November 12th, 2009 by Bruce

Employing new staff is a costly outlay for any firm, and the costs of actually advertising for the vacancies is just a small part, so it is critical that a business does this in the most effectual way possible.

Of course one of the chief reasons for recruiting, apart from growth, is that a member of your team has decided to leave. Clearly one of the best ways to avoid recruitment costs altogether is to keep staff turnover down to a minimum. Earnings is not the best way to attain this, despite popular opinion, it is much better to invest in a strong and effective continuous professional development strategy for staff, allow progression wherever possible and make sure that staff feel valued. Team building events and investing in staff development will really make an impact here in a way that pay increases rarely do. Another way to keep hold of staff is to be flexible in your requests. Allowing part time working, flexi time and unpaid leave can all help to hold on to a important staff member who is struggling with other commitments. It may also be possible to let some staff Work From Home depending on their role and this is becoming easier with the development of technology.

Of course you will never be able to get rid of the need for recruitment altogether, especially if your business is growing and developing in new areas. So keeping the costs of that recruitment down is vital. Plan your recruitment strategy well, make sure that all areas of the business are asked to establish the whole businesses recruitment needs and address them all at the same time. Having one push is far more cost effective than many smaller campaigns. You will get a better deal from a recruitment consultant if they are assisting you on one big campaign and choose one who has a strong Internet Business as they are likely to be more cost effective than a smaller, high street company.

There is also the option to market your vacancies yourself. You can do this on the internet on one of the many Online Jobs sites and you can of course opt for the more traditional approach of a newspaper advert. Often a direct campaign online works very well if it is viewed by people looking for employment as they are happy to see the actual employer visible. So many jobs these days are left on recruitment consultants sites and the job seeker has trouble evaluating the role without spending a lot of time with the consultant. It sometimes seems that there are “generic” jobs on these sites just there to make sure the job seeker makes contact with the recruitment consultant. So as long as you can ensure that your online advert is observable by people searching for a new role it can often be a very useful way of recruiting.

The final point is to make sure the right choice in personnel is made. An individual who is over qualified for a role, or who has ambitions that cannot be fulfilled within your business will be an expensive choice. While they may do a great job at first they will probably move on to another firm as soon as it suits them, leaving you with the whole process to face again.

Advertising, Business, Business and Economy, Employment, Flextime, Newspaper, Recruitment, Technology

November 11th, 2009 by Bruce

It’s not exactly a new concept this, arguably common option, to work from home. As such, one would expect that seeing an opportunity, residential products, services, design and even homes would have begun to adapt to the ever increasing requests of a growing body of possible customers who would like to work from home. These people who are working in an Internet Business through online jobs have a requirement for an setting that suits their everyday life and their work needs too.

It’s true, there are a number of products on the market that are produced for those people who Work From Home but it’s fair to say that the offer is fragmented and it takes a level of skill in construction, IT and ergonomics to produce a suitable domestic setting from which one could run an internet organisation. Most people only manage to offer a small amount of the facilities necessary to be comfortable and dynamic.

The brief for a domestic office set up should be generally similar to that of a normal office or corporate workspace. A resident worker needs power, data and a place to sit and a surface to work on as a bare minimum. Add into that the requirement for social interaction, ad hoc meetings, team work and areas for focussed working and the brief starts to look very similar.

The easy and least productive answer to meeting these requirements is to provide a desk, seat, pc, telephone and data connection. On the face of it these pieces of kit will provide the necessary vehicle in (or on, or through) which people can deliver their output. The real question is how does one provide for the rest of the criteria and how do we use advancements in construction and technology to support the requirements for people who work in Online Jobs?

Firstly, let’s deal with the workplace itself. Does it need to be a desk? In a ordinary domestic situation would a desk be an appropriate piece of furniture ? Technology gives us laptops and telephone headsets and the ability to work anywhere on any fixtures. Add to that wireless printing and a web cam and really the office, as was, is now built totally around the person as opposed to a location.

Of course, in these days of corporate responsibility, the idea of using a laptop for long periods of time would give Human Resource and Insurance teams a problem, but the reality is that what we have through technology is a new concept and what we would expect to see is new furniture designs to solve the ergonomic issues.

Secondly, there is the matter of privacy, sound and environmental comfort. A voice conference in a house full of playing children is not encouraging to productive work. Will we begin to see new homes provided with separate space for working? Possibly dealt with as an extension, a loft or even a stand alone unit in the garden.

Whatever the ideas the market is there already and the design industry has yet to react to it.

Business, desk, Ergonomics, furniture technology, home, Human resources, internet organisation, office, piece of furniture, Technology, Telecommunication, Telecommuting, Telephone, telephone headsets, work

November 2nd, 2009 by Bruce

Ever since the early 1990’s specialists from various areas of the workplace industry
(property, IT, behavioural) have been tantalizing us with the new world where most of us Work From Home. This new world order based on the growth in technology and a new generation of Internet Business entrepreneurs has promised lots but in reality would seem to have failed to deliver.

Firstly, the idea that a large number of us would in fact have what amounts to online jobs has not taken place. The definition of online jobs in this instance is not typical, the model developed by workplace experts would see the vast majority of corporate employees employed to work from home, connection to the office would be via their desktop. While in most cases these people would have dealings on a regular basis with management and team members they would in actual fact carry out their everyday jobs via the computer, therefore in essence they will have Online Jobs.

The reality of how working patterns have distorted is however, somewhat different. There is no doubt that there has been a rise in flexible working, by which is meant the capacity to work in a number of different places and a degree of choice and independence displayed by the employee in selecting the most right location for that work but whatever the developments in technology, broadband availability and changes in management traditions the sea change just hasn’t happened.

