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How to Build and Empower Procurement Team

October 17, 2022 by Keith Coppersmith Leave a Comment

Procurement, or in other words, the acquisition of goods and services necessary for running a business is probably one of the most important business processes in today’s corporate landscape. Unlike simple one-time purchases, procurement takes a much more strategic approach to the whole matter, puts greater emphasis on the value of the products, and uses a series of steps like analytics and competitive bidding to get the necessary good.

If this process is conducted poorly or unnecessarily drags out, all other facets of your company will inevitably be brought to a halt.

So, it is in your best interest to make effective procurement one of your top priorities. And to do that, you can assemble a team of effective and highly skilled people. Let us take a look then at a couple of tips that should help you assemble and empower such a crew.

Put a strong emphasis on the hiring process

Setting up an effective team starts with the recruitment process, so be sure to get to know all candidates as much as possible before making a final decision. In order to do that, you will first need to avoid some of the common recruitment mistakes like looking for the perfect candidate and focusing too heavily on previous experience and professional chops. Procurement requires a lot of soft skills like focus, organization skills, negotiation skills, tenacity, and countless traits that are much harder to work out than traditional business techniques. In that case, be ready to fill in the knowledge gaps yourself.

Leverage onboarding and training

Most business owners look at these important processes as liability and something that should be, if possible, avoided. However, both onboarding and training sessions are a tremendous asset that makes sure your candidates have just the skills they need to perform the procurement process with the highest possible efficiency. These sessions also give you an opportunity to observe your employees as unique individuals with personal and professional traits you can decide to refocus, encourage, or discourage at your will. Skipping on this valuable process puts you and your organization at a serious disadvantage.

Provide your crew with the best tools

These asses should be introduced as early as the onboarding. Much like any other critical business sector, procurement now features a whole plethora of tools designed to make the employees’ lives easier. Providing them with the platforms like Robobai Managed Services that drastically speed up the handling of third-party data, analytics, and supply chain management will help your procurement team to approach their tasks with much greater confidence. As time goes on, this newfound conviction will also allow your crew to handle their tasks more proactively and engage in more effective decision-making.

Build connections between team members

In ideal circumstances, your team should be as diverse as possible and feature people from different age groups, backgrounds, and social circles. This diversity will open doors to creative thinking and different approaches. But, for that to be possible your team members need to have full confidence in each other and be able to communicate in a clear and effective manner. Solutions to this challenge can be found in team-building exercises, shared social activities, as well as clear and streamlined communication channels. Also, be sure to put the effort into nurturing cross-organizational collaboration in the same manner.

Set clear goals and rewards

Your procurement team will be able to score much stronger results if their efforts have some sense of direction. That is why you should set before them a very clear set of specific and measurable objectives and the milestones they need to pass to get there. Some sort of bonus or other forms of reward should help them pass this road faster, so be sure to utilize this strategy as well. Keep in mind though that the reward system you will set up needs to be transparent, and consistent, ask employees for feedback, and always offer recognition in front of the team. This way, you will motivate the whole crew to push harder.

Help employees keep up with global trends

Last but not least, we would like to remind you of one of the most common mistakes made by new procurement teams and that is focusing too heavily solely on local suppliers. In this day and age, we are living in a highly globalized world where peaking past your local boards and looking is not only possible but can also prove to be quite beneficial. Furthermore, disruptive events occurring on the global stage sooner than later send ripples through the local markets. Keeping track of these global trends will help your procurement staff to anticipate the subsequent local events and make more educated decisions.

So, there you have it – the top six strategies you can use to assemble your new procurement team and help these professionals to work with a high level of motivation, confidence, and engagement. The present-day business world is very fast-paced and competitive. With things as they are the success of your business may depend on its ability to get access to the goods it needs and do that in the most cost-effective manner. Keep then in mind everything we have talked about above – any mistake you make in this regard can cause severe issues further down the road.

