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• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• April 5, 2020

How to Create A Positive Company Culture [Complete Guide]

Having a positive company culture is vital in the success of an organization. In fact, when you look at top companies, a lot of them share a common trait, offering a positive work environment for their employees.

While workload can sometimes be stressful, having a positive work environment helps employees have greater resilience to job stress. Moreover, having a positive work environment offers a lot of benefits. This is why it’s important to know how to create a positive company culture. 

While having a positive company culture helps an organization achieve ideal business results, having a negative to average company culture doesn’t offer much rewards. According to the book, Corporate Culture and Performance, company culture can increase revenue by up to 400%.

Here are the benefits of having a positive company culture:

• Improves employee retention
• Improves productivity
• Greater employee engagement
• More satisfied employees
• Healthier workforce
• Happier workers

Large companies like Google, Microsoft and Twitter offer unique employee benefits that help foster a positive company culture. Google provides free food, Twitter offers free yoga classes right around the work space and Microsoft offers designer office spaces conducive for productivity and collaboration.

But you don’t have to invest a lot of money just to achieve a positive work environment. In fact, even doing simple actions can have a great impact. Here’s how to create a positive company culture. 

Begin with the Right People

With forming a positive company culture, you need to be mindful of the hiring process. You need to ensure that the candidates you bring into your organization can fit into the culture. Otherwise, employee conflict can arise.

Hire people with the right attitude and be patient with this process. It’s better to have no hire than a bad hire. According to the Undercover Recruiter, bad hires cost $240,000 in expenses related to hiring, retention and compensation.

Moreover, negativity is contagious. Workforce morale can suffer because of bad hires. These are the effects of low employee morale according to Michael Blankenship of Roberts Wesleyan College:

1. Decreased productivity
2. Increased rates of absenteeism 
3. Increased employee conflicts
4. Increased customer complaints and dissatisfied customers
5. Increased employee turnover rates

With trying to form a positive company culture, avoid potential toxic people at all cost. While talent matters, attitude matters more.

Recognize Employee Efforts

Recognizing employee efforts has a tremendous effect on employee satisfaction, productivity, retention and company culture. In fact, according to Gallup, one of the main reasons why workers leave their jobs is because of lack of recognition. 

Recognizing employee efforts helps with building a positive company culture as it shows your appreciation of your workers. Moreover, recognizing employee efforts also improve productivity, increases employee motivation, cultivates a spirit of teamwork and helps increase profitability.

Call Your Employees By their Names

Another simple but proven effective strategy to foster a positive company culture is to call employees by their names. By knowing and calling employees by their names, it shows that you value them as it takes effort to remember peoples’ names. 

Offer the Right Employee Benefits

Having good employee benefits matter a lot to employees. In fact, in the war for people, companies make use of offering competitive employee benefits to attract the best candidates. 

Employee benefits is also one of the biggest reasons why employees leave or stay at their jobs. According to Patriot, employee benefits is linked to employee loyalty. Moreover, offering good employee benefits is good for the well-being of the workforce.

Employees can be less stressed thinking about their financial security when they are offered retirement plans, health insurance and other perks that can help them feel more with their finances. 

Moreover, employee benefits can enable workers to have better work life balance. When employees have better work-life balance, they can have more time for their loved ones and themselves making them feel more satisfied and happy at work. 

They can be more creative, more engaged, have better mood and be better with others when they have good health and well-being. This all helps build a positive company culture. 

Don’t Micromanage

One of the worst things you can do to ruin a good company culture is to stress out your employees by micromanaging them. Micromanaging has detrimental effects not just on employee productivity but also on their well-being.

Here are statistics from a survey conducted by Trinity Solutions and Harry Chambers, author of “My Way or the Highway: The Micromanagement Survival Guide”. 

• 79% of the participants experienced micromanagement.
• 69% mentioned that they considered changing their jobs because of being micromanaged.
• 36% changed their jobs.
• 71% of the respondents said that being micromanaged interfered with their work.
• 85% reported that being micromanaged had a negative impact on their morale.

Other than micromanaging, any type of overwhelming work stress needs to be addressed. Otherwise, it can spiral out of control and lead to serious health issues. 

The negative effects of workplace stress doesn’t contribute to a positive company culture. Instead, it just ruins it. You can help employees in dealing with stress by educating them about it through seminars or by giving them advice on how to reduce and or eliminate stress. 

By showing your support and valuing your employees, you gain their trust, loyalty and commitment. Developing and sustaining a positive company culture is all about winning the workforce. 

This is the secret recipe top companies have been using. They know that for them to win the marketplace, they first need to win their workforce. Now that you know how to create a positive company culture, work hard to achieve it starting today.

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• April 1, 2020

The Negative Effects of Workplace Stress [Case Study]

No matter the nature of the work you are doing, at times, things can get stressful. It can be because of too much workload, not enough time to finish a certain task or lack of work-life balance.

While being able to “work under pressure” is a good thing, the negative effects of workplace stress can be detrimental if not addressed. One of the main reasons why even simple tasks become harder to do is because of stress.

Know that there isn’t just one type of stress. By knowing the specific type of stress you are experiencing, you can better know how to deal with it. There are 10 types of stress that can be caused by working.

Some, if not all, can be familiar to you. Here are the 10 types of workplace stress:
Burnout
Acute Stress
Fear-based Stress
Overwork
Job Search Stress
New Job Stress
Workplace Conflict Stress
Time Stress
Anticipatory Stress
Encounter Stress

Workplace stress is so prevalent that the words “job” or “work” is almost synonymous to stress for some people. By knowing how to deal with work stress, you can feel more fulfilled and happy at work.

According to the American Institute of Stress, “83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress”. Stress isn’t just detrimental to productivity, it can also lead to severe health issues and even death.

