Start Your Day Right

After struggling to get the kids ready and off to school, dodging busy morning traffic and gulping down coffee instead of something healthy, many people especially working parents get to work already stressed. In fact, they may be amazed by how much more reactive to stress they are when they have a stressful morning. However, if people start off the day right with healthy meals, correct planning, and a positive mind-set, they are most likely to find the workplace stress rolling off their back with ease.

Be Comfortable

Physical discomfort is another unexpected stressor in the work. Sometimes, people may not take note of the stress they experience when they are in an uncomfortable chair for a few minutes. However, if they continue to use the chair every day when they are at work, they can have a sore back and be more reactive to stress due to the uncomfortable nature of the day. So it is important for them to do away with whatever contributes to workplace stress in order to ensure a comfortable working environment.

Stay Away from Conflict

In as much as the conflict between colleagues in the workplace may be inevitable. It is crucial to keep away from workplace conflict as much as possible because, when workplace conflict is not properly handled, it takes a toll on your physical and emotional health, which can in turn result into unnecessary emotional instability/stress. Workplace conflict can be controlled by avoiding gossips at work, by keeping away from discussions about politics and religion. These simple conflict resolution tips will help you to stay clear of workplace conflict, maintain peace and lower your stress level.

]]> https://sullivantaylorcompany.com/2023/08/31/simple-ways-to-deal-with-stress-at-work/feed/ 0 https://sullivantaylorcompany.com/2023/08/30/types-of-work-schedules/ https://sullivantaylorcompany.com/2023/08/30/types-of-work-schedules/#respond Wed, 30 Aug 2023 14:10:53 +0000 http://box5235.temp.domains/~uhrdxzmy/sullivantaylorcompany/?p=7555 There are many types of work schedules, however, the organization you work with or the kind of job you do determines to a large extent the most suitable type of work schedule. Meaning that the organization you work with or your job types have upper control over your job schedules and most times, the type of schedule required for the job is often explained during the job interview or included in the job offer letter. However, if you do not understand the work hours it is advisable to seek more clarification from the employer before accepting the job offer. It is wiser to have a good knowledge of what is expected beforehand, rather than being surprised after you start a new job.

Types of Work Schedules

Fixed Work Schedule

A fixed work schedule refers to a timetable that generally comprises the same number of hours and days worked for each week. This type of work schedules is likely to remain consistent after the number of hours and days have been agreed upon by both the employer and the worker. An example of a fixed work schedule can be Monday – Friday from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM for a school teacher.

Flexible Work Schedule

As the implies, Flexible work schedules are more flexible in nature, unlike fixed work schedules that are so rigid. In a flexible work schedule, both employees and employers work collectively to figure out the number of hours and days of the week they would able to commit to the job. Depending on the company’s policy, employees may be expected to work for a specific number of hours each day but shifts can often be switched with other colleagues in order to meet up with the needs of the company and the busy life of the employees.

Full-Time Work Schedule

Full-time work schedules usually require a dedication of about 37 – 40 hours from the employees each week. Due to the long work hours, most occupations with full-time schedules are qualified for work benefits such as leave, vacation, health insurance, and different retirement benefit plans. Full-time work schedules differ from one company to another, however, the shift and working hours for employees are similar. The most common full-time work schedules are usually between the range of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday – Friday, amounting to a total sum of 40 hours.

Part-Time Work Schedule

A part-time work schedule means any work schedule that is less than full-time employment. The advantage of this kind of schedule is that it creates rooms for good flexibility to attend other responsibilities outside the workplace. However, most part-time jobs do not include benefits enjoyed by the full-time employees, and the work hours can be inconsistent from week to week.

Rotating Work Schedule

Rotating work schedules rotates employees through the day, and night shifts. This rotation assists to spread the shifts among all employees so that no one is stuck with just the less unpleasant work hours. This type of work schedule is most common among people who work in the military, hospitals, power plants, and hotels. These shifts can rotate weekly or quarterly, depending on the requirement of the job.

The Value of Appreciation

It is very surprising to see how showing appreciation with two insignificant words like “thank you” and “well done” can have a great impact on people. Research confirmed that about 75% of employees often rate their workplace as enjoyable due to the appreciation they receive from their managers, leaders, and colleagues. This is a pointer that showing gratitude gives employees the support and motivation they need to be more engaged and productive in their job. In essence, appreciation inspires and encourage employees to have more interest in their job and the workplace.

