Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

Writing Resumes that Communicate Your Unique Value | Writing Marketing Content for Telecom Business Growth

Creative Ways to Reward Employees without Money

by Leave a Comment

People sitting at a conference table with many laptops, as one man holds a presentation

A big part of running a successful business is making sure your employees are happy. Them being satisfied means that they’ll be willing and able to work better, which benefits both the business and yourself. Rewarding your employees is one of the best ways to get them on your good side. Of course, the first way to do so that comes to anyone’s mind is money. However, if your business has been struggling a bit financially, you’ll probably not be able to give them appropriate monetary rewards. You’re not alone in this, and luckily there’s a solution. There are plenty more ways to reward employees without money, and we’ve put together a short list for you. 

Give them some extra responsibility

Even though it may seem contradictory, giving employees more responsibility is sometimes a terrific way to let them know that their efforts and hard work are respected. It’s one of the most effective methods to convey your confidence in their skills and appreciation for what they bring to the table. You can help your employees reach their full potential if you take the time to sit down with them and find out what positions they’d like to grow into or where they’d like to learn. By giving them more responsibility, you’re showing them that you trust them, and trust is an excellent show of gratitude.

A man sitting in front of a laptop, making hand gestures
Giving your employees more responsibility can make them more confident

Freshen up the workspace

 Most people benefit from working in a good-looking environment. If you want to switch things up in the office, you can start small. Try adding a few plants or moving the tables and workspaces around. However, if you’re looking for a more significant change and you can afford it, moving offices is also an option. Find a new office, put everything on paper by making an office moving checklist so you don’t forget to pack anything, and hire a moving company. Your employees will for sure appreciate a change of scenery.

Throw a party

One of the best ways to let your employees know you’re grateful for them is to celebrate their success. Throwing a party with that in mind is guaranteed to make everyone in the office happy. It doesn’t have to be some grand gathering, but you should still put effort into organizing it. You should make sure to check the time and date with everyone to make sure they’re free. This way, your employees will know you appreciate their time and are willing to work around it. It’s also a great tool for socializing and making sure that everyone gets to know each other better.

Provide learning opportunities

Getting situated in a 9 to 5 job doesn’t mean you have to stop learning. However, this is something quite a few people seem to forget about. They either feel too old to learn or just don’t think that’s an option anymore, which is completely wrong. A great way to reward employees without money is to get them opportunities to expand their knowledge. You can get them involved in different seminars, courses, and similar activities. Also, your employees learning new things is very beneficial for your business, as you directly profit from their abilities.

A bunch of people sitting in a room listening to a presentation
Seminars are a great way to reward employees without money

Give them a new job title

Even though a job title may seem like just a bunch of words, it’s much more than that. Having an important-sounding part of the title, such as “lead” or “director,” can be both rewarding and motivating. Not only will your employees feel appreciated, but they will also put in work to live up to their title, which can help you improve your business. This also shows them that you trust them and see them as serious coworkers. Also, they will feel important and more connected to the company, which is always a plus.

Give out words of affirmation

Verbal recognition is probably the easiest way to let people know you’re thankful for their involvement. It can be a simple hallway interaction with the words “good job” in it or a more formal conversation in which you express your gratitude. Either way, directly praising people is a great type of non-monetary reward. It’s direct, honest, and heartwarming, and it will ensure your employees feel like they’re a part of a supportive community.

Offer different lifestyle perks

It’s important to note that your employees have a life outside their work. However, that doesn’t mean that you, as an employer, can’t make that life easier and more enjoyable. One of the most common ways you can do that is by paying for a gym membership. In addition to making them happy, many studies have shown that physical activity increases productivity. You can also try to make a deal with a nearby restaurant and maybe get them a free meal during the day. Though these things may seem small, the fact that your employees have one less thing to worry about is going to make them feel appreciated. Finally, if a significant number of your employees are parents, consider organizing an in-office daycare. This will take a huge load off their shoulders, both mentally and financially.

A man running on a treadmill
Being active will benefit the physical and mental health of your employees

Be more lenient with time off

If you’ve recently gone through a very busy patch, it’s understandable that both you and your employees are tired. They would probably be thrilled with the idea of being able to take a break. This is why giving them some extra time off is a great way to show them your gratitude. They can use this time to get on with everything they potentially missed due to work. Whether it’s hobbies, time with family and friends, or just some quality alone time, they will use the break to its’ full potential.

Conclusion

Money being tight is no excuse to ignore your employees’ hard work. A kind word or various perks don’t cost anything, yet they will be much appreciated. Of course, these two are hardly all there is. There are plenty of ways you can reward employees without money. Sometimes, these methods can be even more valuable than the monetary ones in the long run. Give your employees a proper reward, and they are guaranteed to be more satisfied with their work, which in turn makes the business bloom.

3 Dress Code Ideas For Interviews

by Leave a Comment

You may not be aware, but your interview attire plays a huge role in your future job interviews. In business, first impressions can be crucial.

Nowadays, picking out an outfit for your job interview seems much more difficult than it was in the old days. Business policies differ, and while some have stuck to the traditional way of dressing, other companies offer somewhat flexible dress codes.