In fact, 120,000 deaths happen each year due to workplace stress. Moreover, work-related stress also costs $190 billion in healthcare each year. Workplace stress shouldn’t be underestimated.

If you start to feel that workplace stress is starting to weigh you down, assess your situation and find ways on how you can deal with it before your negative emotions spiral out of control.

Here are the negative effects of workplace stress:

Productivity Plummets

Stress can cause reduced productivity. When one is stressed, it can be harder to think straight. Moreover, even small tasks can become daunting. According to a study conducted by Everyday Health, 57% of those who are stressed are paralyzed by it.

Moreover, stress impacts sleep. A study by Korn Ferry showed that stress caused sleep deprivation for 66% of Americans. Work-related stress combined with lack of sleep intensifies its effects.

It can be a vicious cycle as until stress is reduced or dealt with, trying to get enough rest can be challenging. If not addressed, stress can lead to depression.

Here are statistics about the impacts of stress on productivity:
Organizations spend up to 75% of an employee’s annual salary to cover lost productivity or to replace workers. – HuffPost
Employees who take sick days because of mental health issues are up to seven times more likely to have even more absences than those with physical health issues. – Mental Health Foundation
Stress causes over one million employees to miss work each day. – American Institute of Stress
The annual cost of lost productivity because of absenteeism caused by poor health was more than $84 billion in 2013. – Gallup
Over 20% of employees waste more than five hours of work time each week because of their stressors and problems. – Colonial Life
80% of US employees use 12-20 hours per month to deal with their financial worries at their workplace. – IFEBP
Depression leads to $51 billion in costs because of absenteeism and $26 billion expense for treatment. – Mental Health America

Negative Impacts on Health and Well-being

Workplace stress is a silent killer of employee health. While having a job can improve one’s health and attitude towards life, having too much work-related stress can far outweigh the benefits of having the job.

Workplace stress can then even be a threat to one’s health. Each person can be exposed to different levels of stress. Risk to different levels of stress vary between professions. According to Corporate Wellness,

“Stress levels vary between professions and population groups. Some workers are at a higher risk of stress than others. Studies reveal that younger workers, women, and those in lower-skilled jobs are at most risk of experiencing work-related stress and its attendant complications”.

A recent survey by Northwestern National Life showed that around 40% of employees said that they were experiencing overwhelming stress from their jobs. Symptoms of stress can be broken down into four types:

Emotional Symptoms
Physical Symptoms
Cognitive Symptoms
Behavioral Symptoms

Here are the different physical symptoms of stress according to WebMD:
Low energy
Headaches
Upset stomach, including diarrhea, constipation and nausea
Aches, pains and tense muscles
Chest pain and rapid heartbeat
Insomnia
Frequent colds and infections
Loss of sexual desire and or ability
Nervousness and shaking
Ringing in the ear
Cold or sweaty hands and feet
Dry mouth
Difficulty swallowing
Clenched jaw
Grinding teeth

Cognitive symptoms:
Poor judgment
Inability to focus
Constant worrying
Being pessimistic
Forgetfulness
Racing thoughts

While short-term stress doesn’t cause much to worry about and can even be invigorating, the consequences of long-term stress are what’s life-threatening. These are the consequences of long-term stress:
Mental health problems such as depression, personality disorders and anxiety
Eating disorder and obesity
Sexual dysfunction
Gastrointestinal problems such as GERD, arthritis, irritable colon and ulcerative colitis
Menstrual problems
Skin and hair problems such as acne, eczema and psoriasis
Cardiovascular diseases including stroke, high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms and heart attacks

To battle work-related stress, it helps to know what’s causing it. It’s crucial to be an excellent leader and value the well-being of employees for your workforce not to suffer the long-term effects of workplace stress.

Promoting work-life balance and offering the right employee benefits also help employees be less vulnerable to workplace stress. Provide the right tools and even innovate by implementing modern strategies that help make tasks of workers easier.

A good example would be using one of the 6 best payroll software solutions in 2020. Doing the payroll takes up a lot of time and is mentally demanding. By using a good automated payroll software, you make it easier for the person in charge to do everything.

By valuing your employees, you gain their trust, you improve employee retention and productivity and boost workforce morale. Moreover, by equipping your employees with the right knowledge and skills, you also help them reduce and combat workplace stress thus enabling your organization to earn greater revenue.

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• March 16, 2020

The Importance of Work-life Balance [Case Study]

The topic of work-life balance has been in the limelight in recent years as it’s been given more value by both employees and employers. Another huge factor in this are the younger generations who place more value in work-life balance than older workers.

The millennials, to be more specific, are the ones who put a lot of value in work-life balance. This is not a bad thing as everyone can benefit from having an excellent work-life balance. It’s a straightforward principle that doesn’t mean personal life should be given more importance than work.

Work-life balance, as the name suggests, is putting a balance in both work and personal life. Life isn’t just about making a living but it’s also about living a good one. If there’s too much workload and work stress, it can be almost an impossible feat to have good control over life. 

Moreover, a poor work-life balance creates disengaged employees. These are the details and consequences with having a disengaged workforce:

• Disengagement is costing companies $450 to $550 billion each year.
• 67% of U.S. workers are disengaged. – Gallup
• 85% of employees are either looking for a new job or are open to new employment opportunities. 

Disengaged employees are less productive and are less loyal to their employers. Promoting and practicing work-life balance can cure these ailments. However, while strategies to promote and practice work-life balance can seem simple, implementing them can still be a challenge.

Here’s everything you need to know about the importance of work-life balance:

What is Work-life Balance?

As mentioned earlier, work-life balance is a principle that people need to find a balance between work and other matters in life. This means getting rid of what opposes the disruption of this balance.

