5 Tips to Ensure Remote Workforce Productivity During Pandemic

5 Tips to Ensure Remote Workforce Productivity During Pandemic

A drastic shift from open offices to paying heed on collaborative tools is what we all are witnessing these days. This pandemic has given a cultural-shift to business scenarios intensely. The workers are now having flexible work options as they are managing their work from home.

However, for companies, it’s not as easy as pie. Having the same transparency in work, a good level of communication and managing whole work with a proper work-life balance is a big challenge for them. But this uncommon sabbatical has given a great technological boost as well and helped the companies in managing resources effectively.

Here we will discuss the technological boon that saved the businesses from getting badly impacted by such unnatural circumstance! Also, know about what strategies they can opt for managing resource! Read till the end!

  • Be People-Focused!

Organizations run with the hard & smart work of employees and if they don’t feel safe then it would be hard to manage every resource perfectly. So, it’s good to go people-focused and know whether your employees are safe & ready to perform their duties online. It’s essential to monitor every situation and support them in need for their proper management.

Social media and other technological advances enable employee tracking and two-way communication for efficient results.

  • Invest in Technology for Virtual Collaborations and Support Remote Work!

To slow down the pace of disease, pandemic necessitated everyone to stay home and continue work from there only. In such a situation, virtual collaborations turn out as the only remedy to carry on business operations.

A plethora of technological solutions are available to continue business meets that don’t specifically require your physical presence over a particular place. So, Zoom meetings, Google Meet collaborations got a quick hike from the business people.

This technological advancement didn’t let the epidemic to halt the business process and helped business owners to manage their resources effectively.

Moreover, the companies can invest in such tools that help them perform work, access bandwidth for the remote work support, collaborate virtually, and enable the employees to work remotely.

  • Design Response Strategies by Contemplating All Situations Properly!

Limited availability of telecommunications, internet availability in remote areas is posing a serious challenge for businesses to manage their resources. In such cases, it’s required to design response strategies by keeping all these things in focus.

Overcome these barrios by choosing alternative supply chain vendors, subcontract work, and plan around highly mutual intervention areas and many other strategies.

  • Outsourcing- A Reliable Option to Manage Resources

Reliance on third parties is another valuable option you can opt to manage resources effectively. The data processors, payment processors, aggregators, cloud service providers, outsourced vendors can opt for product & service delivery.

However, it’s not necessary to outsource all. Instead, the company can prepare a list of vital members or third parties to carry on their activities and implement strategies.

  • A Sturdy Communication Strategy for Keeping the Best Connections

Without communications, especially during this pandemic, results can’t be achieved. It’s utmost necessary to maintain customer trust if you want to survive. Moreover, market stability, restore confidence & morale of employees, and maintaining customer trust, it’s quintessential to have effective communications. So here the dire need for efficient communication strategies arises to keep warm contact with all stakeholders, either internal or external.

Social media is surely a good source here for better communication and even many other effective strategies can be adopted.

Final Words!

These unnatural situations like national emergency we all are going through, the need is to take calculated steps. By keeping all aspects in mind and focusing on each stakeholder, you can manage the resources & avoid unforeseen hiccups.

So, build a safety net around your business by safeguarding your resources and manage it wisely by keeping transparency and efficiency.

Good luck!

Team’s Productivity

6 Smart Ways to 10x Your Team’s Productivity

Developing productive teams has been an area of focus in all organizations. After all, you can’t operate solely in intricate business processes and still manage to meet productivity levels. The introduction of global thinking has boosted the need for building highly productive teams that are self-motivated.

This need somehow possesses a big challenge for team leaders in organizations today, as many struggles hard to manage their teams. The biggest issue that lies in front of them is to strike the right balance between their leadership and organizational responsibilities. A close analysis of this aspect yields key strategies that can be adopted by team leaders to develop highly productive teams. These strategies are as follows:

Inculcate shared vision:
A good leader understands the power of developing shared vision amongst all the team members. The shared vision acts as the guideline for all the team members.

Aligning personal goal with the organizational goal:
The art of rapport formation with team members is an essential quality that a team leader must possess. Basis this, he/ she can identify the personal goals of team members and link it to team goals. Team goals ultimately add value to organizational goals.

Developing Culture:
The culture that prevails in a team reflects the attitude of the team members. The team culture is defined by the style of leadership that operates the team. Teams that have highly motivated, enthusiastic and risk-taking members have a positive culture developed by their leader. Strikingly, teams that have not so enthusiastic team members usually have a negative culture developed by their leader.

Demonstrate Right:
It is rightly said that “Action Speak louder than words”. Thus, it is the responsibility of the Team lead to demonstrate appropriate behavior. Behavior here is an umbrella term covering various aspects like enthusiasm to participate, approach towards work, assistance to co-workers and adherence to organizational discipline.