Simple Tips For Increasing Employee Satisfaction In Real Estate Businesses

September 22, 2022 by Keith Coppersmith Leave a Comment

When you’ve started your real estate company, you’ve likely realized how profitable, fulfilling, and exciting a career in this sector might be. But despite all of its benefits, one aspect many real estate business owners overlook is the difficulty of building an excellent team that drives your business towards success. You don’t only need knowledgable, experienced, and charismatic employees, but also happy and strong individuals who can easily overcome the challenges of working in real estate. To increase employee satisfaction and ensure your staff is performing optimally, here are some simple tips that might help:

Identify your main issues

You simply can’t increase employee satisfaction levels if you don’t know how your staff truly thinks and feels. That is why it’s recommended to conduct an audit of your current practices, enabling you to identify potential issues that could be improved in the future. The best way to do this is to ask employees directly to voice their concerns, share any problems they might be having, and offer suggestions. Consider conducting an anonymous survey to ensure everyone will answer honestly. Conducting exit interviews with staff members that are leaving can also allow you to gain some valuable insight into potential workplace issues.

Streamline daily processes

In most workplaces, some days will be more difficult than others. But if you overwork your staff each day, this will only lead to stress, burnout, and a decrease in job satisfaction. To boost your employees’ happiness levels, try to make their days a bit easier. For example, you can construct a certain schedule employees can follow each day, create an itinerary for showings and meetings with clients, and invest in software solutions such as open house tracking and comparative market analysis tools. This will help to improve organization and overall productivity in the office, thus boosting satisfaction levels as well.

Offer growth opportunities

When looking for a job, most employees want access to professional development and growth opportunities. If agents are able to advance their careers within your company, you can improve your retention rates while increasing engagement and job satisfaction in the process. So, aim to provide your employees with new ways to develop their skills. This can mean covering the cost of education to help real estate agents become brokers, offering training opportunities to allow junior-level employees to take on managerial roles, or even developing an in-house mentoring program in which staff members with different levels of experience can help each other succeed.

Provide remote work options

Remote work has recently increased in popularity among employees, and for good reason. These arrangements allow workers to improve their work-life balance, boost focus and productivity, and consequently increase job satisfaction. But they could benefit your company as well. You might have clients who are looking to buy a luxurious villa or affordable house on the Montenegrin coast, for instance. In that case, having a real estate agent who is situated in Montenegro will give you the opportunity to deliver a service to your clients at the highest possible standard. The same goes for any other destination in the world; local agents working remotely ensure high-quality service.

Improve the company culture

If you own a real estate business, you likely already know why creating an open and welcoming atmosphere for clients is so important, particularly when staging homes for viewings. However, the same logic can be applied to your work environment as well. When your workplace is positive, friendly, warm, welcoming, and supportive, your employees will also feel happier and more satisfied with their jobs. But to achieve this, you will need to take steps to improve your company culture, such as solidifying your brand’s mission and values, offering more flexibility to employees, encouraging rest and relaxation, etc.

Prioritize employee well-being

While meeting specific targets and increasing overall revenue may be important for most employers, these goals shouldn’t be achieved at the expense of employees’ health. In fact, making employee well-being a priority might actually be an important factor in success, as we tend to perform better when we are less anxious and stressed at work. For that reason, you might want to consider including employee well-being in your business plan. Providing more personal time off, encouraging physical activity, acting on the feedback you receive from employees, and being a more empathetic leader can all help in reaching this objective.

Give praise when it’s earned

Employees who feel appreciated and valued at work are also more likely to stay with their current employers and be happier with their roles. To reap these benefits and attempt to increase job satisfaction levels, aim to offer compliments and praise to your staff when appropriate. For example, you can publicly recognize employees who have successfully completed a job such as closing a valuable deal or acknowledge the great communication and collaboration among high-performing teams. Even a simple ‘well done’ after completing a project successfully can go a long way towards boosting morale and increasing employee satisfaction.

Improving employee satisfaction can often be a long and complex process. But with some time, effort, and the right workplace enhancements, higher job satisfaction will lead to increased growth and success in the long run.

