SusanRanford

Defining & Presenting the Right KPIs

February 28, 2019 by SusanRanford

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that measure how successful your company is at accomplishing a goal or objective. They are the strongest indicator of whether or not your business is successful. The challenge is knowing which metrics are the most effective for achieving your goals, as well as how to present those metrics to the key stakeholders in your organization.

Defining the Right KPIs

There is no “one-KPI-fits-all” solution when it comes to defining your company’s key performance indicators. KPIs should be tailored specifically to your business model and objectives, so you can get a solid understanding of the health of your company by simply looking at the status of your KPIs. If your KPIs are on track, your business is as well.

Steps to Building Custom KPIs For Your Business

Evaluate your goals and objectives: What is the purpose of your company? What determines whether or not you are successful? The answer to these questions can help you better understand what metrics will help you reach your goals.
Focus on between 4 and 10 KPIs: There are so nearly infinite things in your business that can be measured, but less is more when it comes to monitoring KPIs. These should be the metrics that are the most critical towards your success. If you track too many, it can become overwhelming and pointless.
Reassess and review: Be critical of your KPIs and check to make sure that monitoring them is a good use of your time. They should be moving the needle and improving your company’s performance. If they aren’t, it may be time to think of some better KPIs.

Presenting Your KPIs

Data presentation matters. In order for a data analyst’s recommendations or analysis to generate real action, they need to be heard (and understood) by stakeholders. When information is not presented clearly and effectively, it may be hard for business-minded people to understand the importance and value of the data in front of them. The goal of KPI presentation, then, should be to make data understandable and easily comprehensible.

The Psychology of Data Visualization

Data visualization allows you to maximize pre-attentive processing and quickly absorb complex information. When you are looking at a chart or graph, your brain will automatically identify unique elements and patterns. On the other hand, numbers on a spreadsheet require the viewer to actively analyze and examine to find key insights, which can be mentally exhausting.

Data visualization takes those seemingly random numbers and turns them into aesthetically pleasing visuals. You can tell a narrative with your data and integrate already learned information for quicker and more established connections. This connects your short and long-term memory, which helps you more permanently remember the information.

3-Step Process for Processing Information

Visual Sensory Register: Information first processes through here, which is part of pre-attentive processing. Before you are even aware you are processing information, certain things will stand out and objects may be unconsciously grouped together.
Short-Term Memory: Your short-term memory has a limited capacity. Anything that is not considered useful is discarded, so you can only retain about 3-9 “chunks” of visual information.
Long-Term Memory: Your long-term memory retains meaningful information, not the precise details.

Tips for Communicating KPIs

Keep it simple: Don’t overwhelm your audience with data. A clear and concise message is easier to comprehend and remember.
Choose the appropriate chart: Not all chart types will accomplish the same goal or tell the same story. That’s why it’s important to take some time to understand the different chart types so you can select the best option for your visualization. This infographic can help you choose the right chart for your KPIs:

Use color with intention: Color is a crucial element of data visualization design. It can simplify complex graphs, influence the feel of the data, or add contextual depth to data. It’s important to be consistent with your color choices and use plenty of contrast to make your visualizations easy to read and understand.
Tell a story: It’s easier for stakeholders to understand the data if you accompany it with a narrative and helpful context. They should be able to quickly sum up what action needs to be taken based on what they learned from the information you presented.

Author Bio: Samantha Marsh is the Marketing Content Coordinator for iDashboards, a data visualization software company on a mission to transform reporting into meaningful dashboards.

Benefits of Automating Expense Management With an HRMS

February 28, 2019 by SusanRanford

BAn untold truth about HRs is that all efforts put in from finding the right candidate, interviewing them, selecting, onboarding and finally handling their separation costs money. Hence, it becomes an additional responsibility of the HR to always go the extra mile to find the right candidate for the company who will be a part of the company for a long run and help the company grow.

Usually these expenses are centrally handles by the finance department but, with Pocket HRMS, your HR can not only automate the expense management, but also monitor the ROI behind every spending and aim to be more efficient in the spending. A smart HRMS solution like Pocket HRMS gives you the freedom to choose from varied modules to suit your business needs.

How does an HR software help you automate your expense management?

