Archive for October, 2011

Providing Feedback That Motivates Employees and Improves Business Performance

October 21st, 2011

Providing balanced feedback is an effective strategy to increase employee engagement and obtain the employees motivated. However it’s easier said than done if you do not fully understand what balanced feedback is, or how you can implement it.

Balanced feedback is all about positively reinforcing critical behaviours as well as providing corrective feedback when needed. Most people perform a little bit of both, but it is usually heavily weighted to corrective feedback which over time turns into a demotivator.

The secret is to turn the ratio around giving no less than four positive comments to each corrective comment or reprimand. Sounds easy, but actually it’s easy to forget!

Like other aspects of frontline leadership the bottom line is to rehearse the skills on a daily basis. The best way I have discovered to make balanced feedback a part of your everyday routine would be to think of it as ‘planned spontaneous recognition’.

Sounds somewhat oxymoron, however it constitutes a great deal of sense. The 3 aspects are essential. The first part ‘planned’ is important for that frontline manager – you need to be planned about the feedback. Which means you need to incorporate face-time on the floor together with your team several times each day. One of my clients incorporates it every time he comes back from the break or gets away from his desk to get something from the printer. It works for him!

The important face-time allows the chance to arise to provide feedback. You’re out there seeing what is going on, what employees are telling customers and how they are handling enquiries. This makes it far easier to catch your employees doing things right, so you can give positive feedback.

The second part ‘spontaneous’ is essential for the frontline leader and also the employee. You need to be flexible in what you are going to give feedback about. You cannot prepare what you’re going to give feedback about while you don’t know the situation you’ll be watching. You have to have a great knowledge of the critical behaviours that you are looking to reinforce which means you understand what to provide feedback about.

The third part of the equation is recognition. This will be significant for the employee. Because they receive balanced feedback and therefore are buoyed with positive recognition of their behaviours and actions, you develop employee engagement. Employee engagement is essential in driving employee motivation and resolve for the organisation.

Engaged workers are the aim of many organisations because there are benefits. These vary from decreasing employee turnover, lowering absenteeism, increasing discretionary effort. Employees are prepared to go that one step further to find the job done. Added together all of these bring about greater business performance.

How to Choose a Web development Company That Improves Business Performance?

October 21st, 2011

If you are looking to improve your business’s performance through web design, it’s important that you select a professional web development company. Now, the question is, how can you determine that particular company? If you fail there is a pretty good possibility that the business are affected.

Here are some tips that will help you out.

Nothing can beat experience

Many people say it’s all about expertise, but when you dig a little deeper, you’ll learn it’s first about experience and then about expertise. So, the first thing you have to look for in a company is its experience of developing projects. If the company has a successful track record of developing web projects, you know you have chosen the right company. Its only after speaking with the people in charge, getting client references and talking to the said clients you will get to understand whether the company has experience or not.

Expertise is key

Now we come to expertise. Web development goes through a constant and consistent procedure for evolution. There is new progress happening on a daily basis. So, developers not just need to connect with the latest developments, but additionally must make sure they achieve a certain degree of expertise in specific development domains. It’s only expertise that can ensure efficient project development, which in turn helps attain the expected business objectives.

So, while choosing a company make sure that it has a team of experts on its rolls. More importantly, their expertise should be so that, they could match your website development requirements to the letter.

Business domain knowledge

How can i create a project regarding a particular business domain, with out any knowledge of that particular domain? It’s simply not possible. What you should need to do, is choose a company that believes in carrying out a lot of ground work on your business domain before planning your website development project. This will help them obtain a fair idea about what your marketplace is all about, what your competitors do as well as the expectations of your audience. If you want a high end website, it’s important that you simply select a company that concentrates on knowing more about your business domain.

