You may be considering how to start 2020 in the right way. Alongside vowing to watch less Netflix, and to actually use your gym membership, you may have considered __methods you can implement to improve work performance__. Whether this discussion took place in your annual performance review or you're just feeling motivated to start your year on the right foot, we've compiled a few tips to get you started. At the end of the day, no matter how well you perform any task, __you can always do better than you did yesterday__.

---

## 7 Ways to Improve Work Performance

### 1. Identify and remove distractions

It’s easy to get distracted by notifications from all manner of apps you have, not to mention your favourite websites. Distinguish which apps/websites/distractions are not part of your work and remove them from your working environment. It can take up to 30 minutes to get into "the zone" with challenging work, and every interruption to your flow resets the clock. Minimize distractions either by __turning off notifications during working hours__ or deleting the apps/blocking the websites from your work computer. This way you will limit time wasted to a minimum and manage interruptions. Another way to become more focused is to schedule time for each of your responsibilities to develop healthy habits and routines.

### 2. Set milestones

What do all productive people have in common? They set goals and focus on milestones. __[Creating individual success metrics](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-set-smart-goals-for-work-examples-and-tips) to analyze your goals is a useful way to keep track of your progress__. By effective project management - breaking down big tasks into smaller steps - whether these be personal or professional, you can enjoy the small gains whilst working towards the end goal. This will keep you motivated which a vital way to improve work performance.

### 3. Focus on one task at a time

Multi-tasking can compromise the quality of your work. Work towards creating a habit of __prioritizing your tasks and focusing on one task at the time__. Which of your responsibilities is the most important? Working on one task at a time streamlines your work, leaving you less stressed and less likely to make mistakes.

![ways of improving work performance in 2020 peoplegoal](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/1xriXydZCVvgzl5lQdM4so/263b6730ca3ae479634ca57997b288d6/ways_of_improving_work_performance_in_2020_peoplegoal.png)

### 4. Utilize the right tools

You may need specific [tools to improve your work performance](https://www.peoplegoal.com/product/performance-management-software), whether it be software or hardware. __The right tools for the way you work best can streamline repetitive tasks and make them easier to complete__.

### 5. Communicate

[Establish a consistent communication channel with your colleagues](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-improve-internal-communication) so that you are never in the dark about what you are working on. There is nothing worse than going into a project blind. __Never shy away from asking for help or clarification__. This way you can have a clear picture of what you need to achieve and you won’t waste time working on something unnecessary.

### 6. Make sure you take time out

Utilize your lunch break to stretch, take a walk, eat, and talk to people about subjects other than work. You need to give your brain a break in order to [avoid burnout](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/mental-health-2020), and you need to keep your body fuelled.

### 7. Ask for feedback

[Ask your colleagues for feedback](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-ask-for-feedback) on the tasks that you are working on. __The only way to improve is to learn__. You will never know everything, so ask your team members what can be done to improve your performance at work and in your professional development, both in the short run and in the long term. It's often easier for other people to see patterns of behavior and to suggest improvements than we can do for ourselves.

---

A big part of getting to the bottom of ways to improve work performance is to be aware of the ways in which you work that are unique to every person. __Try to pay attention to the causes, both when you're feeling extra motivated and when you're losing focus__. Once you start to become aware of your drivers and distractions you'll find it easier to build on the motivators and cut out the obstacles to being productive.


The chances are you just went through your annual performance review, and feel motivated to find ways to improve work performance even more in 2020. We've got you covered!

Just been through your annual performance review, and feel motivated to find ways to improve work performance even more in 2020? We've got you covered!

7 Ways to Improve Work Performance in 2020

7 ways to improve work performance in 2020 - PeopleGoal

Ways to Improve Work Performance

7 Ways To Improve Work Performance in 2020

When times are uncertain it's tough trying not to get overwhelmed, and managers can __struggle to keep their team morale up__. It's your job to steer the ship and get your team back on track, and the good news is that many strategies to improve team morale are just simple changes in behavior that you can implement with ease.

![8 Ideas to Improve Team Morale](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4q7qNRkGZYVkLIAFjuGSyY/ab296745c32081dfa9ac4fafbaebcd05/improve_morale_peoplegoal.png)

## Tips to improve team morale

### 1. Set a clear vision

Very often the culprit behind low team morale is a __lack of clarity on what we're working towards__. Without a clear vision it's hard to see where our contributions are making a difference or what the purpose of our tasks are. Whether it's for the whole company or for your particular team, make sure to create and publish the core strategic goals that will drive you forward. Be transparent about the efforts needed to achieve them and give your teammates a vision to believe in.