Managing Remote Teams: Legal Implications

July 5, 2022 by Keith Coppersmith Leave a Comment

Managing remote teams has become an essential part of the modern workplace. Advances in technology allow companies to more effectively recruit talent, regardless of their geographic location.

While this flexibility can be a boon to businesses, it also comes with legal implications that employers and business owners need to consider.

In this guide, we’ll explore some of the legal considerations involved with remote teams.

Getting familiar with different state regulations

It’s important to remember that conducting business in other states may mean that you need to comply with their own rules. When it comes to minimum wage and home office expenses, some jurisdictions have higher requirements than others.

No direct payments or reimbursements can be requested by the employer if doing so would result in a wage rate for the employee below the applicable minimum wage or overtime pay level.

Employees may also be granted paid and unpaid leave in some countries, in addition to the larger civil rights safeguards.

Workers who work from home may have to pay taxes in both their home state and the state where their firm is situated.

Safeguarding corporate data

In addition to dealing with data on consumers and clients, employers are gathering more employee data than ever before. Employees are often spread out around the world and proper data and cybersecurity regulations are essential in such remote work environments.

Employees and the IT staff must work collaboratively to accomplish this.

It is imperative that employers keep a close eye out for any recent bad-faith action by cybercriminals. Using simulated platforms and ensuring that employees are following best practices, they may further strengthen their anti-phishing and anti-email procedures.

Properly categorizing employees

Making sure that your employees are correctly categorized as exempt or non-exempt is more crucial than ever.

For each week of remote work performed by exempt workers, they are often entitled to a full week’s compensation.

Because they are entitled to pay for all hours actually worked, non-exempt remote employees must correctly record all of their hours spent.

Employers should explicitly prohibit off-the-clock employment, underreporting of hours, and illegal overtime in writing.

Inform and teach supervisors about the company’s pay and timekeeping requirements, as well as the way to look out for wage and hour breaches.

Ensuring that remote workers are productive

A wide range of monitoring methods are now available thanks to advancements in technology, which benefit both businesses and employees.

Tracking staff productivity, as well as keeping an eye on the use of confidential and private information, is a valuable tool for employers.

However, there may be difficulties with privacy and legal duties due to the surveillance. The following are some examples of good employee monitoring practices:

Give employees notice of monitoring — being transparent about monitoring fosters trust and eliminates employees’ reasonable expectation of privacy;
Conduct monitoring equitably and consistently — being consistent ensures that workers are not being singled out for unfair treatment;
Use monitoring systems only to monitor work activities — this prevents employers from overstepping their bounds and entering into an employee’s personal affairs;
Archive and review materials — email, text message, and WhatsApp archiving gives employers the power to monitor workplace productivity and address any unlawfully conducted activities

Stopping online and remote harassment

The anti-harassment policy still applies to employees who work remotely. In spite of the fact that workplace harassment usually evokes ideas of inappropriate physical contact or words in an in-person setting, a hostile work environment can exist in a virtual one.

When it comes to cyberbullying, employers may need to be extra vigilant, as it can take various forms, such as cyberbullying through email, text, or private group chat; verbal bullying, such as raising one’s voice, embarrassing others, or making snarky remarks in virtual meetings; etc.

Anti-harassment rules should be reviewed and, if required, revised to ensure that they cover behavior expressed in a virtual setting. Managers should be taught to check for signs of cyberbullying.

Any claim of harassment should be thoroughly examined, regardless of how it is made: online or in person.

Managing injuries suffered by remote workers

Under most workers’ compensation regulations, employers can be held liable for injuries sustained by employees while performing work-from-home activities.

OSHA considers an accident to be work-related if it occurs while a person is performing paid work at home and is directly linked to that activity rather than the home environment as a whole.

A remote worker’s work-related injury may be more difficult to determine since it is difficult to discern between activities performed at home that are considered work-related and those that are commonplace in everyday life.

Make sure that any injuries are reported as soon as possible by employees. To ensure that the most exact description of what happened is documented, it is important to report the incident as soon as possible because there are likely to be no other witnesses.

