learn about the author’s subject matter.

Sources of inspiration.

Any kind of creative blog can also be influential. It could mean recipes, various types of crafting, or home improvement. Each blog type provides a public service that can inspire readers to do something great. Maybe it’s those awesome wedding reception centerpieces you made-and everyone decided was insta-worthy. Or you found the perfect way to store winter boots. Whatever it is, you can influence people to buy materials when they’re inspired by projects.

Thought leadership.

Finally, bloggers naturally become an influencer by becoming thought leaders. It could be that they talk about marketing concepts, such as the importance of measuring returns on investment. Or, they might become advocates for corporate responsibility. In other words, it isn’t always an issue of sharing how to do something, but why something is important. People tend to listen when a blogger has earned their trust.

2. You can’t make an impact as a blogger without becoming influential in Google’s eyes.

Have you ever thought you’re talking to the wall? That people won’t listen to what you’re saying, no matter how long you say it? While most of us have experienced this in meetings, it’s a common problem for bloggers. In particular, bloggers who aren’t discovered when people run Google searches for their subject matter.

SEO matters.

Just like traditional websites, your blog needs to be easily discoverable on Google. Otherwise, your traffic will be limited. Not only is it less likely that you’ll recoup your blog expenses through basic advertising revenue, but you probably won’t make an impact. How can you, if nobody is reading your stuff? In order to avoid being stuck in an internet black hole, you need to optimize your blog for SEO.

So does “authority.”

In addition to basic SEO techniques, there’s the extent to which you appear authoritative about a subject. This has a lot to do with keywords, but it’s also related to basic expertise. For instance, Bill Gates has a lot of authority in the software field, and professional athletes are authoritative in their respective sports. As part of your SEO, it’s important to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. That way, a search engine is more likely to rank you well. This, in turn, drives traffic.

Don’t stuff.

Finally, let’s talk about going overboard. If there’s one thing Google absolutely hates, it’s keyword stuffing. Make sure that your keywords have the right concentration. Also, distribute them artfully throughout your blog posts so that the insertions appear natural. This makes your blog both readable and well-ranked. There is a wide variety of advice out there, as well as plenty of tools to help you succeed.

3. You can’t make impact as a blogger without building influence in social media.

Besides sound SEO practices, there are other ways to drive traffic to your blog. This involves making your blog a desirable destination for people in your target audience. One of the easier ways to do this is through your social media presence and becoming a social media influencer.

Posting links on personal social profiles.

If you want to get traffic for your blog, start with your online friends. For example, a mother blogging about her child’s illness will often post a link to the blog posts as they’re released. This way, those who are interested can go check it out. This technique works for other kinds of blogs, too. Even bloggers who don’t seek to become influential will use blogging as a way to tell people they know about their adventures. Over time, traffic builds when the friends of friends check out the blog. Social sharing is a powerful tool, even for blogs.

Have blog-specific or author-based accounts.

An alternative to posting about your blog on personal social media is having a separate social media page. While this isn’t necessarily practical when first starting out, as the blog grows you might find it advantageous to separate your social media traffic. This allows you to have a space for primarily family and friends, and a different space for blog readers. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t still announce blog posts on your personal page, however.

This approach has another advantage: it can help bypass the contact limits of various social networks. By sending your blog fans elsewhere, you are reducing your contact counts on a personal page, letting you use the allowance for something else. In turn, you can tailor social postings to either fans or friends. These pages can be called author pages, business pages, or something else depending on the network.

Hang out in the right circles.

Finally, it’s important that you post in places where your core subject is discussed. For instance, if you run an SaaS company, hang out in software communities. In addition, be sure to engage with people who are part of your target industry. This way, people will get to see what you are all about. Over time, they’ll check out your blog, and hopefully, share your content. Do this right, and watch your readership expand rapidly.

4. You can’t make impact as a blogger unless you are collaborating with other influencers or influential sites – which organically leads to more backlinks.

While you might not think about it this way very often, blogging is a sort of team sport. Sure, the main author is always the star of the show, but cross promotion is really important for growing your audience. That’s because, as with influencer marketing for brands, you need to borrow their audience. Depending on the opportunity, you can connect with different people who might become regular readers of your blog. This collaboration can be done several ways.

Guest posts.