However, there can be a lot of misconceptions to work-life balance. For example, having an equal number of hours for work and other personal activities is not work-life balance. Moreover, work-life balance varies from person to person. 

There is no universal work-life balance recipe for everyone. Even your current thinking of work-life balance can be different in the future such as when you begin to start a family and have a child.

The Benefits of Good Work-life Balance

According to Forbes, “work-life balance is an important aspect of a healthy work environment. Maintaining work-life balance helps reduce stress and helps prevent burnout in the workplace.”

Forbes has also mentioned that chronic stress is one of the biggest issues in the workplace. Stress from work has become so prevalent that it made Mondays infamous for having the most number of heart attacks. 

Moreover, here are other impacts of stress according to Saba:

1. More employees with poor health
2. More accidents and errors at work
3. Low morale
4. Poor motivation
5. High absenteeism
6. High employee turnover rate
7. Poor productivity
8. Poor performance

The summary for all this can be a gargantuan loss in sales and potential downfall of the company. 

Improved Health and Well-being

Better work-life balance brings improved health and well-being. It’s a strategy you can use in dealing with work stress. With the absence of overworking and chronic workplace stress, the immune system can recuperate and better function. 

This benefits not just the employees but the employers as well. With healthier workers, there’s lesser medical costs to pay and absenteeism will also be less of an issue. 

Improved Productivity and Performance.

With better health, employees can better focus at work which can mean less mistakes. Moreover, good health also helps improve morale and this boosts productivity and performance of the workforce.

A good work-life balance also improves employee engagement. As a result, employees can be more resourceful and creative in dealing with problems at the workplace. They can better think outside the box and this can help innovate products, services and strategies of the organization. 

Better Employee Retention and Recruitment

The younger generation, to be more specific, the millennials, value work-life balance the  most. According to Inc., these are the 4 reasons why millennials value work-life balance:

1. For them, it defines success.
2. They are always on.
3. They are moving up.
4. They are dual income.

Human resource managers can’t ignore Millennials as they are beginning to dominate the global workforce population. According to Allianz, it is estimated that by 2025, Millennials will make up as much as 75% of the global workforce.

To remain relevant in the eyes of the dominating force of the global working population, you need to supply what they demand, a good work-life balance. To attract the best candidates, improve employee retention and to keep your top talents, promoting work-life balance is key.

If you had doubts about having to promote work-life balance, remember that the importance of good leadership is having the skill to adapt, empower and to value the well-being of others. 

There are a lot of ways to implement good strategies for work-life balance such as integrating innovative technologies like an automated payroll system. This eases the burden of those who are responsible for doing the payroll.

Look for different strategies and strive to implement them in your organization. Having a good work-life balance could be the thing missing that can bring your company to the next level.

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• March 10, 2020

2020 New Business Trends [Case Study]

Time and time again, there are new business trends that can impact the financial condition of an organization. These trends could be anything from selling a certain product or adopting a more general business movement such as implementing employee benefits that help promote work-life balance.

Regardless, adapting to new business trends can be beneficial in a huge way. Here are the top business trends that will impact businesses through 2022 according to the World Economic Forum’s “The Future of Jobs Report 2018”.:

Increasing Adoption of New Technology

With modernization and the exponential advancement of technology, it’s no surprise how adoption of new technology becomes part of new business trends through 2022. In fact, the study has shown that the top five trends are technology-related.

Here’s the list of technology-related business trend:

1. Increasing adoption of new technology
2. Increasing the availability of big data
3. Advances in mobile internet
4. Advances in artificial intelligence
5. Advances in cloud technology

All these are crucial as technology helps businesses perform faster and better with less effort. However, with so much technology being made available, companies need to prioritize technologies they are going to implement. Here are the results from “The Future of Jobs Report”:

• Used and entity big data analytics (85%)
• App and web-enabled markets (75%)
• Internet of things (75%)
• Machine learning (73%)
• Cloud computing (72%)

You can begin to practice implementing more modern technology by embracing current available innovation to improve business operations such as Gusto with automated payroll systems. 

Skilled Trades

There will be a huge demand for skilled trades in the following years. The main reason for this is because of the large number of baby boomers who are retiring. According to The Balance, 

“In manufacturing alone, it’s estimated that almost 53% of job openings left by boomers will go unfulfilled by 2028.” Manufacturing won’t be the sole industry that’s going to be impacted by job vacancies but also other trades such as:

• Welding
• Steelworking
• Carpentry and general construction
• Masonry
• Plumbing, pipe lifting and steamlifting
• Machinists and metalworkers
• Heating, ventilation, airconditioning and refrigeration (HVAC)
• Electrical and electronic control systems

This can be ideal for small businesses to look into. As the number of workers in trades drop, there can be an unfulfilled demand that you can venture into. 

The Rise of Remote Work

Coworking spaces has been a trend that proved corporations do not need offices for work to be done. Coworking spaces did not just provide an alternative working space but it also helped lower overhead cost and boost productivity and performance of employees.

Now, the innovative trend of embracing a remote workforce is on the rise. There are a lot of procedures in a company that can be delegated to a remote worker. Moreover, studies have proven just how impactful remote working is.

The basics and importance of employee benefits has always been an integral part in running a company. Allowing remote work is a benefit that’s also one of the best employee engagement strategies. 

IHere are but some of the benefits of remote work:

1. Less time spent commuting
2. Improved employee retention
3. More autonomous employees
4. Lower costs
5. Increased productivity
6. Better work-life balance

Much of the younger generations value work-life balance and embracing a remote workforce can help your company become more attractive and relevant to them.