Selling a Company – Prep Tip #5 – Improving Financial Performance Improves Your Price

October 21st, 2011

When selling a company, expect the buyer to examine your company’s financial health. Be prepared by looking for financial and performance ratios that point toward ways to enhance your business’s performance and profitability. Act on which you discover. Whatever raises the financial health insurance and performance of your business also improves its value.

Obsolete and Unproductive = Gone

Preparing your firm for sale can make you take steps you perhaps must have taken sometime ago. For example, sell or scrap obsolete or slow-moving inventory. Compare product rework against industry averages and correct the causes of deficiencies. Divest unproductive assets that can not be sold. Discount receivables that are truly uncollectable.

Consider discontinuing or removing unrelated businesses. For instance, our recent clients ran metallic plating business and owned a microbrewery. Although a fun hobby, it might be difficult to get a buyer for any metal plating business who were built with a similar curiosity about owning a microbrewery. We advised him to sell the brewery to the current day-to-day manager.

Your business and its selling price may benefit from analyzing profitability of product and service lines: what doesn’t pay doesn’t stay. External advisors and consultants can help with the analysis, and they could find different ways to increase profitability. Examples would be determining if the market could support a product price increase or whether you could bundle them with others and raise prices on the total package.

Improve Cash Flow

You can improve income by increasing revenue-perhaps by increasing prices, changing product bundles and related pricing, focusing marketing on proven ways to drive revenue, incentivizing and upgrading skills of salespeople, sponsoring sales promotions, and removing low-performers organization-wide. Ask suppliers for more favorable terms. Make the most of cash discounts. Whenever we can, accelerate your collections. Renegotiating leases can improve income, especially with aid of a commission-based consultant.

Ignite Sales and Revenues

It is a red flag if your business is determined by you as its main salesman. One method to increase revenue would be to seek sales channels outside your business. Strategic alliances can diversify sources of revenue as well as can be a trial run of compatibility and value having a potential buyer. Please be aware that it can have a year to obtain an effective alliance program going effectively.

Before selling your company may be the time to introduce services, expand distribution channels, and enlarge your geographic presence. Depending on your selling time period, acquiring start up business lines and entering untouched markets may also attract particular types of buyers. Doing so requires more lead time – between one and 3 years – and investment, however, so weigh roi carefully.

Performance Appraisal Process Improves Business Performance

October 21st, 2011

A highly effective performance appraisal product is a cornerstone of successful business development. It is one of the best hr solutions, which supports to align your team member’s activities with overall business objectives and goals. A formal appraisal system that includes a position description listing key result areas and expected behaviour (critical competencies) will help managers to develop and obtain the very best from team members.

Something which measures the same criteria mentioned in the position description, will assist you to provide a fair and equitable measurement method. The performance appraisal will include a self-appraisal, plan of action and learning development plan. The following procedure will assist managers to confidently perform a highly effective performance review and help develop their employees and business.

1. Gather appraisal information
- Recall regular performance review outcomes
- Obtain job description
- Gather information from action/development plan
- Identify Key Result Areas and Competencies to measure
- Modify appraisal forms to include what is measured

2. Complete the forms
- Team member to accomplish all self appraisal forms
- Rate Key Result Areas and Critical Competencies
- Manager to complete all appraisal forms
- Manager to determine overall performance rating
- Complete action and development plan

3. Conduct appraisal interview
- Set date, time and venue with no interruptions
- Encourage open and honest discussion
- Have team member discuss their self appraisal
- Give specific feedback
- Discuss Key Result Area feedback with team member
- Discuss Critical Competencies with team member
- Discuss achievements/development opportunities
- Finalise, distribute and gain commitment
- Review job description for next periods appraisal

4. Follow up meeting
- Check outcomes since performance appraisal
- Check progress of learning and development plan
- Identify commitment of team member to enhance
- Take appropriate action

Businesses that see performance appraisals as a strategic approach to develop employees, benefit since the added competence further develops the organisations capability, competitiveness and sustainability.

Being well prepared can help ensure its success, remembering if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.