If you’re preparing for an important job interview in the near future and you’re looking to impress your potential future boss, here are 3 dress code ideas that will help you make a great first impression.

Casual

Because modern-day businesses allow a lot of flexibility in the workplace, some companies don’t put a strong emphasis on how you dress. However, you shouldn’t wander too much because it’s still a business.

The lightest option you can go for is plainly casual. Some examples of this dress code include:

  • Casual shirts
  • Blouses
  • Slacks
  • Dress sandals
  • Linen pants

Smart Casual

A smart casual dress code implies dressing up professionally with a hint of fashionable taste. This business wardrobe best suits less conservative offices, including informal settings.

This way, you can use your informal outfits while maintaining cleanliness and professionalism. Some examples of smart casual dress code include:

  • Blazers
  • Sports jackets
  • Sweaters
  • Dresses
  • Flats

Business Casual

If you’re applying for an important job, then you’d want to look as professional as possible. Business casual is the perfect fit for this type of job opening. With this type of dress code, it’s best that you don’t go overboard and experiment with colors.

Keep it professional and neutral. Business casual dress code examples include:

Do A Rehearsal

If you were efficient and secured your outfit a few days before your job interview, don’t forget the final step: rehearse.

This has proved to be useful for many reasons:

  • You get to try on your outfit and walk around in it for a minute before you officially walk into the office and sit down for your interview.
  • You can take a good look in the mirror, evaluate the outfit you have picked out, and compare it with the company’s policy and dress code.
  • Finally, you have the chance to make any final adjustments that will work in your favor and help you make a good impression.

That’s a wrap on dress code ideas for job interviews. As of now, you’re aware of the importance of dressing for a job interview and what clothes you should wear. Depending on the job you’re applying for, there are three types of dress codes.

They include casual, smart casual, and business casual. Whichever combination you decide on, it will surely help you get the job you’ve applied for.

Small Business Marketing Guide

by Leave a Comment

As an entrepreneur, starting your own business can feel complicated — when trying to drive growth and awareness to your brand, there can be many moving parts to navigate. Fortunately, a solid small business marketing strategy can help you achieve this, but where do you start? 

To make your small business marketing strategy feel less overwhelming, there are 13 steps you can follow to help you achieve growth. This includes: 

  1. Identifying your audience to learn who to target 
  2. Defining why you’re different to help you stand our from competitors 
  3. Creating an online presence to help drive awareness and build a following 
  4. Building a marketing plan to help you stay organized and plan your budget
  5. Making a website to help build a presence and sell if you’re in ecommerce 
  6. Optimizing for SEO to make sure you’re visible and seen by those searching what you offer 
  7. Set up social media accounts to create a platform for your followers and those who love your brand  
  8. Claiming listings online to establish your presence 
  9. Looking into email marketing
  10. Considering advertising efforts
  11. Building a rewards and customer loyalty program 
  12. Getting involved with your community
  13. Asking for help

For more detailed information, check out the infographic below.

Please include attribution to Solo Global with this graphic.

small business marketing infographic

6 Strategies for Reducing Employee Turnover

by Leave a Comment

Employees in a company

Whether or not you run a successful company depends mainly on the people working there. Your company will likely thrive if you have a tight-knit group of hardworking professionals. But, if your employees constantly leave your company, and you need to hire others to replace them, you can hardly hope to build reliable teams. Therefore, what you need to focus on is reducing employee turnover by giving your employees clear incentives to stay. Well, we’re here to show you how.

Reducing employee turnover

If you have a high employee turnover rate, there must be a reason behind it. Your employees might harbor a toxic work environment without you being aware. Or, your competitors might offer benefits that never crossed your mind. Perhaps you simply might not give your employees a clear reason to stay. Whatever the case may be, it is paramount that you outline what the problem is. A high employee turnover is always a bad sign, and you want to do everything in your power to lower it as much as possible.

What we will outline now are the six tried and proper ways of reducing employee turnover. It would be best if you didn’t try to implement them all at once, as doing so will likely cause too much disruption in your company. Instead, try to outline the root causes of your high employee turnover and see which solution will address them best. With luck, one or two of these solutions will cause a significant change in employee turnover.

Find the right people

Let’s start off with the obvious. Having the right people working for you is the first step. If you don’t employ the right people for your company, you will not only suffer due to their poor performance but also likely drive away the people that would be suitable. Therefore, above all else, value the quality of the people you hire. Take close note of their temperament, character, and work ethics. You’d be surprised at how long company owners can be oblivious to how productive (or unproductive) their employees can be. And keep in mind that one bad apple can ruin the entire basket. So, before anything else, ensure that you are entirely aware of what your employees are like and that you are ignoring the obvious flaws.

Work on retention from the get-go

Another thing to note, especially if you are just starting your company, is that you need to work on worker retention from the get-go. If you’ve already started your company, and haven’t bothered much about worker retention, know it is better late than never. But, the general rule of thumb is that the sooner you start worrying about whether your employees will stay with you, the sooner you will take measures to keep them around.