According to a research conducted by the International Workplace Group, 80% of employees in the United States would prefer a company that offered a flexible working schedule over one that did not. 

The same study also showed how over 74% of workers believe that “flexible working has become the new normal”. In the past decade, 83% of businesses have implemented a flexible workspace program or are planning to introduce one. 

Having a remote workforce helps you have employees that can be better at dealing with work stress. Moreover, one of the top challenges employers are facing today is retaining talented employees. Offering remote work can help solve this issue. 

Growing Cashless Economy

According to Revolut, there will be cashless societies by 2030. Just in 2017, transactions that were done cashless increased by 10.5% which amounted to $522.4 billion. In 2020, experts believe that this amount can reach up to $725 billion. 

Here are statistics on cashless payment from Merchant Savvy: 

1. 1 billion individuals are going to use mobile payment around the world in 2020.
2. By 2023, this number will grow by 1.31 billion.
3. In 2018, the global mobile payment market size was $881 billion. By 2024, it is expected to reach $3,081 billion.

Moreover, according to the TSYS US Consumer Payment Study, 55% of the population prefer using smartphone payment apps for their convenience. While cash is still king, the transition of moving towards a more cashless society is becoming more plausible with each year that passes by.

With this, organizations need to adapt and implement new technologies to offer and accept cashless payments. Even now with Paypal and other online payment systems, people now have learned to rely on other forms of payment other than cash. 

Remember that part of good leadership is being able to adapt. By creating changes to incorporate new business trends, you are making your organization grow and live longer by staying relevant and up to date with market demands. 

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• March 2, 2020

4 Best Employee Engagement Strategies [Complete Guide]

While certain companies are experiencing excellent employee performance, high revenue and great customer ratings, some are having difficulties trying to achieve the same results. 

One of the main reasons why other companies fail to have a high-functioning workforce is that they apply ineffective employee engagement strategies. Having an engaged workforce does wonders for a company and successful corporations take this as a priority. 

This is because the quality of a company is equivalent to the quality of its employees. Companies with engaged workers outperform those with disengaged ones. Moreover, they are more resilient to market-induced setbacks and have higher earnings.

In fact, one of the most prevalent issues of organizations today is employee disengagement. According to Gallup, 67% of employees are disengaged. A disengaged workforce is detrimental. More than just being less productive, here are more other disadvantages of having disengaged employees according to Engage & Grow:

1. Increased employee turnover
2. Difficulty attracting new employees
3. Loss of productivity
4. Increased safety risks

Moreover, disengaged employees are costing companies $350 billion each year due to issues with productivity. This is according to decisionwise.  On the other hand, these are the benefits companies can experience when they have an engaged workforce:

• Motivated workers
• Healthier employees
• Lower turnover 
• Improved productivity
• Higher revenue

This is why it’s important to implement the best employee engagement strategies to ensure ideal company results. Here are the 5 best employee engagement strategies: 

Recognize Employee Efforts

One of the best ways to motivate and have employees become engaged is to recognize their efforts. People have the natural need to be appreciated. When employees are not appreciated or recognized for their hard work, it will condition them to lower their standards.

According to Achievers, over 65% of US employees felt that they were not being recognized at work. Recognition impacts employee engagement. According to Terryberry, here are the benefits of employee recognition:

• Increased employee productivity
• Increased profitability
• Improves employee retention
• Builds a positive company culture
• Promotes team collaboration
• Improves employee motivation

Here are ways on how you can practice recognizing your employees:

1. Compliment them for their hard work.
2. Take them to lunch.
3. Give non-cash rewards.
4. Encourage peer-to-peer recognition.
5. Thank your employees.

Recognizing the efforts of your employees goes a long way. Understand that this is a crucial step in making your employees more engaged. Without recognition, you will lose the commitment of the workforce.

A study conducted by Gallup even found that one of the main reasons why employees leave their jobs is because of lack of recognition. Moreover, even the simple gesture of saying thank you to your employees can mean a lot. 

According to Cicero Group, 50% of employees believe that being thanked by their employers will improve their trust and relationship with them. If you don’t often recognize the efforts of your employees or give them compliments and thanks, strive to make a change.

Listen to the Employees

One of the importance of good leadership is to demonstrate empathy to the employees. Listening to the employees is one way of showing empathy and genuineness to them. 

Employees can become better engaged if they know that you actively listen to them and care about their individualities. But that’s not the only benefit of listening to your employees. You can also gain valuable information while hearing their inputs.

This allows you to learn their challenges and understand what motivates them. Shows that you are genuinely interested in their individualities is crucial to every management relationship.

When employees know that you listen to them, they’ll also be more motivated to contribute with innovative ideas and make an impact. Through listening, you can maintain a good reputation with your employees and this helps them to stay committed to the company. 

Conflicts can also be avoided through listening. You can gain understanding and it also shows emotional intelligence. You can also manage difficult but talented employees through listening to know how you can help them. 

Provide Career Advancement Opportunities

Career advancement is important to employees. According to Linkedin, “94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career”. Understand that employees don’t just want to work for a salary but they also want to expand their skill set. 

If you invest in your employees, this shows them that you value them. That instead of hiring new employees with the talents that you need, you choose to develop the employees that you have. 

This doesn’t just provide them with opportunities for growth but it’s also a way to challenge them. According to Udemy, 43% of employees are bored. Boredom doesn’t promote engagement. Moreover, boredom is one of the reasons why employees leave.

Providing career advancement opportunities also helps with attracting and keeping top talents. One of the top challenges employers are facing now is retaining talented employees. By providing career advancement opportunities, you challenge employees, expand their skillset and make them more engaged. 

Restructure Workspace

Workspace design matters a lot. When you look at top companies such as Microsoft and Google, they pay a huge deal of attention to office designs. A good workspace design doesn’t just improve employee productivity but it also improves their overall satisfaction and health.