Taxation and Standard Deductions

With Pocket HRMS, the employees can file their declaration for the year and the algorithm in the system will help the HR calculate the Income Tax and other deductions for the individual. Seeing everything clearly, helps the employee plan his/her taxes in advance and file for returns without any hiccups eliminating any type any human error.

Claims Reporting

Either travel expenses or taking the client out for dinner/lunch is an expense that the sales person has to borne to make a potential sales. With the help of a smart HRMS software, you can manage all your claims in one place along with the proper approval system and add that up when the payout is to be made.

Transparency in approvals:

With integrated HRMS software comes a business card for all types of transactions with automated and streamlined transparent expense management system. Now employees can track all their reimbursements processes with ease along with their approvals avoiding any chances of fraud cases between claimers and approvers.

Quick operations:

Processing for medical claims is another huge task for the HR wherein they not only have to deal with the employee, but also the TPA of the insurance company. Having one streamlined software makes it easier for all the communication to be logged along with providing transparency to all the parties. Lodging all your claims are now just one click away.

Easy ROI reporting:

Many businesses, during their procurement period, find reporting on their Return on Investment (ROI) the most tedious and tough task to perform. Doing it manually, does not only arises errors but also consumes tons of minutes which could rather be focused on other productive activities. Switching your accounts’ department to automated expense management gives you an easier way of reporting within no time. Automating expense management and budgeting with a system can eliminate all errors and increase efficiency.

Epilogue:

Including an HRMS system into your expense management department can be a beneficial act. It is intelligent enough to manage compliances, deductions, taxations and all other expenses automatically without any error.

Ritik Singh writes about HR (Human Resource) software, cloud and enterprise technology. A dynamic content writer who writes for PocketHRMS, a leading provider of cloud based HR software with inbuilt AI-powered HR chatbot (smHRty) to small and mid-sized businesses across India.

Why Your Business is Failing to Motivate its Workforce

February 21, 2019 by SusanRanford

Providing your team with the right environment to help keep them motivated is the responsibility of every business. Sure, businesses expect their workforce to do their bit when it comes to their own attitude and enthusiasm, but as the employer there’s a lot that you can do to help nurture this.

Office suppliers Viking have spent the last few years researching exactly what it is that keeps staff motivated, asking almost 14,000 people. From this research they were able to ascertain the biggest problems employees face when it comes to motivation, and how employers can take positive steps to improve it. So how can you motivate your workforce, and what are you doing that’s potentially having adverse effects on your team?

Your Working Day is Set Up Wrong

These days, the traditional nine-to-five is a thing of the past. Employers are frequently leaning towards modern ideas such as flexible working hours and remote working. From the research, it seems clear that most employees would appreciate a change to their working day.

60% of those surveyed said that they’d like to work from home, and those workers said that they’d like to spend as much as a third of their working week outside of the office, working remotely. It’s not always possible to facilitate this, but if your business can allow staff to work from home, it could bring about a boost to your staff’s wellbeing.

In general, there’s an obvious trend for people wanting to work a shorter week with longer days. Often known as compressed hours, half of people asked said they’d prefer to work a four-day week, with the ideal working day being between 8 am and 6 pm.

You’re Not Focused on Mental or Physical Health

Employers have a duty of care to employees to make sure their working environment doesn’t have any negative effects on their health – be it physical or mental. This is only further emphasized in the research, where six in ten employees said they are worried about the effects of constant sitting at work, with a further six in ten saying they have negative thoughts about their job on a weekly basis.

The fact that half of respondents admitted to regularly working over contracted hours could be a big factor when it comes to these negative feelings. Two-thirds saying they work through their lunch break, and 43% said they feel an unpleasant level of pressure to succeed. These negative indicators are all things that employers can influence.

The fact that over two-thirds of managers said they’d received no mental health training, despite 65% of them being approached with concerns, shows the gap between the need for support and the tools given to managers. It’s a similar story for physical health, with 43% of those surveyed saying they don’t feel informed about how to protect their health from the office desk.

Education is the best solution to the problems of mental and physical health in the workplace. Ensuring that all staff, throughout your entire company hierarchy, are trained in how to recognize and deal with problems is vital.