### 2. Celebrate the wins

When you're working towards a big delivery, a major project or under a heavy workload we often take a "head down and get on with it" approach. Make sure to step back and __recognize the achievements of individuals and teams__. It doesn't have to be a big presentation - smaller, more regular recognition goes a long way. The important thing is that [the recognition is genuine and personal](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-recognition-quotes), and publicly acknowledges where a person has stretched themselves.

A great initiative is to incorporate a "colleague of the month" area into your one to one meetings with employees. Before your check-in, ask your team member to nominate a colleague from another team who went above and beyond to support them that month. After the one to one, share that feedback with the colleague directly. It'll not only boost the morale across teams, it'll encourage your direct reports to recognize and appreciate the support they receive from their colleagues.

### 3. Encourage work-life balance

Make sure that your employees' __personal time is as valued as much as their work time__. Encourage your team to prioritize their families, hobbies and interests and you'll see inspiration and creativity brought back into their work. [If you don't you'll be facing burnout](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/work-burnout). Not only is burnout dangerous for your employee and extremely difficult to recover from, it also affects their teammates and costs your business lost productivity. While lots of organizations enforce email breaks after hours, be careful also to not to disrupt the flow of work itself with unnecessary distractions and meetings. Let people get things done in their work hours.

### 4. Lead by example

Your attitude models the mood for the whole team. In especially stressful times, __if you're bringing stress and anxiety to your role you'll be dragging your team down with you__. That isn't to say you have to pretend that everything's alright - you can be transparent about your stresses with the team. Just make sure that you're approaching it with positivity and a problem-solving mindset, and encourage your team to do the same.

### 5. Communicate

Be curious - ask your team questions. It can be as simple as asking what's causing their low morale and how can you help. Go beyond the "my door is always open" policy, expecting people to come to you, and [actively reach out to your team](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/communication-skills). If you can, get out of work and have a chat in a new environment. Encourage them to air their frustrations and if they're reluctant, share some of your own - with examples from your own experience.

### 6. Talk about professional development

Especially in larger companies, job roles can be very specific and specialized. Even so, everyone has room to develop further skills. One of the biggest drivers of motivation and engagement is a sense that __we can improve ourselves and progress within an organization__, and you should be promoting from within wherever possible. [Take the time to create a development plan with your team members](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/development-plan). Understand their development goals and their signature strengths, and create an action plan together to develop their skills. Give team members the reassurance that they're moving forward to boost morale.


### 7. Build on employee-led initiatives

As employees socialize outside of work, pay attention to the activities that recharge the batteries and get people excited. Then encourage the organizers to take those initiatives to the wider team and support them where you can. For example, if employees have started a lunchtime running club together, encourage them to formalize this through your communication channels and invite others to join. As a company you can sponsor team shirts or a charity race for all participants. It not only gives teams a morale boost within work, it shows them that __their ideas are valuable and worthwhile to the whole company__.

### 8. Do something fun

And lastly, __try not to take it all too seriously__. Sometimes the biggest morale booster is a team lunch, a pub quiz or a group hike. Especially for new joiners, [group activities gets everybody out of the office mindset](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/17-icebreakers-for-team-building) and allows people to relate to their colleagues in new ways.

Boosting team morale doesn't have to be a complex and in-depth process if you approach your team with an open mind and a willingness to listen.

Is team morale feeling a little low at the moment? These tips will help you to boost your team's mood and reward their best efforts.

8 Ideas to Improve Team Morale

8 Ideas to Improve Team Morale from PeopleGoal

Team Morale

## **What is an open-door policy?**

An open-door policy, in the business sense, is a type of communication policy. Usually enacted by a manager, senior leader, director, president or supervisor. Open door policy is a communication method/policy wherein an individual will leave their door ‘open’ in order to encourage employees to come and talk to them. It is meant to engender openness, transparency and free-flowing communication in the organization. As a side note, the door is always metaphorically ‘open’. An open-door policy encourages employees to come in and ask questions whenever they feel need to be asked. An open-door policy is intended to facilitate discussion, address problems, and present queries and concerns. It is intended to create an environment of productivity, performance, collaboration, and transparency.