It helps boost team collaboration, improve cost-efficiency and it also reflects company culture. With a bad office design, employees can become stressed and this lowers their productivity and motivation to work.

Understand that a third of a person’s life will be spent at the office. By giving employees a working area conducive for work, you help make their job easier. This helps them perform better and become better engaged.

Follows these 4 best employee engagement strategies to have a more productive, creative and more engaged workforce. Begin to create the transformation today to experience having a highly engaged workforce.

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• February 21, 2020

How to Manage Difficult but Talented Employees [Complete Guide]

It takes a lot to be a leader as leadership is often faced with a lot of challenges. Even the success or failure of an organization depends on its leaders. One of the most troublesome challenges in being a leader is knowing how to manage difficult but talented employees.

Employees are an integral resource of an organization. Without them, no business can flourish. This is why companies strive to work on employee retention. Top talents are even more crucial workers as their contribution can be indispensable. 

While talented employees are valuable assets, sometimes their character can get in the way. Skills are important but so is attitude. It’s important for leaders to know how to deal with difficult but talented employees so the organization can work in harmony. 

This is also for talented employees not to disengage and learn how to better deal with others. Incivility is detrimental to an organization. Here are statistical data from a survey conducted by Weber Shandwick:

• 30% of employers mentioned that they’ve fired or threatened to fire a worker because of incivility.
• 25% of workers quit their job because of a toxic workplace.
• 87% of employees said incivility has an impact on their performance.
• 45% reported that they had the desire to quit.
• 55% said their morale suffered.
• 36% experienced having lower quality of work.
• 26% became less creative.

It’s important how to deal with and confront difficult employees as they can affect other workers. Here are different ways on how you can manage difficult but talented employees:

Gain Understanding and Make Them Aware

No one wants to become a negative or a toxic person in the workplace. However, employees may be unaware that they are who they don’t want to be. A lot of difficult people mean well but they can come off the wrong way with how they express themselves. 

According to Tony Robbins, behind every negative action is a positive intention. Negative actions or behaviors can be a call for help. If you are having problems with difficult employees, know the cause of their behavior.

Do they lack recognition? Are they insensitive to others? Is there a conflict in work style? Are they bothered with personal problems? Do they focus on problems? By knowing the cause of their misbehavior, you can have a better idea on how to deal with them. 

If you have difficult employees, make them aware. As mentioned earlier, they may not be aware that they are difficult workers. Do this in a way that’s constructive. The importance of good leadership is essential as it calls for excellent skills to influence people. 

Make them aware but also end it with empowering them to become better. Instead of telling them potential consequences for not changing, show them all the great benefits they can enjoy if they do change for the better. 

Display Emotional Intelligence

One of the best ways to influence the workforce is to be a good example of how they can be able to work with others in a harmonious manner. By displaying emotional intelligence, you are teaching employees how to best deal with people in an indirect way.

By showing how you can shift a negative confrontation into a positive event, workers can learn how they may do the same. They can learn how to confront others dealing with work stress, how to deal with difficult co-workers and even become generous with their knowledge.

More than sharing what they know about work, they can be more trusting and provide each other more personal advice such as using a student loan consolidation calculator.Employees can also collaborate better and a spirit of teamwork can resonate around the workplace. 

You can foster a positive company culture by setting a good example for the employees.  With a positive company culture, you can experience an improvement in employee retention, engagement, productivity and overall performance. 

Having a positive company culture is one of the best ways in attracting and keeping top talents. More than setting a good example, you can propagate the knowledge of emotional intelligence by:

1. Conducting leadership training
2. Doing workplace training in emotional intelligence

All it takes for people to become better with other people is to have a deeper understanding of emotions. One of the best books to read about the topic is “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.

The book has a lot of tips and tricks on how to deal with even the most difficult individuals. Manage difficult but talented employees by understanding them and empowering them to create a positive change in themselves. 

Don’t argue but listen to what they have to say. Tell them you’ll support them but they have to support you too. This way, you help them create a change without conflict. Some talented employees can be difficult but as they say, “sometimes those who challenge you the most, teach you the best.”

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• February 14, 2020

Top Challenges Employers Are Facing [2020]

The realm of business is an ever-evolving world and employers have to continue to adapt.  Otherwise, their companies can become irrelevant. With running a business, challenges go much deeper than ensuring to produce quality products and services. 

Underneath the entire umbrella of running a business, employers have to overlook the condition of the workforce, market trends, competition, cash flow and much more. Today, the top challenges employers are facing are problems relating to the HR landscape.

As work culture changes, the needs and wants of employees do so as well. With this, employers need new strategies to attract, keep and motivate employees to be more engaged and perform at their peak. 

Here are the top challenges employers are facing for 2020:

Leadership Development

Leaders affect so much of an organization. As the saying goes, “leaders can make or break an organization.” With an excellent leader, the company can be propelled towards success. Meanwhile, with a bad leader, the company can have poor performance and even face its demise.

Here’s a shocking fact about leadership: there are more bad leaders than good ones. According to a poll from Gallup, 82% of leaders do not possess good leadership skills. Moreover, according to Elucidat, 77% of organizations are experiencing a leadership gap.

There are a couple of reasons why organizations are beginning to experience a leadership gap. Here are but some of them:

1. Around 10,000 baby boomers are retiring each day. This is according to the Washington Post. The effect of this is the loss of organizational knowledge. 
2. Lack of leadership training. According to HRPA’s study on HR and Millenials, 63% of millennials think that their employers are not developing their abilities with leadership. Millennials are a key ingredient to this topic as they make up 50% of the workforce. By 2025, they’ll make up 75% of the global workforce population.  
3. The mistake of promoting employees who are the best at their work for leadership roles. While excellence at work is needed in leadership, it requires a lot more to identify a potential leader.