You’re Not Clear on Social Media Use

We all know how easy it can be to lose hour upon hour on social media, mindlessly scrolling and getting little else done. Rather than making sure we give our full attention to our jobs and steering clear of sites like Facebook and Instagram during our working day, over 85% of office workers said that they still access social media and other mobile apps whilst at work.

It’d be quite easy, and understandable, to presume that a company-wide ban on mobile phones or social media sites during work time is the solution. However, your workforce disagrees. 60% of people asked said that social media usage at work is either banned or strictly limited. Compare with the figure above and you can see many workers are side-stepping the rules to get their fix.

Further to this, 29% of people said they would be less productive if social media was banned. Social media can act as a good way to switch off for five minutes throughout the day. Banning it could lead to employees thinking you don’t trust them, a demotivating problem for businesses.

Employees just want their employers to be clearer when it comes to social media policies. Half of people said that they either don’t have a social media policy or are unaware of it. Fixing this and creating the right solution for everyone is incredibly important.

You Need to Create the Right Environment

From office décor to bad colleague habits, ensuring you have the right environment for your team to work in plays a big part in staff motivation. Art could be the answer, with 54% of employees say every workplace should have artwork and half claiming they think it would reduce workplace stress and contribute to making them happier.

The habits of our colleagues can be frustrating, but you might be surprised to hear that one in four people have considered leaving their job due to a testing co-worker. The biggest issues raised were with those who are regularly late and those who complain all the time, with 28% of workers highlighting these as big issues. 24% claimed that their biggest pet hate in the office is the old classic – colleagues eating smelly food.

Having a clear policy on lateness and ensuring that staff have somewhere separate to eat meals could be a quick fix. When it comes to staff complaining all the time, it’s up to you as the employer to create a positive mood from the top, letting this filter down throughout the business.This research serves to highlight the most common problems experienced by employers and employees, showing that there are numerous common themes that occur across numerous workplaces. Taking steps to improve these will not only have a good effect on your employees working lives but also contribute to improving results for your business.

Why Your Small Business is Failing

January 24, 2019 by SusanRanford

Starting a small business is difficult–so difficult that 66% to over 90% depending on your sources–don’t make it past the first 10 years of business. How can you prevent this from happening to your business?

The first step to anything is to be informed. Here are some of the pitfalls that small businesses run into and what you can do to avoid them. This way, you can ensure the success of your own small business:

You Don’t Offer Your Customers a Unique Product or Service

First, making your business survive starts before you even open your doors. In fact, you need to make sure your business is unique before anything else. You won’t draw in customers otherwise.

For example, there are plenty of places out there that sell coffee so you would need something to set your cafe apart from the rest. Even better, be innovative and start a business that isn’t a flooding the market–something new and exciting.

If you can’t come up with an amazing idea and want to stick to what you know–that’s fine too. Just make sure your work is being done as efficiently as possible, and you’re keeping your customers happy.

You Don’t Know Who You Are or What You’re Up Against

This is a crucial question; who are you as a business? Are you here to provide a good, a service, or both? Who is your target demographic? What’s your business’s story?

All of these questions need to be answered before you can run like a company should. These questions will give your company character and help you to strategize. Having a story, especially, will give your company character that customers can add to what they are buying, personifying your company.

To grow and succeed as a business, you need to know what you’re up against–this means knowing the technology that your competitor is working with. For example, if your competitors have automated its invoicing process, or invested in data recovery software–look into it, and see if it meets your needs for your business. Most likely, it does.

Whether this means an in-depth look for a tech company or just keeping up with the social media marketing, you need to pay attention to your competitors and keep your edge against them so they keep coming back for business.

You Don’t Have Name Recognition

It is important to have name recognition for your business. After all, if your customers can’t name your business, they can’t spread their love for you by word of mouth and they may not even remember you themselves.

A good way to get name recognition is to work with your community. This tip is especially important if you are cultivating a business in a small town.

You can also work with other small businesses in the community. Think about it, you don’t have to just compete with these other businesses, you can build each other up as well. You can also pair up with other organizations in the community to build up your name recognition.

You Don’t Stay Up-To-Date On Marketing

You might not be a full on corporation but you still need to market your services. One of the best ways to stay on top of marketing is to use social media–especially for smaller companies.