![What is an open-door policy and how does it translate to the digital age?](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/7c6VwaVSFNu9h51uFwP8ZK/78ebdf1f9204841fea8d9f7378d9111f/open-door_policy.png)

## **What are the benefits of an open-door policy?**

There are a number of benefits associated with an open-door policy. Let’s take a quick look at the evidence:

- __An open-door policy encourages employees to bring up issues and problems easier.__
- __It encourages people to bring forward suggestions.__
- __Builds a transparent environment.__
- __Fosters face-to-face communication.__
- __Builds trust in the organization.__
- __Allows employees a voice to be heard.__
- __An open-door policy allows employees to receive and provide feedback.__
- __Allows management to discover employee concerns.__
- __Allows management to discover important insight from employees.__
- __Increased clarity of communication.__

**How does an open-door policy translate to the digital age?**

Now, when someone talks about the classical definition of an ‘open-door policy’, you immediately think of a manager’s door being transformed into a revolving door. Or perhaps slightly cornily it’s not even there, because, ‘my door is so open, it’s off its hinges’. But as we continue delving further into a digital age, how does an open-door policy translate? How do the open-door and open-office policies present themselves in the digital age?

Virtual communication is perhaps the biggest change that effects open-door policy. Virtual communication lends itself to immediacy. Immediate knowledge sharing, immediate feedback and immediate information. In fact, the effective use of virtual communication can increase productivity by [14%](http://www.successfactors.com/en_us/download.html?a=/content/dam/successfactors/en_us/resources/white-papers/forrester-tei-cost-savings-business-benefits-enabled-sap-jam.pdf), by reducing the amount of time spent emailing, awaiting responses and searching for information.

Virtual communication doesn’t negate the open door policy. In fact, it makes it more efficient. If managers and leaders convey and maintain the message of openness and transparency, then employees can use virtual communication methods, like [Slack](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/slack-for-team-communication-and-collaboration), to resolve queries, ask for feedback, and share information.

Along with one to one, virtual communication lends itself to information sharing, value creation and sharing goals and principles at a company-wide level. Managers and senior leaders can share vision, information, and goals pertaining to the company to engender transparency and information sharing at a company-wide level.

An open-door policy in the digital age isn’t just about communication. It’s also about connection. Using proper virtual communication, HR software, digital meetings, and the like foster digital connection.

An open-door policy in the digital world doesn’t need to neglect all the benefits that were in the previous age. Instead, it just needs a translation to accommodate a far more digital world. Think about maintaining these benefits, how they fit in with digitalism, and how digitalism can improve them. Take transparency for example. An open-door policy fosters transparency. How can we maintain this in the digital age? For example, you could make sure that all your workplace policies are available to employees so that when they ask, all you have to do is point them to the documents online. How do you maintain employees having a voice in the digital age? Discussion boards, communicating open channels for discussion between employees and managers at an individual and group level, discussing employee thoughts with those more senior -where appropriate- and conveying responses to employees. You could even try having forums for employee and manager discussion. Remember, just because we are in the digital age, it doesn’t mean that you have to forget about an open-door policy. You can make it work.

What is an open-door policy how does and how does an open-door policy translate to the digital age?

What is an open-door policy in the digital age?

What is an open-door policy? What are the benefits? And how does an open-door policy translate to the digital age? 

What is an open-door policy and how does it translate to the digital age?

What is an open-door policy?

It's 2020, yet managing microaggressions in the workplace is still an ordinary encounter for professionals from underrepresented backgrounds. Regardless of whether you're a non-white individual who's accomplished this yourself or a future partner who needs to abstain from being a microaggressor no matter what, it's worth educating or re-educating yourself on this topic.

## What is a microaggression?

Microaggressions are brief proclamations or activities that convey a negative message about a non-dominant group. In contrast to out and out prejudice, sexism or other "isms," microaggressions aren't constantly planned to be hostile. In reality, numerous microaggressors will bristle at the proposal that their announcement or activity was unsafe. Regardless, microaggressions are established in inclination and have destructive ramifications for individuals from non-dominant groups.
![Microaggressions in the workplace - Definition](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/47ZXx8FWIfRTOMPlSdycMl/01894b2276e870e728d40f40c5a6e279/Microaggressions_in_the_workplace_-_Definition.PNG)
Dr. Derald Wing Sue, an educator of Psychology at Columbia University, is an ideal head in the field of microaggressions. Alongside partners, Dr. Sue has recognized three types of microaggressions: microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations. Separating each type of microaggression is significant, as it facilitates clarify why minor remarks or activities can hurt.
Microassaults are what we regularly consider as microaggressions. These are an increasingly obvious type of separation wherein "entertainers purposely carry on in biased ways, yet don't mean to annoy somebody or may believe that their activities are not seen or destructive." 