Conclusion

As the workforce becomes more distributed, employers are learning that properly managing remote teams requires addressing a wide range of legal issues.

Before deploying a remote workforce, it is important to consider any potential legal implications that may affect your business.

By knowing and complying with applicable laws, employers can minimize potential liability and help protect their businesses.

How Sustainability Affects Employee Engagement, Satisfaction and Trust

June 22, 2022 by Keith Coppersmith Leave a Comment

As the world continues to evolve and collective awareness regarding environmental issues continues to rise, sustainability is slowly being put at the forefront. Consumers are now demanding greener practices from the brands they interact with, and employees are only selecting eco-conscious businesses as their choice of workplaces, especially when it comes to younger generations.

As a result, companies are being forced to implement sustainability into their cultures and operations, but many still aren’t quite convinced to make the same changes for environmental advantages alone. If you’re considering more eco-friendly practices as well, the effects of sustainability on employee engagement, satisfaction, and trust might just convince you to make the change.

Defining a long-term purpose

When attempting to implement sustainability into your culture and operations, it’s recommended to begin by defining a main purpose and outlining the long-term benefits of eco-friendliness to the success of the company. Regardless of the goals you set, they will likely all be aligned with the good of the planet and the society as a whole. When the company’s core values are that positive, and when they match the employee’s personal beliefs, chances are higher they will become more loyal and devoted to their jobs. As a result, employee satisfaction, engagement, and overall productivity is likely to increase, especially in a more purposeful work environment.

Making an economic case

Encouraging your employees to see the economic advantages of sustainability won’t always be simple, but it is necessary. Otherwise, your workforce might believe that the green efforts you are making are only about being good and not doing well also. In order to make an economic case for sustainability, it might be wise to focus on goal setting. Complete a thorough analysis of your business’s relation to the environment, consider your main eco-friendly objectives, and then set clear and specific goals based on data. This process will enable you to identify new cost-saving and growth opportunities as well, allowing you to explain the different ways in which sustainability can benefit the entire company, including the employees.

Increasing green knowledge

Sustainability affects all aspects of a company. To develop green confidence among employees and encourage them to participate in the process, it’s crucial to educate your employees about environmental friendliness and to implement certain processes and systems that make sustainability easier to follow. What Australian businesses do to achieve this, for instance, is invest in a waste chute from Sydney and include it in their waste management program. Not only does this durable and reliable piece of equipment aid in handling waste more efficiently and improving the overall cleanliness of the premises, it also directly teaches employees about the importance of good waste management, building trust in the process.

Creating sustainable practices

Across Europe, on the other hand, local companies believe that the best way to embed sustainability into their cultures is to co-create new practices together with employees. A great way to achieve this is by acting on employee initiatives, whether that means accepting feedback, conducting surveys, or holding regular meetings where workers can give their opinions and suggestions. Making sustainability a collective effort in such a way can offer a number of advantages. Mainly, it can make your employees feel heard and appreciated, which is a brilliant method for boosting job satisfaction and happiness, and increasing employee engagement overall.

Encouraging healthy competition

In an effort to embrace your new objectives and goals, and even encourage some willingness and motivation among your employees, creating a bit of healthy competition can be of great help. Positive competitions can stimulate creativity and foster the skills and competencies that make a company successful, such as a need to trust team members, solve problems collectively, and push boundaries even further. These same aspects will also be necessary for boosting innovation in terms of sustainability. Whether that means coming up with new green processes, cleaning up your premises, or even working with local NGOs, any group effort and healthy competition will help to embed sustainability in your company and foster stronger employee relationships.

Making sustainability visible

Visibility and prominence can play quite an important role in influencing behavior and even changing people’s attitudes and beliefs. If you’d like to attract the attention of your employees in much the same way, measuring and showcasing your progress regarding important sustainability indicators will be crucial. When people put effort into a goal or a cause, they want to feel like they’ve made an actual difference, and as if their hard work has led to certain levels of success. It comes as no surprise, then, that leading organizations tend to create indicators to follow their sustainability progress, which they then share with employees and stakeholders. This is a surefire way to build trust, devotion, and higher satisfaction levels.