Unbiased Reviews:
Human beings are prone to have biases and prejudices, however, for a team leader, it becomes essential to be fair. Thus, a leader must take unbiased decisions that help in the growth and development of the team members.

Team Building activities:
All work and No play can make your employees dull. So, it is important to carry out team building activities periodically to break the monotony. The leader must possess the right skills to engage and carry such activities.

7 Effective Strategies to Connect Your Employees to the Brand

7 Effective Strategies to Connect Your Employees to the Brand

You plant a tree and take good care of it by frequently watering and giving necessary fertilizers. Despite taking best steps to get the desired results you are disappointed if the tree stops growing.

In such a situation how would you feel?

You would be heartbroken as all your efforts went in vain and would like to find out what went wrong.

This is exactly what happens when you hire employees, train them and before they could yield productivity they leave.

Most industries today, are facing a “challenge” of high employer turnover ratio. A Job switch is a click away with the power of the Internet. It is ironical, how the corporate management are busy in meeting productivity measures and its employees are busy looking for new job opportunities. Even imaging such a situation indicates the poor management practices. Practices that merely aim at acquiring talent and paying no heed to manage and retain the same. The end result is as simple as a highly disengaged workforce.

A further analysis of this issue reveals that engaging the workforce is not the only challenges at hand. The biggest challenge is to re-build the lost connection between the brand and its employee. Following are a few strategies that can be incorporated to bring the desired change:

1. Road-map to Career:

An employee joins an organization not merely for a job but, for building a great career. It is the equal responsibility of the immediate manager and HR team, to be honest about the career prospects to an employee. Thus, there should be at least two meetings in a year with the reporting manager and HR on the career path.

2. Mandatory connects:

There must be mandatory connects every quarter. These connects can be in form of Town-hall sessions as well. The idea is to bring employees close to all the key players of their processes.

The connects can be led by different management players like the manager, assistant manager, and team leads. They act as a ground to discuss the overall functioning of the process and the challenges faced.

3. MBA / Courses with the company:

The company can offer an opportunity to learn and work.

A variety of relevant courses can be offered to employees who complete certain tenure in the company. It boosts the morale of the employees as well as their skills.

4. Employee Engagement:

There must be a proper strategy for identifying the significant events in a year that must have Employee Engagement activities. The aim should be to promote collective participation by exploring the unconventional ways to engage employees.

5. Company outings:

All work no play makes a very dull corporate life. Thus, the management should plan out company outings. Such outings usually prove to be the melting points which bring employees close to each other.

6. Feedback:

Driving a proper feedback system that caters to employee needs and helps yield unbiased results is a must today.

It should not be merely a day’s exercise in a year rather should be practiced at least 3-4 times a year at different levels.

7. Training of managers:

The Managers must also undergo a training periodically based on guidelines to behave with their subordinates. A system designed by the HR team must closely monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of such training.

Tips for getting hired after career break

Tips for getting hired after career break

Anjali Somnath is a, software developer quit her job in 2007 after her second child. she worked for 7 years since she passed out her B.Tech. It was a hard decision to make as she was enjoying hre career but family is the priority for few years. She is now ready to get back to work in 2018 and want to balance her professional and personal life.

But, when Anjali started preparing her resume then comes the question about how to look for job and how the resume should be designed, what should be mentioned about the career gap etc.

If you are someone who is into similar situation where you have a career break irrespective of male or female for any reason and in the process of returning to corporate world then below are the tips unfolded

Reason for your break

Honesty is the best policy. This might sound like an old saying but still it is true today and applied in this dynamic world. Let’s accept a fact that we are all humans and we have a different spikes of life.

We need to believe that taking a career break for family reason or to pursue our passion or because of personal issues or even because we need a break to revive in life – these are not sin and are choices we make for better tomorrow. But the art of communicating it both in the CV and also during the discussion is the key here. Mention how this has helped and present the points that can add value from the career perspective

Things done during the break

It is always a good idea to keep yourself updated with what is happening in the corporate world. Spending time productively is one of the key attitudes. Taking up freelancing projects, consultancy projects, studying any course, finishing few certifications, Volunteer work done, teaching yoga, music or any art – these should create a favorable impression and will project sometimes what you are as a person. Communicating this during discussion by supporting how this can help the employer if you are hired into the applied position will be the key aspect.

Networking

One of the most important aspects during the career break is to keep in touch with your past colleagues. Either for references or to know what is happening around or to know how to get hired into same company for any available vacancies. Discussing with friends and family who are working and showing your interest and enthusiasm to get back to working environment is very key. Networking using social media channels is the best way today.

Career break Workshops

Many IT companies like Microsoft, Thoughtworks, Capgemini, etc. are opening up and conducting programs and workshops for people who are interested coming back to their career. Especially encourage women who wants to be back after their career break. Enrolling into such companies’ website and keep following their latest feeds will definitely help to apply for roles and getting back to the suitable roles.