A case of a microassault would be a remark like "He throws like a girl" to propose that somebody doesn't toss well, or "That is gay" to recommend that something is unappealing.

Micro-insults are more difficult to go up against because they are a much increasingly unpretentious type of microaggression. Microinsults are explanations that "inadvertently or unwittingly impart unfair messages to individuals from target gatherings." Think of these practices like underhanded commendations. Telling a dark man he is "very articulate" is a case of a microinsult. While it might have been planned as a commendation, it infers that dark men are not expected to talk plainly. Requesting to contact a dark lady's hair is another type of microinsult, as it further serves to "other" dark ladies.
Nonetheless, microinvalidations are a type of microaggression that dismiss or undermine the lived encounters of an individual from a non-prevailing gathering. For instance, when a white individual state that they don't see shading, they are discrediting the day by day impacts skin shading has on non-white individuals.

## What sort of impact do microaggressions have?
Think of it like death (or acquiescence) by a thousand paper cuts. The unpretentious idea of microaggressions in the workplace can really make them conceivably more upsetting than unmistakable segregation. As per therapist Dorainne J. Duty, PhD, "There's a vulnerability about whether (a microaggression) was because of your race, for instance, or because of something inconsequential, for example, the other individual is feeling awful or having a terrible day. That vulnerability is troubling."
Analysts have discovered that natural reactions to microaggressions have suggestions for inspiration, memory and official working. Additionally, as per the [American Psychological Association](https://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/02/microaggression), microaggressions can cause posttraumatic stress side effects, despondency, and nervousness. Grinding away, attempting to comprehend a partner's obtuse remark redirects time and consideration from genuine work. This redirection adversely impacts execution. Left unaddressed, microaggressions in the workplace can set off a descending winding prompting acquiescence or end.

## Ways to respond to microaggressions in the workplace:
### Breathing Exercises
While they're designated "small scale," investigate shows that microaggressions cause their beneficiaries huge mischief. If you've been forced to bear a microaggression grinding away, you'll be all in all correct to encounter any number of feelings. You may feel irate, disappointed or tragic. Shockingly, voicing these emotions may get you named as excessively touchy or threatening.
At the time, attempt to take a full breath. Advise yourself that the hostile remark or activity was an aftereffect of somebody's obliviousness, not your reality. This care may be combined with a brisk insistence, can help ground your reaction. For further reading into breathing excersizes, check out this [link](https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-relief-breathing-techniques#1).