There are a number of explanations why not. Firstly, while development in technology have made remote working possible, changes in the nature of work have made it disagreeable. Workplace behaviourists have seen that the vast majority of office based workers now renamed as knowledge workers, produce output notions, services and strategies. In order for them to work effectively they need contact.

Secondly, the quantum of the effect of flexible working behaviours has been impractical to verify. So while the property costs and benefits are easily calculated the real benefits in terms of the contribution to core business of the organisation can not be evaluated, even in the case of an Internet Business, where the entire transaction takes place online, there is still a case for co-location and relations which cannot be proven or discounted.

With these two competing factors the growth of flexible working has been unhurried and until workplace industry can show the benefits of productivity or make a solid case for no human contact then it is unlikely we will see the promised sea change in working patterns and behaviours.

changes in management, flexible working, online, rsquo, Technology, work, working, working patterns, workplace

October 19th, 2009 by Bruce

The early 1990’s saw the explosion, at least theoretically and academically, in the flexible working proposition. The thought being that due to the developments in technology anyone could Work From Home. Over the last ten or fifteen years the technology and the commercial reality of Internet Business has got better to the point it is now, not only feasible to Work From Home but in some sectors almost obligatory labelled their business persona’s as nomadic (in general sales) or semi-nomadic (typically management, sales and team leader jobs). These job descriptions found it feasible to exist between the capability to Work From Home and flexible areas in the office or offices inside which they still had a base. Higher up the management chain superior managers and executives found the capacity to be effectual anywhere, in particular in the case of those dealing with National and International groups and time differences.

The mid 1990’s on the other hand, saw another group of flexible worker starting to appear. The surge in Internet Business shaped a different profile. These staff are not part of a corporate machine running their jobs within the framework of touchdown and virtual meetings but rather what would have been a small organization outlet on the high street. They are small service providers and sellers now making money because they can work from home without the high operating cost of property.

On the back of this second wave comes another group, those involved in online jobs. These employees and entrepreneurs in reality make their living by offering services to help the growing virtual market place. In doing so their communication with clients is predominantly via the electronic work media. This new business model alters the idea of flexible working since not only can these organisations be run by people who work from home they can also be staffed by people with the same working patterns.

Is this a chiefly new occurance? Or a return to the pre – industrial revolution patterns of occupation. Are what we now see as new age Online Jobs just a paradigm shift from the requirement to be co-located, brought about by the mechanisation of labour and the process essential for high output, to the skilfulhighly skilled, craft based model of the cottage industries.

Business, flexible areas, flexible worker, home, management chain, rsquo, Technology, virtual market place, working

July 30th, 2009 by Bruce

Consider this… What if instead of the compact and featherweight mobile phone that you use today, you had to carry around one of those huge phones prevalent in the early 1990’s? You can relax – it was just something to think on; courtesy of all those innovators who invested so much of their lives, creating these “miniature toys” for all of us around the world.

However, this did not come easily. Innovation has to be incorporated into an organizational culture if such revolutionary and landmark achievements are what we are aiming to achieve.

In ideal terms, a culture is considered to be a group of opinions, attitudes, norms, beliefs, and values, while innovation is the direct result of the creativity, knowledge and understanding of the motivated people working within an organization. Unfortunately, just coming up with an idea for something which is “out-of-the box” isn’t any indication that it will actual come to full fruition – usually due to the organizational circumstances at the time, because even though a brilliant innovation can be brought into our world, there are still such an incredible variety of things which can stop amazing ideas from ever getting to the production stage. With the passing of time, innovation has gone far beyond the concept of simply generating creative ideas; it’s something which can now be seen as the culture of a business. This innovative culture can easily “tip the scales” toward the success or failure of an organization. Such a culture strives toward developing an attitude of continuous learning and improvement in the employees. All organizations have their own unique cultures which set them apart from their competition, and the success or failure of any of these companies primarily depends on the level of development of this culture. An organization with a well managed innovative culture almost always expands more rapidly than an organisation without this understanding. In the case of an organization with a poorly managed culture, integrating and linking with the innovation of an existing culture is not an easy task, as this requires careful consideration, consistent motivation and an unwavering pursuit toward improvement.

Here are a few factors organizations should utilize for the integration of innovation into their culture:

1. Intellectual Property – This is the most important ingredient of an innovative culture. Regularly bringing up ideas in discussions or debates creates a continuous process of refinement, and these brain storming sessions infuse the members with enthusiasm, thereby stimulating the participants to come up with even more “never thought of before” solutions.

2. Technology – Ownership of “tech” and the process of upgrading these technological advancements are both other aspects which need consideration. This structure acts as an interface between knowledge and products, and is therefore responsible for the materialisation of concepts from paper into tangible and intangible services.

3. Effective Leadership – Effective leaders are those who, in the organization, continuously integrate and motivate the creative thinking of their peers and subordinates.

4. Proper Communication – Proper communication is essential for making correct information available, at the right place and at the right time. Regular involvement with business coaching can help you to prevent mis-communication at the smallest level, which in an organization could play havoc with even the most brilliant innovative ideas.

To be competitive in our changing business world, businesses require their individuals to develop innovative ideas consistently. The intensive pursuit of higher levels of innovation, paired with management training, can make all the difference for just about any organization when it comes to traversing unpredictable downturns in business, as organizations can sell off specific innovative ideas in a recession, and reap the incredible rewards which these resources provide in times of good business.

Alan Gillies is the Managing Director of the L2L Group, specialising in providing Executive Coaching, Training and Consultancy Services to Businesses across the Globe. Want to learn more about these business success strategies? Get Alan’s popular FREE Business Pack today!

Business Marketing Organization, Creativity, Managing director, Organization Of Marketing, Organizational culture, Technology