With guest posts, a blog author has the opportunity to post on someone else’s blog. If you’re just starting out as a blogger, this may seem like a huge challenge. Fortunately, there are ways to find these opportunities. For instance, you might meet someone at a trade show or convention and strike up a conversation. Then, you can agree on guest posting for each other’s blog. Another way is by participating in online forums, which you should be doing anyway. Finally, there’s the old fashioned practice of finding blogs that accept guests. Either way, the first couple gigs are likely to be the hardest.

Interviews.

A lot of bloggers like to do interviews from time to time. Once you get to know the bloggers in your niche, someone might give you the opportunity to be interviewed. Here, you’ll get the chance to talk about yourself and why your blog is relevant to their audience. Or, this can work in reverse: interview them, and let them self-promote to your audience. Either way, your respective audiences get exposure to the other person’s content and thought, which helps increase the number of visitors on both sides.

Cross linking.

Besides interviews or guest blogs, you can collaborate with other content creators through cross linking. In this case, you link to each other’s material as it’s relevant to your audience. However, unlike organic cross linking, with a collaboration you’re both doing it on purpose. Over time, the idea is to share each other’s audience. Hopefully, you’ll get a lot more shares on social media or links from third parties. Then, the audience will really grow.

The bottom line.

Being influential as a blogger is essential to your success. Fortunately, it isn’t that hard to build influence. Through a combination of quality SEO work, links, collaborations, and more, you can capture the attention of a broader audience. From there, you can increase sales for your brand or monetize your influence to an increasing degree. With a little bit of work, you can become a thought leader in your field and get a truly brag-worthy audience.

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How Offering Gift Cards Can Help Grow Your Business

If you’re just starting out, there’s a need for you to create new customers in order to grow your business. One way to do this is to offer gift cards for items that customers can purchase from your store or from your website. Giving away gift cards to customers can be one of the best ways to get the word out about your business and build customer loyalty.

By offering these cards for a specific dollar amount, you allow them to get items for a certain amount of money, then they’ll complete the transaction online and you get paid automatically.

If you consider offering gift cards, below are some ways on how it can help grow your online business:

Increase Profits.

These days, many companies offer a variety of products to their customers. If you want to make the most of your profits, it makes good business sense to sell as many products as possible in order to offer a bigger range of prices and features. This can often include offering or giving out gift cards to your customers if they buy more than one item.

If you’re the owner of a business that offers a wide range of products, then this could be a great way to improve your sales as well as help you gain the much-needed customers that you need.

By partnering with online websites that offer gift cards as rewards and other deals, you’re essentially increasing your revenues by attracting more customers to purchase from your store.

Improve Branding.

Giving away gift cards as incentives can help create a sense of trust in your company, which will ultimately help attract more loyal customers to your store. For example, when a customer feels that they can trust your store, they’re more likely to spend time and money in your store. When they see the variety of products that you offer and the way you treat your customers, a good impression can be made.

In short, the more you offer gift cards to your customers, the more you promote your brand to a wide range of customers. This can help keep your business stand out from your competition.

Allow Better Customer Engagement.

You’ll be losing a lot of profit if you only offer gift cards to a limited number of customers. That’s why you need to make sure that you know how your business can benefit from offering perks, such as gift card for Amazon, and that you offer different cards to a wide range of customers. This ensures that you still get to make money from the sale of these products while getting an improved level of customer engagement.

So, by having different gift cards to give out to different customers, you open better opportunities to engage with various existing customers and prospects. Remember, the more gift cards you offer to these people, the more they’re engaged as ambassadors of your brand.

Encourage Repeat Visits And Purchases.

If you want to start growing your business, you should also start offering gift cards and gift certificates as rewards. This gives the customers an incentive to make a purchase and helps them find you over time. After you’ve been established, you can offer a variety of other perks to keep them coming back.

In addition, gift cards can be one of the easiest ways to increase the revenue that you bring in, allowing your business to exponentially grow. These offers can help encourage customers to visit again and spend more money by making a repeat purchase. As a result, you can increase your sales over time.

Always keep in mind that many clients will appreciate being able to shop within their own budget because of the discounts provided by the gift cards. This can make it easier for them to buy what they want in a convenient manner. They can shop around with their friends or family members, then buy what they need without being overcharged. The more they’re satisfied, the more they’ll keep coming back to do business with you.

Final Words.

Gift cards are a great way for businesses to generate additional revenue. It’s also an excellent method of gaining new business and attracting customers who may have otherwise passed by your store. By offering gift cards, it’s possible to increase the amount of money your company is able to make in a given day.