### Try to understand where it is coming from
In the wake of taking a full breath and attesting your value, the following stage is to think about the specific circumstance. How you react to a microaggression at work can shift depending on who made the microaggression. Was it your administrator or the organization's CEO? Or on the other hand, was it your immediate report or somebody on an alternate group? Maybe it was a merchant or one of the organization's customers.
On the off chance that the microaggressor is somebody with whom you couldn't care less about keeping up a relationship, disregarding the remark or activity may be the best methodology. Instances of this may incorporate an arbitrary merchant or even a CEO with whom you infrequently collaborate. While amending certain microaggressors may profit more noteworthy's benefit, it isn't constantly worth your time or enthusiastic prosperity.
Then again, if the microaggressor is somebody with whom you routinely work, it's likely worth an opportunity to lock-in. In these cases, you'll need to be mindful so as not to cut off ties. While they were off base, the best result is one in which you push ahead with a more grounded relationship.
### React with training
Despite information disclosed, blaming somebody for being bigot or homophobic won't get you far. This is especially evident when the microaggressor didn't deliberately expect to cause offense. Rather than assaulting the microaggressor, regardless of how frequently they've fouled up, it's critical to assault the microaggression itself. In teaching a microaggressor, base your reaction in your point of view. Clarify how the announcement or conduct caused you to feel and why it caused you to feel that way.
On the off chance that you esteem the relationship, or it's somebody with whom you routinely work, you may go farther than this underlying discussion. Dr. NiCole Buchanan, an educator of brain science at Michigan State University, recommends planning an opportunity to discuss what happened later. This gives the microaggressor time to consider what they said or did. It additionally allows you to chill and better detail your contemplations. Buchanan proposes that you even practice what you need to state with a thoughtful companion ahead of time of the planned discussion.
### React with humor
If having a genuine discussion doesn't appear to fit the working relationship, you may, on the other hand, consider reacting with humor. Sue has shared that, as an Asian-American teacher and speaker, he frequently hears remarks along the lines of, "You talk incredible English." At first review, this seems like a commendation. In any case, the basic message conveys with it a certain predisposition of what a local English speaker resembles.
At the point when microaggressions like this occur, Sue proposes you "generously recognize the commendation, while likewise adjusting the individual's predisposition." For Sue's situation, for instance, he answers "Thank you, I trust along these lines, I was brought into the world here." Sue expresses that the expansion of the way that he was conceived in the United States "underlines the oblivious misinterpretation that I am an outsider in my own nation." This in part is a great opportunity to learn more about [conflict resolutions](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/conflict-resolution-as-a-manager).
### Try not to react by any means
Another alternative is to not react by any stretch of the imagination. This is a piece of thinking about a specific situation. While all microaggressors ought to be amended, there might be times when it's to your greatest advantage to abstain from locks in. Maybe you are running late to a gathering and don't have the opportunity to address information disclosed at the time. Possibly you're worried that the microaggressor is in a situation to fight back against you grinding away. Or on the other hand, possibly you've sufficiently had that day and would prefer not to manage a cumbersome discussion.
Whatever the case, don't pound yourself on the off chance that you decrease a chance to react to a microaggression grinding away. It's hard enough to be an individual from an underrepresented bunch in your work environment. At the point when somebody submits a microaggression, it's much harder. Make sure to reaffirm your value, center around your novel qualities, and continue pushing ahead.

![Microaggressions in the workplace - How to react](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/3nEsalGBob9cIU8HuGbXdt/67a5465bccc141d1098e60eb1df29b0b/Microaggressions_in_the_workplace_-_How_to_react.PNG)

## How to act if you witness a microaggression in the workplace:
There might be times when you aren't the recipient of a microaggression, however, you witness one in your working environment. On the off chance that you have the chance to shout out, this is an extraordinary method to be a partner grinding away. An investigation distributed in the Academy of Management Journal found that underrepresented individuals get punishments for making some noise about the assorted variety of busy working. Their white, male partners, in any case, get no punishment for making some noise. As an individual from a predominant gathering, your voice and allyship can be amazing.

With microaggressions specifically, their inconspicuous nature makes it simple to excuse the objective as excessively delicate on the off chance that they whine. Along these lines, your voice as a partner will probably be heard more effectively than the voice of the focused on an individual. This makes it even more significant that you make some noise.
Start your reaction by clarifying that you are talking for your benefit, and not for the benefit of any other individual. Use "I" proclamations. For instance, tell individuals, "I would prefer not to hear that sort of thing in our office."
If you aren't sure how to react at the time, you can attempt to be a partner sometime later. Discover the associate who got the microaggression and recognize what happened. This will help approve their experience. You ought to likewise apologize for not saying anything when you saw it and ask how you can offer better help should you witness another microaggression.

Microaggressions are still present in the workplace. What are they? And how can you reduce their frequency?

Microaggressions in the workplace: A 2020 perspective

Microaggressions in the workplace and how to avoid them

Microaggressions in the workplace

Microaggressions in the workplace: How to manage them

Psychological safety describes a work environment in which __team members feel open to share ideas, take risks and express concerns without retribution__. The term first became widely known following a 1999 study by Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School, and was further popularized in 2015 after a two-year study by Google identified psychological safety as one of the five key elements of [successful teams](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/what-makes-a-good-team).

[According to Edmondson](https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305), "Psychological safety describes perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context such as a workplace. A central theme in research on psychological safety—across decades and levels of analysis—is that it facilitates the willing contribution of ideas and actions to a shared enterprise."

>> "You know the term implies to people a sense of coziness ... that we’re all going to be nice to each other, and that’s not what it’s really about. What it’s about is candor; what it’s about is being direct, taking risks, being willing to say, “I screwed that up.” Being willing to ask for help when you’re in over your head."