We should all aspire to make the world a better place, and your company and employees are no different. Implementing sustainability in all business processes and operations is an effective way to create real change, helping to increase employee engagement, satisfaction, and trust in the process as well. Evidently, eco-friendliness is the future and the key to success.

How Business Consulting Can Improve Employee Engagement

March 29, 2022 by Keith Coppersmith Leave a Comment

Employee engagement is one of the most important topics currently circling the world of business, as an increasing number of companies are finding that a good paycheck alone is no longer enough for keeping workforces loyal and satisfied. For that reason, organizations are looking for more effective and inclusive solutions for boosting engagement, and business consulting has proved to be an invaluable asset. Business consulting aims to guide companies through growth opportunities and help them achieve success, and here are some ways it could aid in improving employee engagement as well:

Encouraging communication

The first step to the process of business consulting is the discovery phase, where consultants aim to learn as much as possible about your company. During this stage, business consultants don’t only talk to owners and board members, but also employees. Teams are encouraged to share their opinions, viewpoints, and concerns regarding the company, as they are an important part of the business. In turn, this allows employees to feel heard and appreciated. Your company can greatly benefit from this aspect, as professionals who feel valued in the workplace are generally more satisfied with their job and more eager to devote themselves to their work.

Offering constant feedback

Through communicating with employees and leaders, business consultants gain a deeper insight into the company’s operations and processes. This gives consultants the opportunity to develop actionable strategies for improving the business, offering employees valuable feedback in the process. Honest and constructive feedback is another important factor in employee engagement. Constant feedback serves as a guide to employees, encouraging them to increase the quality of their work and stay on the right track in terms of the company’s expectations and main goals. Such guidance is quite advantageous for overall business results, but it could greatly improve employee satisfaction, motivation, and engagement as a result as well.

Building an imaginative business

Consulting can help your company in more ways than one. If you choose strategic business consulting services, for instance, you will be able to streamline communication and utilize creative thinking in an effort to make positive changes and create real, lasting value. This enables you to fulfill the potential of your people in order to reach success and do good. However, it could boost engagement in the process as well. By focusing on the purpose of your organization and maximizing the value of your business, you will be able to build a more imaginative and innovative workplace as a result. And teams that are happy and creative also tend to be productive and engaged.

Providing growth opportunities

Growth is one of the most important objectives of business consulting. The job of a professional consultant involves analyzing and evaluating business processes in order to identify potential issues and develop actionable plans and solutions that will open up new avenues to success. Of course, this provides the company with new growth and expansion opportunities through efficient management and strategy. But growth can also happen on a personal level during this process, allowing your employees to advance their careers. This is a brilliant motivator, as employees who feel they could grow and advance in their companies are often more engaged and dedicated to their work as well.

Creating a better work environment

Business consulting develops solutions to a company’s issues and provides new plans and strategies for streamlining business processes. Not only does this benefit the company, but it could also have a great impact on the employees. A significant percentage of professionals believe that their work environment affects their quality of life, which is why they often turn to calmer, happier, and more supportive workplaces. By facilitating productivity and innovation within your organization, business consulting could enable you to create a more agreeable work environment that increases employee satisfaction and creates a business atmosphere in which each employee is equally dedicated to achieving the company’s goals.

Keeping teams motivated

After all, the main goal of business consulting is to provide companies with greater opportunities for growth and success. Even though this might seem like an objective only leaders are interested in, the truth is that employees value the success of the company they work for as well. If the business continues to grow and increase its revenue, this could, in turn, provide employees with higher salaries, better benefits, and more relaxed work schedules. These are all wonderful advantages that serve as great motivators for engaging employees and encouraging them to boost productivity and efficiency, thus enabling all team members to work towards the shared goal of company success.

There’s no doubt that your employees are your company’s greatest asset, and their efficiency and productivity are absolutely essential for business success. But during the times when motivation drops and business processes become disrupted, business consulting can be the ideal solution for boosting employee engagement and finding new growth and success opportunities.