Indeed, there are a lot of different reasons why you would want to give out gift cards to your customers, especially now that most gift cards go digital. However, this article focuses on how offering these cards can help your business grow. Hopefully, you will find this information useful.

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Mistakes You’re Making With Your SEO Content

When developing a sound search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, the creation of search engine-focused content should factor in. In addition to enticing and entertaining prospective clients, well-crafted SEO content can help elicit positive attention from search giants like Google and Bing and direct scores of first-time visitors to your website.

Of course, this isn’t to say that all SEO content makes the grade. Without even realizing it, many businesses make a wide range of mistakes when creating new content. Since such blunders often serve to drive potential patrons away from your enterprise, it’s in your best interest to nip the following mishaps in the bud.

Not Reaching Out to Professionals.

If your business has little to no experience creating search engine-focused content, not enlisting the aid of professionals is among the worst choices you can make. Sure, this entails spending money, but the substantial payoffs this partnership entails should prove well worth the investment. A seasoned digital marketing company will provide you with first-rate website SEO services and teach you the various ins and outs of search engine optimization. Additionally, if no one in your enterprise is a gifted writer, consider reaching out to a company that provides convenient content creation services.

Engaging in Keyword Stuffing.

The integration of keywords stands to grab the attention of popular search engines and help boost your site’s ranking. However, there’s a right way and a wrong way to incorporate keywords – and unfortunately, many businesses choose the latter. Keyword stuffing – i.e., the practice of littering content with keywords – may seem like a sound idea to SEO novices. After all, the more keywords a piece of content contains, the greater its chances of receiving attention from search engines, right? Wrong.

While a piece of content that’s been packed to the brim with keywords may temporarily boost your search ranking, there are two major catches. First off, keyword-stuffed content is of no practical use to your target audience. Although it may serve to lure visitors to your website, they’re likely to leave upon being greeted by content that serves no purpose other than tricking search engines. Keyword stuffing can also result in harsh penalties from Google and other search giants. Unsurprisingly, prominent search engines don’t appreciate being tricked, and any site that’s caught engaging in keyword stuffing is practically guaranteed to see its ranking take a nosedive.

In the interest of avoiding keyword stuffing – and the consequences associated with it – make an effort to use keywords in a natural, organic fashion. If you’re unclear on the best ways to incorporate keywords into your content, a dependable web marketing company should be able to provide you with answers.

Inconsistent Updates.

Google and its competitors generally show favor to sites that are updated on a consistent basis. As such, the more content you post, the higher your search ranking is likely to be. On the flipside, if you go weeks or months without posting new content – SEO or otherwise – don’t be surprised by an unfavorable ranking. With this in mind, develop a workable content creation schedule and stick to it. In addition to helping your curry favor with Google, this will ensure that visitors have plenty of incentive to regularly check back.

Failing to Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices.

As of 2019, the majority of world-wide web traffic comes from smartphones and other mobile devices. This means that any site that hasn’t been optimized for these devices is missing out in a big way. These days, few people possess the patience to deal with sites that don’t run properly on mobile devices. No matter how fun or engaging your content is, your efforts will count for very little in the absence of a mobile-optimized website. So, if your business’s site has yet to undergo mobile optimization, there’s no time like the present to join the digital age.

In recent years, search engine optimization has become an integral part of digital marketing. With a workable SEO strategy in place, you can effectively boost your site’s Google ranking and make thousands of potential patrons aware of your brand. Although there are a number of ways to use SEO to your enterprise’s advantage, creating search engine-focused content is among the most fruitful. Businesses looking to maximize their SEO content efforts would be wise to avoid the blunders discussed above.

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Staffing Agencies – A Good Or Bad Choice For Startups?

Finding talent in competitive markets is a huge challenge for a startup these days. Reviewing applications to conducting interviews and discussing salaries and terms and conditions for the contract can be quite time-consuming and intimidating for the new business owners. 

Furthermore, since new business owners do not have any experience in the field, they may end up hiring the wrong individuals for the job. This can ultimately hurt the business in the long run. This is why many startups today are partnering with staffing agencies to recruit suitable employees for the job. 

From hiring a CEO of your business to a generator, staffing agencies are equipped to provide you with individuals at all levels. But the question here is whether these staffing agencies are the right choice for a startup?

To answer your question, we researched and found some of the major benefits that staffing agencies have to offer to startups these days. Let us go ahead and look at them in detail to reach a conclusion.