## Why is psychological safety in the workplace important?

Teams who report feeling high levels of psychological safety are consistently the most __high performing, productive and creative__ business units across organizations. They're willing to put forward bold ideas because they're not afraid of being shot down or made fun of. They're able to raise concerns and own up to mistakes to prevent those from becoming bigger problems down the line. Employees know that their opinions are heard, and that makes them feel valued and engaged with their work.

[In a Gallup study](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236198/create-culture-psychological-safety.aspx), their data reveal "that just three in 10 U.S. workers strongly agree that at work, their opinions seem to count. However, by moving that ratio to six in 10 employees, organizations could realize a 27% reduction in turnover, a 40% reduction in safety incidents and a 12% increase in productivity."

## Principles of psychological safety in the workplace

[As Amy Edmondson states](https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/01/creating-psychological-safety-in-the-workplace), "It’s three activities that you have to just keep doing often. The first one is __setting the stage__, the second one is __inviting engagement__, and the third one is __responding productively__."

### Promote learning and effectiveness

Wherever possible try to instil the __mindset of learning__. It's important to communicate the company strategy to create alignment, but it's also good to not pretend like you have all the answers. __Actively encourage employees to share their ideas__, and being open about areas of uncertainty creates a reason for them to do so. Similarly, being able to own up to mistakes allows everybody to learn from them, and that can only happen if workers are confident they'll be treated fairly. You can (and should) still maintain accountability - reward great work publicly and discuss poor performance privately. Being transparent about how and where these conversations take place lessens anxiety and gives everyone a clear picture of their actual performance.

### Model the behaviors you want to see

Lead by example and __be self aware__ - doing so makes it much easier for your team to follow suit. Acknowledge the mistakes you've made and that you may miss something else, and reinforce that you want to hear your colleagues' ideas. This creates a safe environment for them to speak up knowing their opinions are being asked for. __Regularly ask for feedback__ and make sure to keep an open mind when receiving it. Most importantly, follow up with the suggestions being made, even if they're not going to be acted on.

### Make curiosity the standard

Ask questions to dig deeper into the rationale behind ideas, assumptions and mistakes. Being proactive in asking questions of everybody makes it necessary for those who are less willing or more afraid of challenging the status quo to speak up. __Replace blame with questions__ - "What blocked you from getting this done?" or "What support would you have liked to deliver this more effectively?"

*Watch Amy Edmondson's full TEDx talk on building a psychologically safe workplace.*
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8" class="embedly-card" data-card-width="75%" data-card-controls="0">Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8</a>

## How can you foster psychological safety for remote workers?

As we move to a majority remote workforce (a move born out of necessity, but which is likely to remain the new business standard as we go forward) the challenge of keeping connected to your teammates and having open channels of communication becomes vital. These are a few tips to take the principles of psychological safety from the shared office into your remote workspace.

### 1. Create new communication channels

There are plenty of amazing tools for staying connected while working remotely. Whether you're using Slack, Teams, Hangouts, Discord or others, you'll need to customize the space to allow ideas to be shared while not [overwhelming teammates with distracting notifications](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/remote-work-best-practices).

It's helpful to have one space for the full group to get together, and one or more additional ways to share information privately or within smaller groups.

### 2. Encourage remote workers to get to know one another

Getting to know more about your colleagues behind the screen is crucial. It not only lessens our feeling of isolation when working from home, it opens your team up to accept new ideas when they know more about where they come from. Use video calls to connect where it's not disruptive, or simply make it a habit to ask a few non-work questions: "What book have you been reading lately?" or "What inspired you this week?".

### 3. Create a recurring "stand-up"

Whether it's through written updates or video chats, a recurring stand-up or status meeting gives everyone the chance to share what they're working on and where they need help. Don't make the mistake of just reporting the positives or you'll only send the message that [it's not OK to discuss mistakes](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/when-anxiety-attacks-in-the-remote-workplace). Encourage everyone to share one or two things they did well, and another where they messed up and need help.

### 4. Book in regular one to ones

Private [one to one discussions](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/40-questions-for-your-next-one-on-one-meeting) are critical for motivating your direct reports and building an honest working relationship. When you go remote these can sometimes take a backseat, as you miss the informal coffee chats and face to face time in the office. Make sure to take the lead and book recurring one to one meetings (at least every month) to check in and discuss work performance.