Use Social Channels

Being active on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and updating your profile and letting your network know that you want to be back to corporate world is a key. Following the companies in your industry domain will help to know about current vacancies. Websites like Galssdoor.com is the place to check current market price for any role that you are applying today.

Confidence on yourself, enthusiasm and following few latest tips will make your way to successful career leaving the break well behind.

Good Luck.

Best Recruitment Practices

Need for Best Recruitment Practices

The need to acquire right talent is growing as business is constantly expanding. It has become essentially important to streamline recruitment process, source top talent and do employer branding in the best possible way. However, in the fast-moving business world today, it is not easy for all the companies to acquire the right skills by themselves, especially when they have demanding core business.
This is where, getting best recruitment services done by an efficient KPO partner comes into picture.
The partner plays a key role in identifying the cream resources available in the market and thus, helps in meeting the need of its client.
The idea of the KPO partner is to implement ace recruitment services and consider all significant factors affecting the same. Here is the list of Best Recruitment practices that are must to be followed.

1. Understand Client’s requirement:
As client’s requirement is dynamic thus, it becomes more challenging for the KPO partner to meet the expectations. This makes it essential for the KPO partner to first understand the Client’s business requirement. “Requirement” here, is an umbrella term that covers detailed information related to significant parameters like skills, industrial experience, level of expertise, location, industrial exposure, feasibility, flexibility & cultural fitment that the Client considers mandatory.

2. Create a system:
The system here means a sound strategy that should be incorporated to acquire right talent. Once, the partner has a thorough idea about Client’s requirement and business understanding, it becomes easy to work towards creating a system/ strategy. A system that helps in meeting client’s requirements. At times, there may be chances that the entire strategy needs change as per the change in client.

3. Market Research:
It becomes critical for the recruiters to have the idea about present day market standards. Parameters like compensation benchmarking, skill mapping, potential sources and market dynamics should be taken into consideration.

4. Think like investor:
Before implementing the strategy, it is important to think like the investor and bring the necessary changes in the strategy created after thorough market research analysis. This means that the recruiter must have a clear idea about Client’s business which will help them to look for potential candidates available from relevant industries. Investing time and money in a candidate who doesn’t fit in client’s model is a real loss to business.

5. Generate pool of candidates:
Once the strategy/course of action gets finalized then it should be implemented to create pool of candidates. Here, it is important to utilize all significant recruitment tools.
The common job sites are most utilized recruitment tools. However, a detailed research can bring to light many effective tools that are not mainstream. Some of them are Mpool, Lusha, AngelList, CutShort, GitHub etc. The benefits of using these tools is the fact that more refined candidates can be accessed here.

6. Be Active on Social Media:
Today social media is doing wonders in not just popularizing a brand but, also by turning out to be a great tool in attracting and gaining the potential job seekers especially in the age group of 20 to 35years.

7. Effective Pitching and Employer Branding:
A conversation is significant enough to create impression, thus a recruiter who is the front face for any business should have a sound pitch with detailed knowledge about business and role being offered. The pitching skills of Recruiter have a long-lasting impact on the candidate that, sometimes is the sole reason why they join the organization.

8. Stringent Candidate Screening:
The candidate screening must be sound from the very first step. All essential tests and standards should be met before choosing the right talent. The tests used in the process should be based on a proper Job description.

9. Candidate Stability:
Parameters like cultural fitment, stability and other behavioural aspects cannot always be evaluated by the set test/ interview standards. Here, the recruiter’s judgement and experience play a great role in evaluating the behavioural part of the employee.

10. Pipeline of passive candidates:
Nothing is more exciting for a recruiter then a suitable candidate who turns out to be the final choice of the hiring manager. The perfect candidate who has successfully qualified all the rounds of screening. However, this excitement can turn into a nightmare if the candidate backs out at the last moment and has better options in his hands. Thus, it is important for recruiters to make a pipeline of passive candidates while entertaining active candidates.

11. References:
The references must always be taken from candidates as you never know when they turn out to be the last moment backup.

12. Salary Negotiations:
All the hard work goes in vain if the selected candidate backs out just because the recruiter fails to convince them with the salary offered. This step mostly becomes a great hindrance in the path of new recruiters as they don’t have great negotiation skills while closing an offer.
Thus, a recruiter should focus on developing all the necessary skills to do end to end recruitments.

13. Measure, Review & Repeat:
The recruitment system of any KPO partner will not have long terms success if it is not reviewed. There is a constant need to evaluate the measures undertaken in the recruitment process and identify the shortcomings. It is significantly to incorporate key changes in next process and keep repeating the review process.

8 Key Benefits of outsourcing IT using Managed Services

8 Key Benefits of outsourcing IT using Managed Services

Tell me one field that is never the same every minute. Yes, it is technology. The very essence of technology is ‘change’. You see the development of new technology every minute. Even as you read through this article, technology is changing somewhere in the world. Under such circumstances, it becomes imperative for every business organization to adapt to this change wholeheartedly. This is where Managed Services comes into the picture.

What is IT Managed Services for small and medium businesses?

To put it in very simple terms, Managed services allow a business entity to delegate IT operations to an external service provider. This is also known as outsourcing IT services.

What is the role of a Managed Services Provider (MSP)?

The MSP assumes the responsibility of maintaining and monitoring the IT systems of any business concern round the clock. They are also responsible for managing and resolving problems that the IT systems throw up from time to time. This involves updating the systems so that they do not become outdated.

Let us see some of the key benefits of outsourcing IT to an MSP.

a) Effective Cost Control – When you outsource your IT services, you convert your fixed costs into variable costs. This enables you to do your budgeting right by allowing you to reach the Break Even Point earlier. You naturally incur fewer costs when you outsource IT because you only pay for what you use and that too, only when you need it.

b) Save on Labour Costs – Hiring an IT professional is expensive. On top of that, you need to train him/her on a continuous basis for the sake of knowledge updating. Outsourcing your IT services allows you to focus on the areas of human resources where you need them the most.

c) Experience always overshadows qualifications – However, qualified an IT professional you hire, nothing can beat experience. When you fall sick, do you go to an experienced doctor or do you rely on a newly graduated professional? You have the answer right on the tip of your tongue.

d) Focus on your strengths – Not every business entrepreneur is conversant with the finer aspects of IT. This is a specialised field that requires constant updating of knowledge. In case the business uses the time for updating of IT knowledge, they might not be able to concentrate on their core strengths. Outsourcing your IT requirements allows you to focus on your areas of strength.

e) Reduce risks – Every business activity comes with a risk element attached to it. Outsourcing your IT services to an MSP ensures that you have professionals handling this vital aspect of the business for you. They have the capacity to manage and mitigate the risks that IT brings with it.

f) Improve vendor management – The MSP is in the best position to negotiate with vendors. As a business entity, you will find it difficult to deal with these changes and updates on a regular basis. A specialised entity such as the MSP will be able to handle this portfolio better.

g) Ensure scalability – We have seen that technology is changing every minute. This entails that you need to maintain the scalability of your IT systems. As you expand your business, the IT services need an expansion as well. A dedicated MSP will be able to maintain the scalability and ensure that the systems are up to date all the time.

We have seen 8 key benefits of outsourcing IT using MSP. It is the need of the hour to remain updated all the time as the level of competition will not let you survive otherwise.

Managed Services

Why your business needs IT Managed Services?

Managed IT services is an answer that is conveyed by an IT service provider that consolidates flat-rate, boundless IT support for a monthly fee with the proactive checking of IT workstations and infrastructure.

Managed Service has become a significant part of every organization regardless of its size. The reason being, sooner or later every business process faces some sort of IT issue. Most of the organizations are using managed services for their betterment. Have you ever thought why? The answer to this ‘Why?’ is very obvious, because it proves to be a good investment which can surely increase your company’s revenue.

 

Have a look on the top benefits of outsourcing IT through Managed Services:

 

  • Focus on Your Core Business Process: With the help of managed services you can stay focussed on your core business and can free your mind and internal resources from day to day IT related problems by entrusting a third party or external agency.
  • Control IT costs: Managed services can lead to a good return on investment and also it proves to be a cost effective method as it helps you budget effectively by shifting your fixed IT costs to variable costs.
  • Implement New Technology: By opting managed services, greater access to new technologies is provided.
  • Experienced and Qualified Staff: If a business lacks in IT capabilities, certifications like Certifications like Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and IT specific qualified staff, then managed services can turn out to be the best option for you! With managed services you gain access to resources not available internally.
  • Improves Efficiency: Managed services can improve the efficiency and dependability of your IT operations.
  • Reduce and Control Operational Cost: If your capital expenses are leading to loss in your business, then managed services can help you to shift your capital expenses to operational ones!
  • Expanded Information Security: 99% safety is ensured from downtime, viruses and crashes.
  • Risk Management: Not only this, you can now seek your head in strategic IT planning that will allow you to think ahead leading to better risk management.

 

Managed services act like IT Manager for your organization catering to all your needs and fulfilling them before time. Another important point is making sure strategic IT planning with full uploading and up-gradation of software. Managed services keep a good track record of your IT problems and make sure to improve them in every aspect before time.

Vaco Binary Semantics LLP helps you choose the best managed services for your organization so that you can free yourself from mundane time consuming processes. What are you waiting for? Contact us today and experience what happens when you chose to free yourself.