1. Fast hiring.

 Industries today have become quite competitive, not only in terms of products and services but also employees. The most professional and well-suited employees are for the job, the more chances are there for your business to achieve its business goals. Therefore, it is important as a startup that you hire individuals fast to mark the industry. 

 Staffing companies help you do exactly that. As a startup, you need to hire employees fast so you can have your company up and running in no time. Since staffing agencies already have a list of employees with their background and professional history; thus, they can appoint the right person for the job. This is why you need an executive search firm for your next hire!

2. Flexibility.

These days, employers are shifting towards hiring temporary freelance workers for the job because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of hiring someone full-time that you only need for a certain job at a certain time is a waste of money. Temp agencies help you find temporary employees who are willing to provide you with the services that you require at a certain time. This allows you to only hire on a need basis to become more productive.

3. Reduce stress and risk.

 As an owner of a new startup, one doesn’t have the time or the experience to hire the right individuals for the job. Plus, with several legal responsibilities involved when hiring someone temporary or full-time, it can be quite stressful and risky. Temp staffing agencies already maintain a professional record of the employees; therefore, they are better equipped to appoint the right person for the job and tackle all the legal matters accurately. 

Takeaways.

 As a new startup, you might have already faced several hurdles in the industry. Choosing the right employees for the job shouldn’t be one of them, especially with the number of staff hiring agencies operating. If you are still not sure, then check out the article, outsourcing – how external help can grow your business and expand your services. It will help you make up your mind.

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How To Improve Your Personal Finances Before Starting A Business

Before starting a business, it’s a good idea to get your personal finances in order. Too many ambitious entrepreneurs jump into the business creation game before they have stable financial footing in their own lives, and it ends up limiting their full potential.

Mastering your personal finances is a process that could take months, or even years in extreme cases, but the time you invest upfront could set you up for a much brighter future.

Why Personal Finances Matter.

Why do your personal finances matter when you’re starting a business?

There are several benefits of working on your personal finances first:

Loan availability.

First, when your personal finances are in healthier shape, you’ll have a much better chance of getting a loan with favorable terms. You’ll have a selection of loans with lower interest rates, and you’ll be able to qualify for them easier. You don’t always want to take out a personal loan for your business, but it’s nice to have the option.

Risk tolerance.

Mastering your personal finances also increases your personal risk tolerance in other areas. If you have a solid nest egg and a robust emergency fund, you can tolerate running a business whose revenue stream might be volatile.

Stress and dependency.

Don’t underestimate the role that financial stress can play in influencing your success as a business owner. If you’re exclusively dependent on a business as a means of generating income, or if your personal finances are hanging on by a thread, you’ll be too stressed to achieve your best performance.

Financial experience.

Also, spending time cleaning up and improving your personal finances will imbue you with experience that you can carry into your business. Better financial planners make better business owners in many cases.

Reduce Your Expenses.

One of the best things you can do is reduce the expenses you face on a regular basis. If you’re spending less money every month, you’ll have tighter control over your personal finance goals, and you’ll be less dependent on any one source of income. There are many areas you can consider here, some of which are more complex than others.

For starters, you can try to reduce your home expenses. Moving to a cheaper area of the city could help you save hundreds, or even thousands of dollars a month. And if you compare home loan rates, you might be able to get a better deal on your mortgage. You can also choose to take public transportation or bike to eliminate your car-related expenses, or sharply reduce your spending on entertainment.

Minimize Your Debts.

You can increase your credit score and reduce your susceptibility to a financial emergency by minimizing your debts. Start by analyzing your current debts and liabilities; how much do you owe on your student loans? Are there unpaid credit card bills that are stacking up? Some debt, including mortgage debt, is considered “good debt” and is therefore not urgent to reduce. But before you start a business, you should at least have a plan in place for reducing debt associated with high-interest accounts, like credit card debt.

Establish an Emergency Fund.

It’s also a good idea to establish a personal emergency fund. This is a designated amount of money that’s set apart from the rest of your finances; you can tap into it whenever you’re short on money or to cover unexpected expenses that fall outside your typical budget. This buffer helps you make sure you’re ready for anything, and protects the rest of your finances from the impact of major unplanned expenses. For most people, a suitable emergency fund is just a few thousand dollars. However, you may want even more padding to reduce your risk further.

Start a Retirement Account.

Before starting a business is a great time to open a retirement account if you haven’t yet. Accounts like Roth IRAs offer impressive tax advantages to consumers who leverage them—and you can get started with just a few hundred dollars. If you’re starting a business, you won’t have an employer paying into a retirement plan for you, so it’s important to make independent plans for your own future.