With the mass baby boomer exodus and the fast influx of millennials in the workforce, leadership development and continuity has become an issue. Being able to integrate leadership development can help better prepare future leaders of organizations. 

The importance of good leadership shouldn’t be taken for granted. Moreover, leadership training helps with creating a positive company culture, improving employee retention,  morale and boosting productivity. 

Employee Benefits

Employee benefits now have become a key element in the war for people. As a lot of people now regard benefits as their main consideration whether to accept a job offer or to stay at their company, organizations have adapted by offering competitive employee benefits.

But this is easier said than done. For a small business, this can be a daunting challenge as they don’t have to compete with just other businesses of their size but also with large corporations. 

Offering good benefits can get super expensive. If an employer offers great benefits but end up still having high turnover rates, the effects can be detrimental.

According to Eric Koester of MyHighTechStart-Up, “estimates range from 1.5 to 3 times of salary for the ‘fully-baked’ cost of an employee – the cost including things like benefits, taxes, equipment, training, rent, etc.”

Employees want more benefits. Workers now are more conscious about the basics and importance of employee benefits. Being able to identify and implement the right employee benefits is key in attracting and keeping employees.

Retaining Talented Employees

Before, employees were more loyal to their jobs. Employees before could keep their first jobs until they retire. Now, with a myriad of job opportunities and consciousness for work-life balance, employees have become harder to keep. 

Here are the statistics about employee loyalty:

• According to LinkedIn, there’s a 76% chance of employees still staying at their job after 1 year. After 2 years, the likelihood drops to 59% and 48% at 3 years. 
• A study by Ajilon has found that 88% of American full-time workers who changed their jobs in the past 2 years are open to pursuing a new job opportunity. 
• According to CareerBuilder, 29% of employees look for new job opportunities even while employed. 
• According to Bankrate, 26% of employees intend to look for a better job in the next 12 months. 

Job seekers now have high standards wanting organizations with a positive company culture, competitive benefits and salary, opportunity for career advancement and more. To attract the best candidates and in keeping them, employers have to become more employee-oriented. 

If employees know that they can trust their employers through the benefits given to them and their overall experience with their jobs, they’ll stay. This is why top companies strive to foster a positive company culture and invest a lot in employee satisfaction and happiness.

By knowing the solutions to the top challenges employers are facing today, you can have an edge over your competitors. There are a lot of guides on the internet on how to deal with the top challenges employers are facing now. 

Build an effective strategy on how you can deal with these trending issues and your business can produce ideal results. Begin to formulate them before it can be too late. 

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• February 7, 2020

4 Top Reasons Why Companies are Hiring Veterans [Insider Facts]

Recruiters of different organizations have started a trend of hiring veterans. Many people don’t know and misunderstand the U.S. military training that veterans have gone through. The fear of the unknown tend to hold people back.

However, the move towards hiring military veterans shed some light as to how veterans can be exemplary workers. This awareness made it easier for skilled veterans to transition to the civilian working world.

More than anything else, we also get the opportunity to show our gratitude to our veterans through veteran employment. This way, veteran unemployment rate will go even further down. 

Whether it be through a job board, job fairs or recruiters who are actively seeking qualified veterans, organizations are able to offer a helping with their transition to a civilian life. 

Here are 4 top reasons why companies are hiring veterans.

Veterans are Groomed to be Trainable

Being coachable, adaptable and trainable is the essence of military training. According to Col. Dan Friend, “the army is a learning organization”. Veterans are not just trained on how to employ weapon systems and they know more than just military tactics.

Those who have gone through military service are also taught how to act professionally and are conditioned to be trainable and to keep on getting better. Veterans have a growth mindset and it is a key factor in developing a positive and productive workplace culture.

Many hiring managers make the mistake of assuming that the skills of veterans can’t be transferable outside the realm of the military. However, creating quick decisions, being able to work under pressure and getting things done are skills veterans can apply in any situation because of their military experience.

Being groomed to follow orders, they respect and know the importance of instructions. Having military training, they are among the most disciplined.  Transitioning can be a smooth process if the company has a veteran-informed culture.

According to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, employers found that being disciplined is the top quality that skilled veterans bring to work at 63%. 

Here are the rest of the results:

• Disciplined approach to the job – 63%
• Teamwork – 62%
• Integrity and respect – 59%
• Can work under pressure – 54%
• Leadership – 52%
• Problem solving skills – 48%
• Adaptability – 46%
• Perseverance – 44%
• Communication skills – 41%
• Outstanding technical skills – 33%

According to the same survey, if employers have open positions and were to choose between two qualified candidates, one a veteran and one not, 68% of them would rather hire the veteran. This goes to prove how the skills and qualities of veterans are valued even outside the military world. 

While their technical skills may be lacking, veterans make up for it by being trainable, disciplined and being able to triumph over adversity.

Veterans are Excellent Team Players

Organizations that function like a living and breathing creature tend to be the ones that achieve success. For this to happen, the workforce of the company need to function as one. Otherwise, tension could end up as a hindrance for growth or even the cause of death. 

Veterans know how the lack or presence of teamwork could mean life and death. In fact, working together as a team is more important than just having raw technical skill or talent. 

According to Brian Uzzi, a professor of management and organizations at Kellogg, “you have to have talent as basis but talent doesn’t reach its full potential unless you get them to work together as a team”. 

This is where skilled veterans shine as they have a history of working well together with a team through their military service. They know how to trust, are trustworthy and are able to put their lives on the line because of knowing teamwork. 