### 5. Roll out 360 feedback

On the ground feedback is easy to get when you're working side by side, but with the physical distance of remote work this becomes a lot harder. Setting a framework for giving constructive feedback will help everyone to stay connected. As with all of these behaviors, modelling it yourself goes a long way to instilling trust from your team. Make sure you're [asking for your own feedback](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-ask-for-feedback), as well as teaching teammates to [give upward feedback](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-give-manager-feedback-5-examples) and providing them with [some examples of what good, constructive feedback looks like](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/positive-feedback-for-colleagues-examples-and-tips).

### 6. Measure psychological safety

Lastly, psychological safety is something you can benchmark within your team and measure for improvement. [Asking a few simple questions](https://www.midss.org/content/team-learning-and-psychological-safety-survey), either directly or through a pulse survey, will help you to gauge how safe your team feels and what you should improve on.

![Psychological Safety Survey](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/3yrA4nBv4YhupjhRYwJajI/0eb9fc4ef64bf629ccd04dc330b7e9b2/psychological_safety_survey_peoplegoal.png)

Psychological safety underpins every high performing, collaborative team. And as summed up in this [NYT article following the Google study](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html), "No one wants to leave part of their personality and inner life at home. But to be fully present at work, to feel “psychologically safe,” we must know that we can be free enough, sometimes, to share the things that scare us without fear of recriminations. We must be able to talk about what is messy or sad, to have hard conversations with colleagues who are driving us crazy. We can’t be focused just on efficiency."

As most businesses move to remote work in these difficult times, it's more important than ever to foster psychological safety within your team to keep colleagues connected.

As most businesses move to remote work in these difficult times, it's more important than ever to foster psychological safety within your team.

Psychological Safety in the Remote Workplace

Psychological safety for remote workers PeopleGoal

Psychological Safety

We’ve previously looked at the different levels of core competencies. Take a look at our [in-depth analysis](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/core-employment-competencies-explained) of core competencies and the different levels each present. In that blog, we took a look at a range of competencies, from accountability to strategic perspective. In today’s blog, we are going to take a slightly different view of core competencies. We are going to provide you with some examples of core competencies. Let’s get into it.

---

## 12 Core Competencies Examples Explained

### Accountability

#### Definition -
Exemplifies a high level of ownership and commitment to their own results, the team, and the organizations.

#### Examples -

- Employees completing tasks assigned to them in a timely manner.
- Employees being responsible for their specific duties
- Employees working towards a common organizational goal.
- Assumes responsibility for the whole team’s results

### Communication

#### Definition - 
Listen, speaks and writes with coherency, clarity and concisely.

#### Examples -

- Increases the value of work communication.
- Uses personal and organizational knowledge to enhance value.
- Provides timely and appropriate communication.
- Tailors communicate to the audience.

### Composure

#### Definition - 
Responds in a constructive manner to situations of heightened pressure, emotions and conflict.

#### Examples -

- Achieves mutually agreeable results in a time of conflict.
- Deals with difficult colleagues and clients in a productive manner.
- Adjusts effectively to difficult situations.

### Decision Making

#### Definition - 
The process of making choices by identifying potential decisions, gathering information and recognizing potential outcomes.

#### Examples -

- Makes decisions that consider the value and principles of an organization.
- Makes decisions by providing clarity in ambiguous situations.
- Develops effective solutions.

### Problem Solving

#### Definition -
Takes a systematic approach to problem-solving

#### Examples -

- Promotes problem-solving as an integral process within the organization.
- Uses available resources, information, and personnel when solving problems.
- Uses sound judgment and common sense.

### Self-Development

#### Definition -
Self-development refers to the extent to which an individual is concerned with bettering themselves by learning new skills and gaining experience.

#### Examples -

- Takes full advantage of the opportunities provided to them and seeks out their own opportunities.
- Reviews one’s progress against development goals.
- Responds proactively to feedback.

### Strategic Purpose

#### Definition -
Has a clear grasp on broader, longer-term vision for their work and the work of the organization.

#### Examples -

- Shares the organizational vision with colleagues, managers, and stakeholders.
- Seeks out information and trends which may have an impact on the organization.

### Leadership -

![Core Competencies Examples](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/yWGfwc13CQ9Qvgh3Vdl5E/6df96cbbc556f86c97c6b636f162531b/Core_Competencies_Examples.png)

#### Definition -
The action of leading a group of people or an organization.

#### Examples -

- Maintains team motivation and engagement.
- Assigns duties and responsibilities.
- Fosters enthusiasm and commitment.
- Resolves conflicts.