Brand Ambassadors

Building a cadre of brand ambassadors from your employees is a wonderful idea for any company planning to expand their brand externally and strengthen it internally. When employees feel included and valued, they are more likely to go beyond their job description and expectations, show greater commitment to the job, voluntarily talk express their feelings about the organization and the work they do that delivers positive results. Hence, it is crucial to have conversations that cover the entire team of the organization as it helps to strengthen and unit the workplace where open conversations are part of the culture and practiced by every employee for the overall good of the company.

On the other hand, when employees are having the impression that they are pushed behind the scene, lack of interest on the job as well as their employer will begin to set in, and this can compel them to speak negatively about the company in public and that can easily spread to any customers with whom these unappreciated and unhappy employees may have come in contact with. Such negative conversations or speech can go a long way to have a direct unpleasant effect on customers’ purchases, retention, and online customers’ reviews.

In a nutshell, organizations must, therefore, give their employees good reasons to be brand ambassadors by setting an example for employees to follow and not to expect them to share goodwill if they are not carried-along in the conversations or permitted to be a contributor. Open communications, showing appreciation, and good listening ears are all keys to open the door to a more harmonious workplace.

Ignoring Leverage

Leverage is perhaps the most vital fact in the negotiation of an outsourcing service. In fact, leverage has to capacity gain extremely important points in most outsourcing negotiations. However, many outsourcing negotiators waste entire or fail to build their leverage into an outsourcing contract. Thus, ignoring leverage in an outsourcing contract negotiation is a big mistake because a negotiator can put the organization into a long-term loss in business.

Assuming the Best

Another grave outsourcing negotiation mistake is having the assumption that the other party of the outsourcing contract will always act in your best interest. Impossible. They will only act in their own best interests and their own best interests can either be exact opposite or just the same as yours. However, a good outsourcing contract must align interests. For instance, making provisions that share the benefits of projects that the outsourcing vendor implements for the client give both parties incentives to make the project successful.

Assuming the best in outsourcing negotiations can lead you to either a bad negotiation or away from requesting contract provisions that align the vendor’s incentives with yours. Thus, a good negotiation occurs when you focus on both enlarging the resources and dividing the resources. When you are enlarging the resources, the vendor’s interests are similar to the customer’s interests. When you are dividing the resources, the vendor’s interests are close to being the opposite of that of the customer. The assumption of the best prevents you from pushing hard enough for your fair share of the resource.

Overconfidence

Research has proved it over the years that most people have too much confidence in their opinions. That is to say, many people have the mentality of ‘I know it all’ in most of the things they do. This makes them been overconfident. However, overconfidence blinds negotiators, as such they hardly have the patience to listen to the details of the contract negotiations, much less asking the right questions to find evidence that goes against their view of the negotiation. Overconfidence often keeps negotiators a step backward because they usually do what worked previously rather than what will work in the present moment or future, forgetting the fact that every negotiation is unique that requires fresh strategy based on its own facts.

Also, having a knowledge that, organizations need to take a deep look at the tools and procedures they have in place that uphold and enhance employees’ connectivity, will allow employees to feel connected to their colleagues and the entire organization at large. Thereby, eliminating any desire to switch jobs among the employees. Therefore, human resources experts must develop the habit of clear communications that are free from friction between employees allowing for empowerment, connectivity, and alignment. Appropriate technology must be in place to link and engage employees regardless of their locations. The three components of employee experience are:

Technological

This component provides a more interactive platform for all employees in an organization to contribute and share ideas among themselves with ease, as well as being able to find information that they need more without difficulties.

Physical

The physical components of employee experience have to do with redesigning an environment conducive to innovation, that can positively impact an employee experience while attracting and retaining top talents. Thus, the organization should consider introducing relaxing backyards within the workplace and space must be in line with the needs of the employees. For example, make separate provision for loud and quiet space within the workplace in order to satisfy the needs of every employee in the organization. This is vital because, all employees may not have the pleasure of working in a loud noisy office, hence, the need to have a quiet area as well.

Culture

The culture of the work is the third and last component of employee experience. Here, organizations have to carefully consider building and sustaining an effective work culture. Why? Because it is an essential key to unlocking the organizational growth.

What Is Culture?

The culture of an organization refers to the values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors common to all employees in the entire organization. Some organizations tie their culture to the individual experience of their employees. Fundamentally, the culture is upheld by the commitment of the employee.

In a nutshell, when all of these three components are in place and working collectively with one another, the organization will witness a pleasant impact on the employee experience thereby leading to increase in productivity and improved performance.  How possible?  This strategy improves and promotes enthusiasm, involvement, and retention of top talents. Because, when employees are treated properly in the workplace, they will in turn care for your business.