Veterans think in terms of what’s best for the team. This is why some organizations hire veterans who are job seekers.

Veterans Have Respect for Rules, Procedures and Others

Many employees get themselves or worse, their organization in trouble because of the lack of respect for rules and procedures. More than that, disrespectful behavior is also costing businesses. 

Research has shown that those of those on the receiving end of uncivil behavior:

1. 66% stated their job performance has dwindled
2. 78% said their commitment to the company has declined
3. 47% said they intentionally spent less time at their job
4. 38% mentioned they deliberately lowered the quality of their work

Veterans know the value of respect for rules, procedures and others. They have excellent work ethics, pay attention to detail and are respectful of others. Hiring veterans can help create a positive company culture and brand.

Veterans Get Things Done

The collective result of accomplishing the military training service is the ability to get things done. Skilled veterans are resilient and have been conditioned to endure difficult and stressful situations.

Companies are hiring service members because of their ability to focus and still perform well even when under pressure. Moreover, they have high standards and have a sense of duty. They are people of action even as new hires.

It is with this character of executing that gives veterans an edge over others. According to Tony Robbins, knowledge is not power, it is potential power. Knowledge is not mastery, execution is mastery. Execution trumps knowledge every single day of the week.

To summarize, these are the 4 top reasons why companies are hiring veterans:

1. Veterans are groomed to be trainable
2. Veterans are excellent team players
3. Veterans have respect for rules, procedures and others
4. Veterans get things done

Companies are hiring eligible veterans who are on a job search because they prove to be excellent workers even outside the military world. They can adapt, work with others, are respectful and have a sense of urgency. 

More than anything, we can show our gratitude by helping them transition to the civilian working world. 

They can help create a positive company culture and we can help them have a good civilian life. Consider hiring veterans as how many other organizations have been putting it to practice.

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• February 4, 2020

The Importance of Good Leadership [Case Study]

While an organization employs an entire workforce, not all employees are capable of becoming an excellent leader. A worker may be given a role for leadership but leadership is not all about power and authority. 

Good leadership is about having the power to influence oneself and other people to be motivated to accomplish goals. This is regardless of having a title or not. In other words, leadership is not a title, it is a skill of influence.

Not a lot of people possess leadership skills. Perhaps this is why according to Sylvester, 77% of organizations are experiencing a leadership gap. Without good leadership, an organization is into a lot of risk for failure. 

The Lack of Good Leadership

In leadership, there is no middle ground. You are either doing good or doing damage. While each person can have their own style of leadership, not being able to inspire or motivate is detrimental. 

According to Forbes, “the ability to inspire and motivate others is the number one competency that differentiates poor from good leaders, and in predicting high employee engagement.”

Leadership affects all areas of an organization. It impacts:

• Employee performance and productivity
• Employee retention
• Absenteeism
• Employee well-being
• Company culture
• Engagement

Here are statistics about bad leadership from the Huffpost:

1. 75% of employees said their boss is the worst part about their workplace.
2. 50% of employees plan to look for other jobs because they don’t feel that they are valued by their employer.
3. Health care costs due to bad bosses are costing American companies $360 billion each year. 
4. 60% of workers are miserable working for the U.S. federal government because of having bad bosses. 
5. 65% of employees said that they would rather have a new boss over an increase in salary. 
6. 37% of employees reported that their boss didn’t give them credit.
7. 44% of employees experience being verbally, emotionally or physically abused by supervisors.

Here are more statistics gathered from a study conducted by Florida State University:

• 39% of workers mentioned that their bosses failed to keep promises.
• 37% said their boss didn’t give them credit for their hard work. 
• 31% of the employees said their bosses gave them the silent treatment.
• 27% reported that their bosses made disparaging comments about them to other employees and managers.
• 23% said their bosses blamed them to cover up their own mistakes. 

With the lack of good leadership, employees can feel less or not valued at all. Moreover, with bad leadership, employees can become disengaged and employee retention can plummet. Attracting and keeping top talents can become almost impossible with a lack of good leadership. 

Employee disengagement is a critical issue. An organization with a disengaged workforce is in shambles. Here are the dangers of having a disengaged workforce:

1. According to Queens School of Business and Gallup, disengaged employees make 60% more errors and mistakes, cause 49% more accidents and have 37% higher absenteeism rate.
2. Disengaged employees are costing their employers $450 – $550 billion per year. – Harvard Business Review
3. A study by SHRM found that the average cost per hire is $4,129 and the average time it takes to fill the vacant position is 42 days. 

The Importance of Good Leadership

While the lack of good leadership is detrimental to an organization, having excellent leaders allows you to achieve ideal company results. In choosing leaders, don’t make the mistake of promoting individuals who are the best at their jobs. 

Being the best at work is different from being a good leader. While performance matters, there are more other factors that you need to consider when choosing future leaders. Here’s what you need to look for when looking for leaders:

1. High emotional intelligence
2. Solution oriented
3. Values and listens to opinions of others
4. Has a positive attitude
5. Can deal with different personalities
6. Can adapt to changes
7. Empathetic
8. They evaluate to empower, not evaluate to criticize.
9. Can inspire, motivate and coach others
10. Good communication skills

Those are but some of the key characteristics that are critical in leadership. As what Inc mentioned on their blog, “focus on potential, not performance”. Look for evidence of these characteristics to ensure the right people are placed on leadership positions. 

The importance of good leadership resonates throughout all aspects of an organization. According to Sattar Bawany, Managing Director of EDA Asia Pacific, leadership is responsible for an organization’s increase in productivity. 

Moreover, good leaders help create a positive company culture. This impacts not just productivity and performance but also employee engagement and retention. Having good leaders and a positive company culture is one of the best ways to attract the best candidates. 