Using a platform like Facebook is a good way to keep your audience informed of sales and updates. In addition, many companies use platforms such as Instagram to post pictures of new products they are selling.

Your Expenses are Rising

This is one of the most common problems with small businesses. There are a lot of expenses that go into starting a business and even more fees and costs in maintaining one.

This can be overwhelming, especially if you aren’t properly prepared. Of course, if you can be proactive you should. Balance your budget carefully and have money saved up when you open up your business.

However, sometimes we do get ahead of ourselves and get into debt. Getting yourself out of this as quickly as you can is important–especially so you can avoid filing for bankruptcy. There are ways to survive this, though.

There are agencies that can help you with debt but make sure you’re staying on top of everything. If you have late-paying clients, this is when you want to call them up and cash in. You might even want to try rebalance your budget yourself, or turn to automation for additional help.

You Aren’t Consistent

If there is anything you have to be when you are establishing your business, it’s consistent. You need to establish exactly what your business is and what it offers. This means that you need to keep your marketing on an identical or at least similar track no matter what outlet you are advertising through.

Being consistent means that you aren’t going to confuse your potential customers about why they would come to you. This also means that you should carefully consider your advertisements and make sure they capture exactly what your business is about.

It Takes Some Time

If you’re opening a business with no background or experience in the industry –you’re going to need a lot of help. Don’t be discouraged if it seems like it’s not as good as it should be, it’ll get there if you keep making improvements.

When you open up your business–it’s likely it won’t have as much volume as you originally anticipated. Keep persisting and you will get to a place where your business is succeeding and less likely to fail after a few years.

Why Are We In the Midst of Such a Huge Marketing Shift?

January 4, 2019 by SusanRanford

For a company to be successful, they need to market their business, products, services, and their brand. We all know this, right? But did you know that there’s a major marketing shift right now?

I had the opportunity to talk with Mathew Sweezey, one of the new breed of marketing thought leaders. During our conversation, Mathew explained how and why the marketing environment is changing.

Understanding this will help businesses determine which marketing strategy is best for their customer base and business goals.

Why Is Marketing Changing So Much Right Now?

Marketing is changing because our environment has changed.

In the past, businesses with a lot of capitol controlled the media. They relied on advertisements and messages about their service/product.

Then, we entered the digital age. Still, the approach was the same – telling people why they need to purchase our product or service.

Nowadays, we’re not only digital, we’re social. This means we can’t approach marketing the way we used to. People don’t simply take a company’s word for it that they need a particular product or that theirs is the best on the market.

Instead, when people are considering making a purchase, they take to Google or social media to find out more about it. In fact, people are generally ready to make a purchase when they finally contact a company because they’ve already done their research. In the past, they relied on sales people to give them information and help them make a decision.

How You Can Keep In Step with the Latest Marketing Trends

In this changing environment, how are business owners and marketers supposed to attract customers?

“The best way to do this is to get onto social media. But once there, you don’t simply want to talk about your company. This is the old way of doing things.” – Matt DiMenno, Laser Focus SEO

Follow the example of companies like Kronos, a software company. They post two types of content on their Facebook page: Corporate blog posts and a series of comics. Guess which posts receive more customer engagement?

That’s right – it’s the comics. People don’t go onto social media because they want someone to sell them something. Nor do they go there with the specific purpose to read content.

People go onto social media to escape. When you post things online that are a mix of business, humor, and inspirational, this makes consumers feel like you’re not just trying to sell them something. It makes them feel like you get them. That, in turn, makes them more curious about your brand.

Marketing Will Always Evolve – Make Sure You Keep Up

The latest trends in marketing have taken some people by surprise. Keeping up-to-date on the latest trends is vital, though.

In doing so, you’ll be able to improve your online visibility when it comes to your target market. And when you give your customers an authentic, personal experience, they’ll be more likely to check out your product/service.

So, make sure your marketing team approaches their strategies thoughtfully, thinking about what the consumer wants or needs.

Continually doing this will ensure that your business continues to grow. Do you want to stay on the cusp of the latest marketing trends? Follow Mathew on Twitter and make sure to check out his book Marketing Automation for Dummies.