Create a Backup Stream of Revenue.

More than half of businesses ultimately end in failure after just a few years. No matter how much confidence you have in your business idea or your skills as an entrepreneur, it’s important to have a backup plan in place. How will you make money if your business goes under?

With these financial strategies and habit changes, you can set yourself up to run a business much more effectively. Though it might force you to delay the start of your business by a few months, it will be worth the extra effort in the long run. 

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Fostering A Company Culture Of Ongoing Professional Growth

by James Van, Director of Career Services and Professional Development at SoloLearn

It’s 2am, and Egor is staring at his phone intently on his couch at home. He’s finished a long day at his current job in finance and M&A, but he is eager to tap away on his phone, consuming Python courses. His latest project required him to work with a team to help crunch some very large data sets from mobile network carriers. His firm brought in a team of data scientists to help his team make sense of the data. Over time as he continued to work with this team of data scientists, he realized that their ability to find patterns and also write algorithms to help predict user behavior was very intriguing to him. After learning more about their work, he made the decision – that he wanted to do that too!

But where to start? He did a quick google search to learn more about classes he would need to take, and where to start. He soon realized that watching long tutorials and videos was difficult for him to complete and retain the information. He also wanted to practice what he learned before moving onto the next step. Because he commuted into work everyday, he wanted to maximize his time. He eventually downloaded the SoloLearn App to learn Python, the programming language most commonly used by Data Scientists. That was two years ago. He is now a practicing data scientist.

What is Corporate Learning & Development?

So what exactly is learning and development, and why is it important?

Learning and development may differ in scope, function, strategy, and delivery from one company to the next. Consensus is that L&D serves to help train and skill your employees to meet ongoing learning needs. Typically, the L&D function includes onboarding new employees, mandatory employee training (think about topics such as harassment, diversity & inclusion, etc), leadership development, new product training, and enrichment curriculum.

The L&D function itself is important for the following reasons:

Company Culture: Company culture is often taught, upheld, and perpetuated in classes and training. Values that you hold near and dear to your heart are reinforced. Establishing a culture of lifelong learning, curiosity that leads to innovation, and fostering the professional development of your employees will help you attract talented candidates, engage your employees with managers and each other,  increase productivity, and help you retain your most talented employees.

Onboarding New Employees: Your small business is growing–how do new employees adapt to your business culture, learn nuances of your products and services, learn about organizational structure, processes and tools/tech stack? Here is where your new employees are oriented, as to set them rowing at the same cadence as the others in the boat, so to speak. After the interview/selection process, the first 90 days of a new employee is critical in setting that person up for success in your company. Will that person feel supported? Will they fit in and assimilate into your work culture successfully? Are they able to learn and navigate processes, tools, platforms, and development spaces easily and quickly, so that they can focus on job responsibilities as soon as possible? How are they initially supported by their manager? If an engineer, do they pair with another senior engineer so that the more senior engineer can monitor progress and catch and correct any potential errors/mistakes early and often?

Training: As much as we have trust and faith in all of our employees, ongoing training and reinforcing good behavior and being a “good work citizen” is a critical part of maintaining a healthy and productive work culture. Diversity training, workshops on workplace harassment, time management, leadership development are examples of popular workshops that reinforce company culture principles, and also serve a strategic function.

Recruiting: Setting up learning programs will not only help you attract new employees, but also aid in strategic efforts. According to Jennifer, a corporate recruiter with 20 years of recruiting technical talent for various large multinational companies, a corporate learning program is an essential part of the employee benefits package: “Most candidates expect to have learning programs and perks as part of the total compensation package. Most assume that your company will offer programming and aid to invest in their ongoing learning and professional development.” Some savvy companies have developed learning programs to coincide with their recruiting and internal growth/promotion strategies. In order to attract candidates earlier in their careers and hire them into more junior roles, companies are able to invest in the professional development of promising talent by offering learning tracks designed to fast-track their professional development and earn promotions. While this strategy is not new, it is becoming a staffing solution for companies that have increasing demand for technical talent and struggle to compete in a global hiring marketplace to hire from a relatively small pool of talent. Ganesh, Director of IT and Data at a large multinational corporation agrees, “ I think there is an opportunity to leverage corporate learning in a strategic capacity to drive recruitment efforts, and to provide our employees with professional growth opportunities within the company. We are currently exploring ways in which we can be a more active participant in our employees learning, and how we can drive internal professional growth.”