Great leaders know that to succeed, an organization has to be employee-oriented. One of the main reasons why employees become disengaged and even leave their jobs is due to lack of recognition. This is according to Gallup.

With an empathetic leader, employee satisfaction, happiness and overall well-being can be improved. 

With good communication and coaching skills, leaders are better able to educate employees about the importance of employee benefits, how to deal with work stress and even with helping others on how to refinance student loans. 

Here are statistics about good leadership: 

1. Companies with strong company cultures experience 400% increase in revenue. – Forbes
2. Highly-engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their jobs compared to unhappy employees. – Recruit Loop
3. According to Salesforce, employees are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to be at their best when working. 
4. Engaged companies have 233% greater customer loyalty. – Aberdeen

The importance of good leadership shouldn’t be taken for granted as it is the key to an organization’s growth and success. With good leadership, you improve the overall quality of your company. 

Identify potential leaders in your organization today. They hold the ideas, principles and values that will bring your business onwards to success. 

• Rebekka Ramirez
• Blog
• January 26, 2020

Attracting and Keeping Top Talents [And Why It Matters]

Employees are the most important component of an organization. Without them, no business can function nor flourish. Employees have a large contribution to the operation of an organization, highly-skilled workers even more.

This is why attracting and keeping top talents are two issues that large companies continue to work on. There are a lot of ways on how different companies make efforts to attract and retain their employees.

For one, some may have effective recruitment secrets making them more appealing to their candidates. Others may have certain types of organizational cultures that a lot of jobseekers are looking for.

The point is, most companies know the value of their workers, let alone their top employees. This is why they have ways to attract the best candidates and to retain their highly-skilled workers.

Here’s what you need to know about attracting and keeping top talents:

Top Talents are Indispensable

When it comes to business, results are everything. Average employees create average results and above-average employees create above-average results. However, there are a lot of factors that come into play that could have a positive or negative effect on an employee’s performance.

Leaders or key employees of your organization matter as they help shape the company culture, affect employee experience, retention and growth of the company. If you have excellent leaders who have been giving gargantuan contributions, you wouldn’t want to lose them.

More than the cost of losing a top employee which could mean failure of a project or the downfall of the organization itself, replacing a top-level employee is also expensive. According to PeopleKeep, the cost of replacing an executive-level worker can be more than double of their annual income.

Moreover, here are more contributions of indispensable employees according to Forbes:

Productivity – they are efficient and effective at their jobs.
Positivity – they are enjoyable to work with and this helps improve the morale of the workforce.
Reliability – top talents have a sense of urgency, can deliver on time and are self-accountable.
Creativity – they can come up with unique ideas.

Even while a lot of companies value their employees, there’s still a lot of workers that have left or are planning to leave their jobs. Here are shocking statistics about employees leaving their jobs:

According to Celayix Software, every month, there are 2.5 million Americans who leave their jobs.
A study by Ajilon showed that 80% of workers are open to having a new job or are actively looking for one.
According to OfficeVibe, 46% of HR leaders mentioned that retention is their biggest concern.

Your goal is to make sure that your employees are happy and satisfied working for you. Otherwise, they could end up working for another company. You wouldn’t want this to happen with your top employees.

Attracting and Keeping Top Talents

There’s a fierce competition in the world of business and this includes the war for people. Companies left and right are trying to outdo each other by offering competitive employee benefits and salary, gorgeous office spaces, free meals, free access to gyms and more.

Because the quality of an organization is the quality of its employees, attracting and keeping top talents is as important as ensuring the growth of your company. Here’s how you can attract and retain your employees:

Offer Competitive Employee Benefits

What recruitment managers need to know is that employee benefits are more important than ever. The work culture now isn’t the same as what it used to be. With modernization and a new generation taking over the global workforce, work-life balance has become a priority for a lot of workers.

According to the MRINetwork, millennials now make up 50% of the entire US workforce. By 2030, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predict that millenials would then make up 75% of the U.S. workforce.

Millennials value work-life balance and for you to attract the dominating percentage of the workforce population, it’s important that you offer benefits that promote work-life balance.

Such benefits can be:
Having flexible hours
Remote work
Benefits that promote mental health awareness
Health benefits
Paid time-off
Reduced hours

Moreover, offering competitive salary and benefits for financial security should also be a staple if possible. A great provider for retirement plans is Empower 401k. It’s the second largest retirement service company in the United States.

Have A Positive Company Culture

Company culture affects all parts of an organization. Company culture affects:

Employee engagement
Employee retention
Employee satisfaction
Happiness of employees
Morale
Productivity
Performance
Revenue

And everything there is that an organization has. Most people now don’t just want to work for the money. In fact, studies have shown that most employees value having a positive company culture and benefits more than money.

Here are the statistics:

According to Hays, 47% of people have company culture as the main reason when looking for new jobs.
According to the American Institute of CPA, 80% of employees would rather keep their job with benefits than to leave for a higher paying job but has no benefits.
A study from WTW showed that 78% of workers said they would stay with their employers because of the employee benefits they offered.
According to Zenefits, more than 60% of employees would accept a job with lower pay for better employee benefits.

Having a positive company culture is crucial for attracting and keeping top talents. No one wants to be miserable with their jobs. There are a lot of ways on how you can foster a positive company culture. The key is being employee-oriented.

Don’t lose employees because of focusing on other things. Remember, top companies are where they are because they prioritize the satisfaction, morale, well-being and engagement of their employees. It’s a wise choice to model them.

Here’s a quote from Anne M. Mulcahy, “employees are a company’s greatest asset – they’re your competitive advantage. You want to attract and retain the best; provide them with encouragement, stimulus, and make them feel that they are an integral part of the company’s mission.”