]]> https://sullivantaylorcompany.com/2023/08/27/components-of-the-employee-experience/feed/ 0 https://sullivantaylorcompany.com/2023/08/24/ways-to-develop-employees-with-zero-spending/ https://sullivantaylorcompany.com/2023/08/24/ways-to-develop-employees-with-zero-spending/#respond Thu, 24 Aug 2023 14:00:27 +0000 http://box5235.temp.domains/~uhrdxzmy/sullivantaylorcompany/?p=7542 As an employer, do you have staffs that lacking in some skills and competencies relating to their job that requires to be developed, but you do not have the financial capacity to send them off to a week employees training and development program. And you do not know what to do? Relax! There are many things you could do to develop your employees and a lot of them will cost you zero financial burden. Hence, this article presents you with three ideas to get started.

Give Time for Creativity

Set aside time for your staffs to work on something that does not fall within the parameters of their daily job responsibilities for a specific duration of time. During this time, your staffs can conduct personal research in the areas that they are lacking competencies. The only requirement is that you ensure they give a report of what they were able accomplished during that dedicated time away from their jobs. Many companies have used this method to afford their staffs to develop their own creativity and problem-solving skills, therefore, it will work perfectly well for your organization as well.

Encourage Volunteering

Encouraging your employees to have a positive spirit about being volunteers in any development training is crucial because employees who accept volunteer roles are able to develop new skills and improve their existing skills in a different environment from their workplace. When they bring back those new skills to their current job, this can lead to improved performance on the job. Thus, your employees require nothing more than your motivation in order to put in their best that will impact your organization more productively in the long run.

Promote Mentoring

Giving employees the opportunity for participating in a mutually-beneficial mentoring relationship within or outside your organization permit them to develop a variety of new skills and knowledge. And it will cost you nothing except little time away from the job, however, the benefits to your organizational growth will be great. Through effective mentoring, employees can gain knowledge about the tricks of the business, technical information and build more competencies in leadership, coaching and listening skills.

The Parties

This section clearly marks out the names, signatures and other business information of the parties to the contract. That is the contractor and the hirer. In essence, it is vital for all written contracts to include some basic information about the parties to the contract. Such as names and business addresses, a statement about your status as an independent contractor, the signatures of both parties and the signatures of any witnesses to the contract.

Description of services or results

Defines all the necessary details about the work to be done or the result that is expected to be achieved at the end of the contract. Description of services or results is a must have in every contract because, if a contract contains a complete comprehensive description of the tasks, you will be able to make reference to it and check what must be done. And when, where and how it must be done in order to avoid a breach of contract.

Payments

Every contract state clearly the method and timing of payments as well as the hand manner in which the payment will be made. Basically, the method of payments can either be fixed fees or hourly rates, however, whichever method that is included in the contract, should as well as define how the fees will be calculated. The timing of payment under fixed-fee contracts can be set through any of these ways: full payment when the work is completed or Progress payments. That is payments by results or installments. More so, the contract should state the manner of payment; whether an invoice would be required for payment to be made or not, the agreed timing for payment, for an instance, within 21 or 30 days of receipt of a correct invoice or what? And how payment is to be made. Whether, through direct deposit into your bank account or cash.

Procedure for settling disputes

This section deals with how the parties to the contract will handle a dispute if any occurs. This is also crucial because business dealings do not always run without frictions. Hence, it is always a wise practice for contracts to include a procedure for settling any disputes that may arise in the course of the contract.

Contract Termination

This clarifies the way and manner each party can bring the contract to an end and the consequences associated with the termination in certain situations.

Time and Materials

As the name implies, the clients pay the outsourcing vendor based on the time and material used to finish the work. This engagement model can be most suitable in situations whereby there are difficulties with respect to the estimation of the scope and specifications of the work or where rapid changes often occur with the needs of the work.

Fixed Pricing

In this structure, the engagement price is determined at the beginning. This engagement model can work excellently when there are firmly established objectives, scope, and requirements. Paying a fixed price for outsourced services can be interesting because it equipped clients to be able to predict costs. The only challenge will be when market pricing goes down over time. A fixed price remains fixed and this may be on hard the outsourced provider who have to meet service levels at a certain price no matter the extra resources required to accomplish those services.

Cost-Plus

The contract in this engagement structure is often written so that the client pays the supplier for the real costs, in addition to a predetermined percentage for gain. Such a pricing plan does not make room for flexibility as business objectives or technologies change. However, it provides little incentive for a supplier to perform at its best.

Shared Risk/Reward

The outsourcing vendor and clients collectively fund the development of new products and services with the vendor sharing in the risk and rewards for a clearly marked out period of time. This structure of engagement model motivates the vendor to come up with ideas to make the business better and circulates the financial risk between both parties. The structure of engagement also decreases some risks by sharing them with the vendor. However, it requires a high level of governance and commitment to achieve success.