Employee Engagement and Retention: The tech industry is an exciting bastion of innovation and hyper-growth. In an industry where good technical talent is in such high demand, salaries are very high, and talented employees typically have many options as recruiters often try to lure talent by offering higher compensation packages, perks, and promise of professional growth. In a recent study conducted by LinkedIn, the technology sector has the highest employee turnover rate at 13.2%. We also know from surveys what motivates talented employees to leave, and more importantly, what factors retain them at their current company. We know top employees are most loyal to their employees when they are engaged, feel as if they are making a large, positive impact, their professional development is a priority, and they have a positive and productive professional relationship with their coworkers and superiors.

How Do You Get Started?

Here are a few tips that will help your company grow a culture of learning, curiosity, and strategic learning initiatives.

Start Small: As a smaller company, your primary focus is on scaling your growing business. Setting a culture of learning, innovation, curiosity, and experimentation is relatively simple to set in place, and will set the foundation for future learning initiatives.

Execute on Values of Company: Meet with your management team to revisit company values? Does your company already have a directive that values innovation, tapping into curiosity, “thinking outside of the box”, and keeping current with industry and technology trends? Inserting language and initiatives that include lifelong learning in the company culture will make it official.

Getting Buy-In From Your Management Team: While many employees are motivated to learn independently, most report higher levels of engagement with their managers and colleagues, when they engage in learning activities embedded in the workplace. Setting up learning incentives for employees to learn new skills, organizing “learning buddies”, pairing junior engineers with senior engineers, setting up practice playground, and creating job promotion pathways, are all learning initiatives that tech companies install to increase manager/employee engagement, strategic learning initiatives, and innovation.

Human Resources/Learning & Development Team: Empower your operations team to develop and administer frameworks and company policies that reinforce company cultures and learning practices. A common complaint from L&D staff is that they don’t have buy-in from upper management. Human Resources teams should be able to develop a framework in which learning initiatives are tied to broader corporate strategies.

Strategic Initiatives: Companies that successfully embed learning initiatives, are able to tie them to strategic initiatives such as company recruiting strategy, overall employee engagement & satisfaction, company innovation, productivity, and professional development.

Measurable: As a smaller company, you may start learning initiatives on a smaller scale, and your management team can set KPIs, goals, and expected outcomes relevant to strategic initiatives along the way. Setting up a company culture may be an early objective for a small company that is likely devoting most resources to growth of your business. As the company grows, so can the strategic importance of learning initiatives. Measuring specific outcomes related to your company’s learning initiatives may help set a baseline for future strategic initiatives that accompany your company’s growth. For example, you might measure how many of your employees take advantage of your learning resources, and their level of satisfaction and engagement when they learn more. That simple metric will give you a simple baseline from which to improve.

Resources: Discuss an initial offering of learning resources that you would like to offer all employees with your Human Resources team. They likely have a list of resources from which you can choose. Scalable, effective, self-paced, and on-demand courses and learning resources that meet the needs of your employees is a good starting place. From a recent survey conducted by SoloLearn, employees value the following:

1. Relevance: Is the coursework specific to my learning needs. “Does this platform meet my desired learning objectives and outcomes?”

2. Flexibility: On demand versus fixed time and location. “Can I take this course when it is most convenient for me? Do I need to show up at a specific place and time, or can I start and finish on my own schedule?”

3. Stickiness: What is the average completion rate of those that start? “Is the course engaging, and does it keep my attention? Am I passively learning while watching a video course while watching TV at home? Or am I immersed in an active learning experience where I am learning and practicing at the same time?”

4. Effectiveness: What level of proficiency will the average learner possess at the end of the course? “Will I be somewhat proficient in the new skill at the end of the course?”

Learning Is Fun.

It is important to reinforce a culture of enjoying learning and growing. Many of us have fond memories from our college and university experiences. Lifelong learning might tap into intellectual curiosity and the thrill of being slightly uncomfortable in learning something new. Your employees will enjoy stretching themselves and they will be appreciative and more loyal if they are given the opportunity to grow professionally while delivering outcomes to your company.

 

James Van is Director of Career Services and Professional Development at SoloLearn. In his over 20 year career, James has helped thousands find their next job. James began his career as a technical recruiter in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. After nine years of recruiting, James completed his Masters in Counselor Education at San Jose State University and transitioned into career counseling and coaching. James has supported the career growth of his students at institutions such as UC Berkeley, Hult International Business School, and Galvanize.

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