Organization skills are the one thing most successful business owners have in common.
Without the ability to organize your work and your resources, you could be twisting in the wind in no time. You may have been able to muddle along back in the day, but in today’s competitive environment, you need to work any advantage in your favor.
Fortunately, there are at least 9 ways to improve your organization skills without too much effort on your part. [Read more…]
Building a strong partnership with your boss takes the right combination of time, practice, trust and these key elements addressed by Joan Burge in this free webinar.
I hope you are doing well this second Monday of December. I’ve been having a jolly time hosting daily webinars that started December 1 as a part of our 12 Days of Christmas this year. Office Dynamics is celebrating this month of giving by presenting free 30-minute webinars for 12 business days in a row. That’s a pretty heavy duty schedule but I’m having a blast. My partner-in-crime, Jasmine Freeman and I are making these webinars educational and festive. Each day we think of something new to surprise our attendees plus give away some great gifts such as on-line learning and conferences on demand. The response from our attendees has been tremendous.
Since this is the busy season I thought I would give you my 10 quick tips from the December 1 webinar. [Read more…]
As a manager, you might be concerned that the smartphones that employees seem to have attached to their hips might tempt them to spend time on Facebook or Twitter rather than tend to their job duties.
As it turns out, these small technological devices can actually help to keep your workers safe while on the job. Whether your employees bring their own phones to work or you have issued smartphones to everyone on your team to help stay in touch, check out the following ways that smartphones can help everyone stay safe:
When it comes to hardware improvements, mobile phones have advanced a lot in recent years. A great example of this is battery life. If your workers are out at remote locations where they cannot easily charge their smartphones, a generous amount of battery time will allow them to stay in touch with you back at the main office. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge features 36 hours of talk time and 14 days of standby time. Workers can use this flexibility to call in updates, report any problems they have encountered or simply check in to let you know they are okay.
New smartphones come with cameras that allow users to take still shots and videos whose quality rivals that of many professional devices. The smartphone camera is a terrific tool to use during inspections or investigations or anything that requires documentation. For example, if you are concerned with the way your employees are performing a particular task, you can snap a photo or take a quick video.
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can also be used to boost workplace safety. You can set up closed social media groups on the site of your choice that are available only to your staff. Employees who are working in the field can use their smartphone internet connection to access the social media site and communicate with other employees. This “virtual” office will let you see who is consistently checking in and posting updates; those who rarely show up in the closed groups can be given a friendly reminder to use the closed group to let everyone know where they are.
Most newer smartphones come equipped with a GPS feature that can really boost the safety of your employees. In addition to helping ensure that your workers will be able to get to remote locations and/or clients’ homes thanks to GPS directional advice, the feature can also help you to keep tabs on where everyone is.
There are several apps that will allow you to track phones; these include Find My iPhone, the Android Device Manager and Find My Mobile. If you have not heard from an employee in some time and are getting concerned, you can use one of these apps to help track where the phone and employee are currently located. Or, if an employee is out in the field and he calls in to say that he is completely lost, you can use the tracking feature to see where he is and give directional advice on how to get back to the office or to the appointment.
Escape the holiday overwhelm and join us for a quick and fun webinar. In this webinar we kick-off our special event, the 12 Days of Christmas. This event includes a free webinar each business day, a deeply discounted special offer, fun surprises and giveaway items, and lots of holiday cheer.
Here are all the downloads and links associated with our program. [Read more…]
Companies are going after global talent now and that means hiring remote workers. However, managing a remote team requires a framework that needs to allow for all team members across different time zones to collaborate effectively.
A simple solution to this problem is to use a project management system that helps capture all your ideas in one place. By delegating tasks to individuals, you can track their efficiency. All communication regarding a task should be done on that tasks card.
Trello allows us to manage all our tasks in one place. By prioritizing each task and designating a reasonable time to the task we’re able to manage our effectiveness.
We have decided to kill email and have instead resorted to using only our project management system for all internal communication. We haven’t regretted it so far.
We also use time-tracking software to better understand where most of our time is being spent on. Screenshots allow us to provide proof of work and many times has even helped us recover data.