Know that it is much easier to build your company with the reputation of low employee turnover than combat having a big one. This is because decent employees will see your substantial employee turnover and avoid applying for your company if possible. And if you need to let go of certain employees, it will be much easier to do so if they haven’t already worked for you for years.

Communicate with employees

The best way to learn what will keep your employees around is to talk to them. More often than not, it is the lack of communication that causes them to leave and leaves the bosses stumped. So, to help mitigate this, try to establish a line of communication with your employees where they feel that their opinions matter and that they won’t be punished for them. Know that not all employees are accustomed or even courageous enough to say what bothers them. But also know that what bothers them will cause them to leave. Especially if they are skillful enough to have other options. Listen to what they say about company procedures and work in general. You can use this feedback to improve the quality of their workday significantly.

Another important aspect of communication is not to keep your employees in the dark. Always make sure that they are thoroughly familiar with how the company is doing and whether you plan to make any changes. So, if you plan to relocate your company, let them know in advance. Preparing employees for a move is equally essential as preparing for the move itself. If you plan to make company-wide changes to improve worker retention, also let them know in advance. Ideally, they will have both the motivation and the ideas to help you out. And if not, at least they will feel appreciated.

Outline a clear career path

Assume that each of your employees wants to advance. From the newcomers to your company to the people that worked there for years. Everyone wants to know that their careers will advance if they put in the time and effort. A typical moment where driven employees seek other employment is once they feel they’ve reached a dead end in your company. So, to avoid this makes sure that you outline clear career paths. You want to avoid any type of confusion and vagueness regarding your employees’ future. Instead, outline how their careers can improve and what benefits those improvement stands to bring.

Help your employees improve

The last way of reducing employee turnover is to help your employees improve. It would help if you made them feel you value their hard work and willingness to improve. Furthermore, you need to provide them with tools for improvement and encourage them to better themselves. 

You’d be surprised at how grateful people are to those that help them better themselves. And how willing they are to stay loyal to those that believed in them. So, always try to give your employees ways to improve their skills, and don’t shy away from rewarding them once they do.

How and why you should migrate your infrastructure to the cloud

by Leave a Comment

To assure a successful business and brand reputation, any company aims to have quality services and efficient infrastructure. With the increasing use of digital technology, the way of working has changed. What is important to companies today is a safe and secure internet connection. Increasingly they are opting for cloud services and migrating IT infrastructure.  

Cloud service implies data storage on a virtual server. Users are available to install operating systems on a virtual server and implement middleware like backup copies. Cloud servers are usually backed up and they are not in one physical location so the natural disaster cannot affect them at all. 

Basic components of cloud infrastructures:   

  • Computing  
  • Networking  
  • Storage  

Migrating to Cloud   

Migration to the cloud opened questions about the cost of IT infrastructure, business benefits, security, necessity, etc. Lower costs, storing and sharing data is easier, mobility, and adaptability are some of the advantages. Migration of your IT infrastructure to the cloud needs to be particularly well organized because it involves transferring data and applications from one server which is in the company to another which is out. 

If your company runs on various locations, you need to connect them with a firewall so you can connect printers or share data. To that – that is expensive. It is much easier and cheaper with the cloud. With the cloud, you do not need to have a separate firewall. 

Regionally hosted cloud platform  

More and more companies are moving to the cloud. The decision to use a cloud platform leads you to question – are you going to use a regional cloud hosting or chose a global one? Using a regional/local cloud platform you know where your servers are which is a much more secure option than the global. That also assures you that your data is properly backed up and that it is in a location in your country. Local cloud provides you better connectivity with data since your network is close to you which is not the case when it comes to global hosting and that is understandable consuming that your network is on another continent. The local cloud provides better connectivity because data travels a short distance from the network on the other continent.  

Some of the providers can provide customers all everything they need:  

  • servers,   
  • security systems,   
  • web hosting,   
  • managed Wi-Fi,   
  • support, and monitoring 24/7.   

Benefits and advantages  

Collecting relevant data and storing it in the cloud is quite important for your business. Your company needs to store it in a safe place. Cloud storage provides the ability to share your data and a place to store, archive, and manage it. It provides you with easy access, anywhere and anytime. The most important benefits of migrating a storage to cloud are: 

  • Placing your data in the cloud saves your time and space. Having your servers can be quite expensive and hard to manage.  
  • Businesses can choose how many of storage data will they use. They can change whether they add or remove storage capacity and pay for storage of what they are using, 
  • Cloud storage creates a backup of all companies’ files, so in emergency cases like disasters, your data is safe,  
  • Files can be shared, easily accessed, and edit in real-time anywhere, 
  • Storing your data in the cloud can save money, and it is faster and easier to rent and lease infrastructure. IT security partner can monitor 24/7 your virtual machine and in advance prevents incident which means that companies do not have to spend money on hiring internal IT staff. With an IT partner, you can focus on your business without thinking about what can or what you need to do.  

Cloud infrastructures are robust, easily monitored and secure way to store your IT infrastructure.

Ssl_seal_1
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy