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SusanRanford

How Employers Can Bring More Confidence To Their Team

October 28, 2020 by SusanRanford

Teams that operate without confidence operate from a place of fear – fear to try new technologies, fear to report problems, fear to share ideas or observations.

This leads to a culture of stagnation, blame, exclusion “need-to-know mentality,” and lost productivity, among other negatives. Quality and quantity of output almost always suffer. 

By contrast, teams that operate with confidence are characterized by a variety of positive traits, which may vary depending on the culture and context and business needs – high rate of innovation, smooth change management, reduced error rates, collaborative and supportive environments, calculated risk-taking, and swift response to unforeseen circumstances. 

Confident teams are agile, friendly and provide great customer service.

Put in simple terms, the way a person feels about his or her work determines how engaged or disengaged they are – and being confident about one’s performance on the job is a key indicator of overall employee satisfaction. 

Below are some reasons that employees in general – especially high-performing employees on which companies heavily rely – either stay highly engaged and motivated, or completely disengage.

The Importance of Strong, Positive Leadership

It is easy to forget sometimes that employees are human beings, often trying to do their best to balance the commitments of their lives. Employees disengage at high rates when they do not feel like the work they do is important, especially in the younger generations. This may be a result of any of a number of core issues; most often related to issues with process and management.

They may be micromanaged. Their core values may not be aligned with the company mission. The cumbersome processes they navigate on a daily basis may make a saint curse. They may not realize how their contributions support others. They may be in the wrong position for their talents. They may not be the right person for the job. They may not have the training they need to operate at optimal performance. They may have something else on their mind.

In general, an employee will re-engage if he or she receives recognition and praise at least twice a month for what they bring to the team – better if more often, best if related to specific achievements and given publicly.

How Tech Tools Can Help

One way to keep employees motivated is to clear all the small-minded administrivia off their plates. 

Employees want to function at a high level and think creatively. Freeing them up motivates them. One way to do this is to implement automation tools to make their lives easier and eat up a lot of the busy work. 

Automated management software can take over a lot of these tasks, like scheduling and reporting. Other tools are more specific. Some focus on marketing outreach, others focus on invoicing, some focus on data backup, and on and on. 

Software can make it easy for managers to track employee advances and contributions for recognition. Teams can use it to improve outdated business processes and update vital information systems. 

Attainment of goals and department contributions can be visually shared on a weekly basis. Latent talents can be uncovered. Employees that are the wrong fit can be identified early on and transferred. Employee training can be managed. Management problems can be identified. These are all positives. 

Let Employees Know You Value Them

Getting high-performing individual employees and teams to remain engaged and fully support the company objectives involves showing them that their contributions are valued. 

Take time to recognize them in the company newsletter for going above and beyond. Provide incentives. Provide the recognition listed above. However, most importantly, take the time to arrange their workload so that almost every day they get the chance to work on what they do best – and reduce the amount of non-value-added tasks they have to perform. 

Consider the employee’s education level, training, and ability. Are you making a highly skilled employee spend more than 50% of their time on tasks that a high school student could do? If so, you are both woefully losing out. 

If you are asking a person with a master’s degree in economics to scrub floors and spend all of time on data entry, do not expect them to wait long before looking for another job. The work that your employees do should reflect the real potential that they bring to the corporation.

One of the biggest hurdles to reaching the magic “80%” mark – where 80% of the time, an employee is confidently working in his or her area of added-value. Streamlining your business processes, and automating and updating your processes and systems, can free up valuable time where a good employee can better be contributing his analysis, her business acumen, their overhaul of your customer service program. 

Instead of spending two hours a day on reports, they can spend two hours a day brainstorming next year’s product line. A great way to build more efficiency into your company and processes is to optimize the use of good business process management software platforms, which simplify complex interactions and reduce duplication of effort. 

They can also handle things like electronic signatures, simultaneous review, and system upgrades. Clear expectations and goals and targets are also easy to create and communicate with the platforms offered by a number of software firms.

Think About  What They Need

The number one reason that employees disengage is that they not understand, clearly what is required of them. Only slightly behind is not having the tools they need to effectively, efficiently, and/ or responsibly do the work that is asked. The best employee in the world cannot do a job that requires a database if he or she does not have a well-designed, responsive database that creates the type of report they need to provide. 

The best thing you can do for your employees in this regard is understand the work they do, and respond adequately to their stated needs. Improve workflow processes and systems, and teach employees how to optimize their use. You can incorporate the use of software packages to proactively anticipate demand, examine inefficiencies, and test the performance of proposed solutions. 

Include employee feedback in the design, implementation, testing, and operational feedback of systems and processes- and use software to track and analyze this feedback.

Understand Who They Are

Many employers mistakenly think that pay and benefits are all that employees care about. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. You need to create the type of environment where the type of employee you want, actually wants to work.

Think about the needs of your employees as individuals. Know who is an introvert. Know who is best motivated by teamwork. Know what intrinsically motivates your employees – pleasure, pleasantness, and sense of security? Power, importance and influence? Being an outstanding contributor? Opportunities to learn and grow? Specific guidance on every task, or do need to figure it out themselves? Do they a 9-5 schedule, or will they be best suited by a flexible schedule?

Apart the above-mentioned focusing them on their best field of work expertise, also know what motivations and conditions encourage them do their best work. Try to work those things into their work to the extent possible, and also use your software platforms to encourage collaboration of complementary work styles and strengths.

Focus on Personal Growth, Relationships and Collaboration

Employees often feel isolated and insecure when they are not encouraged to create professional friendships at work. To build confidence in your team, encourage professional networking, collaboration and friendship building within your team. 

Encourage team-building, not just once a year, but at regular intervals. Let employees train each other. Celebrate each month’s birthdays. Provide safe spaces for employees to voice concerns and ideas. Provide platforms for anonymous feedback. provide platforms for employees to recognize each other. provide the types of workspaces that aid both employees who need to focus on a task at hand, and those who want to collaborate. 

Provide cloud sharing and virtual meeting spaces for employees who work remotely. Remember to include and recognize the contributions of your remote employees as well, and invite them to company functions. Keep a “who to call” database of employee strengths for resolving challenges. 

Filed Under: Manage

Steps In Creating an Excellent Company Culture

September 24, 2020 by SusanRanford

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Work culture is the way things function every day in an organization. It encompasses the behaviors and beliefs of the staff. 

A company’s work culture affects how people behave in a company and how they treat customers. It can strengthen or weaken its organizational structure. 

For an organization to succeed, it is important to create a strong company culture. So, how do we create a culture that ensures the organisation and its people thrive? Here are some tips on how to go about it.

1. Have a purpose 

Your purpose will determine the work culture as it will guide how you interact and do business. 

If a company wants to have a great purpose, it must set up clearly defined goals aimed at excellence. By focusing on and achieving worthy goals, a company will create a culture of excellence.

2. Set a vision

In order to project excellence into the future, company leaders and staff must work with a vision in mind. The vision that leaders have, determines where the company will end up in years to come. 

Company leaders should write a vision statement that everyone in the company will follow. The statement will give purpose to every day of the companies’ existence, guiding the  and  leaders and staff choices. Following a good vision is a sure way of creating an excellent culture.

3. Set strong standards

The standards of a company will determine its culture. Standards help people choose the right values. The right values attract great customers and guide employees to do the right things. 

Determine the standards in your company and establish them by outlining them in a mission statement. This will create a strong foundation for your company. The main focus should be to provide the best services or goods. 

4. Let people lead by example

Leaders of a company and their values determine how the company performs. If the leaders have great values, they will create a great example that employees can follow. 

Therefore, company leaders must adopt habits of success and ensure the management team does the same so that they lead by example. Their focus should be doing the right thing and handling any problems promptly and efficiently. That will create a great work ethic that will benefit the company and its customers.

5. Establish a strong brand

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Establishing a strong brand is an essential step in creating an excellent company culture. Your company needs ambassadors that represent your brand. 

Your brand will inspire the staff and anyone associated with it to stick to company values. How strong your brand is, can also determine your customer base. Follow these steps to come up with a great brand.

6. Treat employees right

If your employees are unhappy, they are unlikely to maintain a work ethic that produces excellence. New Jersey Employment experts believe employees who are  well paid and treated right are more productive. After all, employees are the face of the company to the customer. 

A company with an excellent work  culture must have policies in place that establish worker’s rights.

7. Focus on quality

The quality of your services or goods will bring the customers to your door and build your reputation. As a step towards creating an excellent company culture, focus on actions that will lead to quality creation. 

Compromising on quality will end up hurting your brand. Invest in any procedures, training, or people that will push your company forward by producing quality services/goods, and you have a winner.

8. Embrace changes

If you want an excellent company culture, create a habit of looking ahead and preparing for change. Whether good or bad, your company must adapt to stay ahead. Therefore, create a habit of embracing change and even driving it where possible. 

Favorable change can bring you profits, and any adverse changes need to be foreseen, prepared for, and overcome. For example, with rising costs, you may have to embrace energy saving options such as architectural window tinting to save costs. 

You may also have to embrace modern technology to bring your company, its services, and products into the digital age. If you decide to stay in the analog era, you will have a hard time establishing excellence.

9. Communicate well

Communication is the foundation of great relationships. Communicate your goals to managers and workers and find ways of making sure what you say is understood and done the right way.

If you communicate your vision well, then you will succeed in seeing it accomplished. With numerous successes arising from well-communicated visions and goals, you will establish a culture of excellence in your company.

10. Interact with others 

Create great relationships with brands that have adapted and mastered an excellent company culture. You will learn from them how to conduct business in ways that bring you success. 

Networking with successful companies will also expose you to a more extensive customer base, which will bring you more profits. Where employees interact, they can learn from each other in ways that benefit your company. Therefore, make an effort to reach out to successful brands and networking with them often.

Last word

These are just a few tips on how to create an excellent company culture. It all starts with the desire for great things and the will to work on a great future. As a company leader, take it upon yourself to work on ways of improving your company culture, and you will see the benefits of higher employee satisfaction, lower turnover, happy customers and consequently, increased profits. Try these tips and see how they transform your business.

Author: Denise Paul

Filed Under: Succeed

Understanding Predictive Index Test Scores

May 29, 2020 by SusanRanford

Baffled by your Predictive Index Test score results? 

In this article, we will shed light on the test result of the two common Predictive Index Tests: the Predictive Index Cognitive Assessment and the Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment. 

What Is The PI Cognitive Assessment?

The Predictive Index (PI) Cognitive Assessment is a 12-minute timed cognitive test that is made up of 50 questions, which are comprised of three categories: abstract reasoning, verbal and numeric. It is a measure of general cognitive ability, or the capacity to learn quickly and assimilate new information.  

According to research, general cognitive ability is a reliable predictor of how an individual will perform in a workplace setting. Thus, many organizations use this Predictive Index Test when making hiring and promotion decisions. 

Understanding PI Cognitive Assessment Test Scores 

The PI Cognitive Assessment scaled score, is calculated according to the number of correct answer responses of the test-taker. The scaled score is the only PI Cognitive Assessment score intended to be used by employers when making employee talent-related decisions. 

What is the Average PI Cognitive Assessment Raw Test Score?

A raw score is the number of correct answers you got on your test. The average raw score in this Predictive Index Test ranges from 17-23. However, you can pretty safely say that the population’s average raw score is 20 right answers. 

What is the Norm Group?

When making hiring decisions, most employers use scoring tables of certain norm groups that relate to the job position they are hiring for. 

A norm group (or a quartile group) is a sample of pre-tested candidates who share a specific characteristic and whose scores were aggregated to develop a benchmark. When an employer seeks to hire a candidate for a new job position, the test administrator provides them with this benchmark so they can establish a cutoff score for their recruitment process. 

What is a Scale Score?

The PI Cognitive Assessment score is a scaled score that is calculated based on the number of questions you answer correctly on the test. There are no penalties for incorrect answers. In short, the more questions you answered correctly, the higher your score.

The only score on this Cognitive Predictive Index Test report that is meant to be used in relation to talent decision making is the scaled score, which is found at the top of the score report. The scale is 100-450 and the average score is 250, which is equivalent to a raw score of approximately 20/50. Every score falls into a percentile which demonstrates how your score compares to the scores of other test-takers in terms of percentages.

What are the PI Cognitive Assessment Cutoff Scores?

A cutoff score, or target score, is influenced by the employer’s decision, the profile of the job, and the recommendations of the assessment company (in this case Predictive Index). In essence, each employer determines its own cutoff PI Cognitive Assessment score. 

What Is The PI Behavioral Assessment?

The PI Behavioral Assessment is a free-choice, untimed, stimulus-response tool that is designed to measure the motivating drives of individuals. It measures four central personality traits: Dominance, Extraversion, Patience, and Formality. 

The PI Behavioral Assessment Reference Profile

After you complete this Behavioral Predictive Index Test you will receive a Reference Profile—a snapshot overview of the way you think and the way you are likely to work. 

The Predictive Index Test science team identified 17 “Reference Profile” after analyzing millions of Behavioral Assessments. These Reference Profiles provided groupings of attributes of individuals who have similar drives. 

The Reference Profiles  

Analytical Profiles:

  • Analyzer – Analyzers tend to demand a lot of details and will collect all relevant facts before forming a decision. 
  • Controller – Controllers are fast-paced and self-disciplined. They are always pushing themselves to get things done correctly.
  • Venturer – Venturers are always pushing past and exploring boundaries. They look for ways to drive the business forward.  
  • Specialists – Specialists are introspective, err on the side of caution, and are very loyal to authority. 
  • Strategist – The strategist looks at the big picture, they look towards the future and think about how decisions can benefit the whole business. 

Social profiles:

  • Altruist – Altruists are accurate, supportive, humble, and helpful workplace colleagues.  
  • Captain –  These individuals have a strong will and very independent and open to any change. 
  • Collaborator – Characterized as generally empathetic, cooperative, and patient. 
  • Maverick – These individuals tend to adopt leadership positions, they are visionaries and have high aspirations. 
  • Promoter – Promoters are extraverted and charismatic, they are popular and widely liked. 
  • Persuader – Persauders don’t easily take no for an answer. They are well-spoken and likable. They know how to motivate others. 

Stabilizing Profiles

  • Adapter – Adapters can take on different types of roles, they are typical generalists.
  • Craftsman – These individuals listen more than they talk, and are reliable workers.
  • Guardian – Guardians tend to bring precision and structure to their place of work. 
  • Operator – They are informal, relaxed, and reliable individuals.  They tend to be patient and cooperative.  

Persistent Profiles

  • Individualist – Individualists are strong-minded and tackle challenges with confidence. They are analytical and persistent.  
  • Scholar – Scholars are knowledgeable yet reserved individuals.  

Summary 

In this article, we have seen how the most important score of the PI Cognitive Assessment is the scaled score, which is based on the number of questions the test-taker answered correctly. We have also noted, that after you complete the PI Behavior Assessment you will receive a Reference Profile—an overview of the way you work and think.  

Filed Under: Strategize

Proven Method to Inventory Forecasting and Accurate Budgeting

February 18, 2020 by SusanRanford

Inventory forecasting or estimation can be explained as a financial routine of preempting or forecasting future inventory on a particular timescale. More mundane it is a scientific take on predicting specified future sales regarding a based proposed marketing approach and competitive and uncontrollable sets of forces. 

The future of your retail is predominant on Forecasting inventory and plays a big role in figures of profitability. The type of system you use is supposed to consider sales or purchases encountered in the past month; past season, and the customized duration that depends on future business transactions.

Inventory Planning In Relation To Past Month Sale
When planning the inventory for a coming month using the past month sale, the number of planning days on the inventory is pertinent. (For this scenario, 30 days) in touch with how long you intend the inventory arrangement to be worked on in regards to (for this scenario, past 30 days).

Ascertained to a specific vendor or product, it is feasible to use a brand name based filter. You will be provided with a suggested quantitative by the system you are using when filling in your inventory. 

This will be based on the past month daily average sale. The systems suggested quantity can also be used to calculate the precise delivery time of a product by a vendor.

Inventory Planning In Relation To Past Season Sale

As the one above, you will be provided with the quantities that are suggested by the system. This can help you in the afore planning of holidays like Christmas to come based mostly on how much you sold on the previous Christmas. 

In this case, you will need to have the required days, 60 days that’s for December and January in conjunction with the previous December and January to calculate a perfect inventory prediction.

With that said, looking at your fresh stock and how fast or slow they are moving is also essential. On bigger occasions like Christmas, it is imperative to apply other factors to your inventory planning on fresh stocks will help you in keeping your customers for lack of new stock.

Why Both Beginning And Ending Inventory Cost Calculations Are Important 
Firstly it aids you in monitoring your business’ current trends. For instance, on one side a beginning inventory that is decreased is a nice omen since it might result from that sales growth of a certain period.

While on the other side, it might result from problems in the processes of your inventory management or supply chain.  

For the beginning inventory cost that has increased, it might arise either from a sales’ downward trend or having stock build-up prior to a busy period like prior to holidays. Thus it is crucial to be very accurate draw right conclusions as well as make good decisions while calculating both the beginning and ending inventories.

How to Calculate Ending Inventory
Are you having difficulties on how to calculate ending inventory? Basically ending inventory is calculated by annexing new purchases with the beginning inventory then deducting the sold goods costs. In other simpler words, ending inventory is a product of the available goods that have not been sold at an accounting period end. 

Despite the unit number at the end of an accounting period is not dominant to the inventory outcome; the type of valuation system has an impact on the value of the dollar of ending inventory.

So management has to be very careful on the type of system they use.
In a time of inflationary pressures or rising of prices, FIFO brings out a bigger ending inventory valuation as compared to LIFO. In that regards, specific businesses strategically choose FIFO or LIFO techniques based on the environment the businesses are located at.

Ending Inventory Breakdown
A physical inventory count may lead to additional correct inventory valuation. However, for enormous businesses, that’s unpractical. RFID systems, Inventory management software, as well as other technologies leveraging platforms and connected devices advancements, may ease the challenge of valuation.

Other inclusive problems are:
• Listing down theft inventory levels, general obsolescence, and decreases in market value.
• A popular item of the balance sheet is the Ending inventory that is important for obtaining financing. Creditors and investors closely monitor financial statements that are owned by manufacturing and retail businesses that are inventory rich.
• Correct inventory valuations can have an impact on several popular metrics of financial statements.  

Income statement items are inclusive of gross profit, cost of goods sold as well as net income. Equity, total assets, current assets as well as working capital emanate from a balance sheet.

Every item is crucial for having a business’ performance and financial statements assessed.
Conclusion
Therefore, when it comes to forecasting, several uncertainties are for sure for every organization. To have these uncertainties’’ adverse effects reduced an organization needs to take an iterative approach to determine a projected inventory in the future.

When you have data available, everything is measurable. However, to forecast inventory accurately, you need to be focused on relevant data points. It is important to take a few points when you are forecasting inventory.



Filed Under: Manage

The Essential Guide to Budgeting and Business Planning For Entrepreneurs

February 18, 2020 by SusanRanford

While running any business getting bogged down is very easy in your daily problems making you forget the ultimate goal. Nonetheless successful and rich businesses take time to manage and to create budgets, monitor performance and finance regularly, review and prepare business plans.

Any planning that is well structured can be the difference that you have wanted to make your business’ growth robust. It enables one to have resources concentrated on enhancing profits, increasing investment returns as well as reducing costs.
As a matter of fact, even without any formal processes, several businesses can carry out almost all business planning associated activities like profits, cash flow, competitors as well as contemplating about areas of growth. 

When this is converted to a consistent process that can manage the development of your business, it needn’t be time consuming nor difficult. Additionally, the plans made are supposed to be dynamic as well as well communicated to every involved personnel.

Important Steps in Calculating Ending Inventory.

There are several crucial steps one needs to follow to ascertain your plans and budgets are useful and realistic.

1. Make time to budget
If you take time in creating a realistic and comprehensive ending inventory, it is going to be effortless to manage and become more effective, ultimately.

2. Use yesteryear’s figures as a guide only
Historical info on costs and sales need to be collected if available. They are a nice indication of costs and sales that are more likely. However, it is prudent to consider what sales plan you have, how you will use sales resources as well as any alteration in competitive environments

3. Make realistic budgets
You can make good use of the business plan, historical info as well as any alterations in priorities or operations to have overheads budgeted for as well as fixed costs.

It is essential to properly work out on the relationship between variable sales and costs then utilize the sales forecast to have the variable costs projected. For instance, should your unit costs decrease by 10% for every additional 20% of sales, how much will that unit costs reduce should you possess a 33% sales rise?

Ascertain that your budgets possess sufficient info in order to have the essential drivers of that business easily monitored like working capital, costs, and sales. Accounting software has the ability to have your accounts managed.

4. Have the right personnel involvedIt is good to enquire from personnel that has financial responsibilities in order to give you with figure estimates for your ending inventory. For instance, certain project control, production costs, or sales targets should you have your estimates balanced against theirs then be certain to get a very realistic budget. With such involvement, it’ll give them a greater commitment in meeting that budget.

How to Calculate the Ending Inventory Balance

The Unit Cost approach
This approach needs one to calculate the price of every unit of the goods inventory that is finished. In order to achieve this, add the direct materials’ costs, factory overhead amount that was allocated to every sector of the entire unit cost and direct labor.

You need to determine the number of finished goods inventory units is left in the stock. This information is obtainable using the physical inventory counts or via the formulae; 

The number of units in goods inventory at the period’s beginning plus a finished number of units during that period minus the units sold during that period. 

For instance, if t the beginning you had 50000 unit in the form of finished goods then had 25000 more in that period then the total is 75000 units. And should you have sold 45000 units then 30000 units is the ending number in the finished goods?

Extrapolate the units of the finished goods inventory by unit cost. For example, 30,000 units by $18 would give $540,000 in the finished goods inventory.

Account Method
Check the finishing amount of goods inventory from the last accounting period. This type of info is obtainable from the balance sheet. For instance, assuming that the last ending inventory totaled to $900,000

Add the manufactured goods’ cost to the starting inventory amount. To obtain the price of manufactured goods add the raw materials cost, direct labor’s cost, and factory overhead cost. 

Then add that result to the beginning balance of that period for the goods inventory that is finished. For instance, should the price of manufactured goods be $450 000 in the current period, have that added to the starting finished goods inventory that costs $900000 which totals up to $1,350,000?

Subtract the sold cost of goods from the entire cost of manufactured goods and beginning finished goods. Should the sold goods cost be $810,000, for instance, the expected calculation could be $1,350,000 – $810,000 to get $540,000 in the finished goods inventory.

Both approaches help on how to calculate ending inventory, which can be used to help you monitor current trends in your business.

Conclusion                                                 
The ending balance for the 1st month will be the starting balance for the following month. You will do the same analysis. Every month you might need to interpolate more items to the analysis of cash flow with the growth of your business.


Filed Under: Lead, Succeed

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Recent Posts

  • How Employers Can Bring More Confidence To Their Team
  • Steps In Creating an Excellent Company Culture
  • How to Create a Successful Creative Experiential Marketing Campaign
  • Understanding Predictive Index Test Scores
  • Proven Method to Inventory Forecasting and Accurate Budgeting
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