Feedback with Ambiguity

A feedback that is too ambiguous can be misleading to people and they will have great difficulties with understanding the real intents of the content. Therefore, always avoid cliché phrases in the content of your feedback. If you desire to motivate and encourage someone to continue with a productive behavior, you have to let them know what they had done so they can keep doing it.

Feedback with Judgemental Terms

Giving feedback using judgmental terms is a big blunder because it puts people on the defensive. In essence, a good feedback should only judge the actions not the personality of the individuals because, if your feedback judges the individuals, they will want to defend their personality. Meanwhile, you have sent the message that you know what is right or wrong.

The Feedback Goes On Too Long

Repeating a particular feedback consistent for a long time is an error. Therefore, know when to pause or stop it completely. Why? People need time to process the information they have received in order to effect the desired change/result.

Feedback with Implied Threat Content

Giving feedback that contains threats or implied threat is a big error. For example, telling people that their job is in jeopardy does not strengthen good behavior or illustrate bad behavior. It only generates animosity, so take note.

The Feedback that Speaks for Others

Speaking to other people or bringing in other people into your feedback is an error, therefore limit your feedback to the information that you know. Dragging a third party’s name into the picture only confuses the recipients, who then begins to ponder why other people are talking about them behind their back. Be conscious of the limit when giving your feedback.

Equity

Raising capital through equity is a popular, if not the most popular choice, for entrepreneurs to pursue. Investors buy stock in your company, giving them a financial stake in the future success of your business.

How It Works

1. You set a specific dollar amount for what your company is worth.
2. Based on that valuation, investors agree to give you money in exchange for a certain percentage of your company.
3. Investors receive compensation based on the percent of stock they own once you sell the company or go public.

Pros

• All your cash can go toward your business rather than loan repayments.
• Investors take on some risk and don’t have to be paid back until you’re doing well.
• Investors often have valuable business experience.
• Since investors have a financial stake in the success of your business, they are motivated to offer sound guidance and valuable business connections.

Cons

• Equity financing has the highest legal bills and takes the longest time to close, making it the most complex small business financing structure, says Forbes contributor and growth consultant George Deeb.
• Selling shares of your company makes it very difficult to get them back.
• You will most likely lose control of part of your board to your investors.

Debt

Debt-based fundraising is the form of small business financing most small businesses end up choosing, says Fundable. It’s also the easiest to understand. Money is loaned to you with the agreement you’ll repay it over time with an established interest rate.

How It Works

1. You borrow money with an agreement to pay it back with interest within a specific time frame.
2. You will also have to offer your lender some form of collateral, which are liquid assets you will give up if you cannot make your loan payments.

Pros

• You will raise capital much quicker than with equity small business financing. This is especially true of smaller cash amounts.
• You can keep 100 percent of your company, along with 100 percent of its profits.
• Interest payments are tax-deductible.

Cons

• You must be completely confident you can make your loan payments in cash each month. If you don’t, lenders can make you sell your business in order to get their money back.
• Interest payments can become one of your largest business expenses.
• Commercial lenders will demand small business owners to personally guarantee the loan and offer personal assets as collateral, even if your company is structured as a corporation or limited liability company, according to Forbes.

Convertible Debt

A convertible debt small business financing structure is a mix of debt and equity financing. The money raised is considered a loan, but at some future date the loan can convert to equity if the lenders so choose.

How It Works

1. You will negotiate an interest rate to pay back the loan. This will also be the interest rate for those lenders who decide not to convert any debt into stock.
2. The details concerning how lenders can convert the debt into equity are negotiated at the time of the loan. For the most part, that means agreeing to give lenders a discount or warrant on an upcoming round of equity fundraising.
3. You will also set the valuation cap, or maximum company valuation, at which lenders can convert debt into equity. If investors decide not trade in their loan for shares at this predetermined valuation level, they can no longer do so at a future date.

Pros

• Transaction costs are low and the process moves quickly.
• If you don’t want to set a company valuation, which involves a lot of uncertainty and risks for new startups, a convertible debt structure for small business financing makes a lot sense, says Covestor CEO Asheesh Advani.
• Using convertible debt protects investors from dilution in future financing rounds.

Cons

• Investors are uneasy giving money without knowing the exact share of a company they will own, and you might have to offer steep discounts on equity in order to get them to agree to the terms.
• You may be forced to set a valuation before you are ready in order to avoid unaffordable loan repayment expenses.

In the end, it’s best you make your final choice, best on which specific option, works best for you, not just now, but in the immediate future as well.

Written by Alex Liu, This article was originally published on UpCounsel.