### Listening

#### Definition -
Giving one’s active attention to another and take notice of actions and words.

#### Examples -

- Freely listens to others.
- Shows empathy.
- Recognizes and understands non-verbal cues.

### Sharing Expertise

#### Definition -
Willing to share one’s knowledge. Motivated to expand knowledge.

#### Examples -

- Answers questions from colleagues and clients.
- Provides expert knowledge.
- Regularly introduces new knowledge to others.

### Critical Thinking

#### Definition -
Objective analysis and evaluation of information to form a sound judgment.

#### Examples -

- Breaks down complex, multidimensional problems.
- Recognizes subtle information.
- Establish relationships and links between information.

### Flexibility -

#### Definition -
The ability to provide effective work in a variety of situations, people and information.

#### Examples -

- Willingly adapts plans.
- Responds quickly and proactively to developing situations.
- Oversees small and large scale changes.

### Developing Others

#### Definition -
The want to develop the long-term growth of others.

#### Examples -

- Arranges training, mentoring, education to aid development.
- Provides recognition and appreciation.
- Shows confidence in other’s potential.

### Goal Setting

#### Definition -
Sets appropriate individual and team goals.

#### Examples -

- Monitors progress.
- Develops goals that best contribute to the team and the wider organization.
- Evaluates goal progression and adapts where appropriate.


---



Above we’ve considered the key competencies in the workplace and given some examples of how these competencies can be achieved. Can you think of any more core competencies which we’ve missed?

We've detailed some core competencies examples for you to have a look at. With them are the definitions and some examples. 

Core Competencies Examples Explained

Core Competencies Examples

Have a look at some of these core competencies explained.

Being placed in a stressful situation, or dealing with stress is a regular occurrence for many people. Dealing with workplace stress is a skill some people have perfected and some people aren’t so good. The good thing is, dealing with workplace stress is something you can always get better at. There are methods for preventing workplace stress, managing stress and dealing with it when it arises. Let’s have a look at some of the ways to reduce workplace stress.

---

## **Effects of Workplace Stress**

Workplace stress relates to the negative reaction that occurs when an individual’s demand at work exceeds their ability to cope. Here are some of the damaging effects that workplace stress can have on you:

- Heightened Anxiety
- Increased Risk of Depression
- Fatigue
- Reduced Ability to Concentrate
- Apathetic Attitude
- Lower Morale
- Reduced Motivation
- Increased ill-health

---

## **10 Ways to Reduce Workplace Stress**

## 5 Tips for the Employee

![10 Ways to Reduce Workplace Stress](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/3qixAIap84kjp6xbe0Rgs6/07711b84abb7492c0b5ecadd555642d2/WORKPLACE_STRESS__1_.png)

### 1. **Exercise and Nutrition**

Eating right and keeping active won’t make your stress disappear. But it will help to reduce the emotional intensity you are feeling. It will help to clear your thoughts and will allow you to approach issues in a calmer manner. Evidence also indicates that physical exercise can additionally:

- [raise your self-esteem](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/raising-low-self-esteem/)
- help you to set goals or challenges
- Lead to neurochemical changes in the brain which positively affect mood

### 2. Work Smarter, Not Harder

One of the ways to optimize your work and help stave off workplace stress is to ‘[work smarter, not harder](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/work-smarter-not-harder)’. This helps to reduce unnecessary workload, help you keep to your work schedule and help you to reduce workplace stress.

### 3. **Establish Boundaries**

The world we live in is growing evermore digital and thus the inbuilt pressure to succeed at work means that we feel obliged to work longer hours. This causes an unnecessary and continuous impact on your stress levels. A good way to reduce stress is to establish clear boundaries between your personal life and your professional life. Come up with rules and stick by them. Leave work at a given time each day. Switch off work emails and alerts as soon as you leave the office, leave work equipment at work. Whatever you feel will work for you. Find rules which help you create a healthier work-life balance.

### 4. **Track Your Stressors**

How can you deal with your stress if you don’t know what is causing it? You need to identify your stressors. One of the best ways is to keep a journal. Track your stressors for a number of weeks. Write down the situations, circumstances, and things which make you prone to stress. Record your thoughts, information, and feelings pertaining to the situation and your reaction. Taking notes and tracking your stressors can help you to identify stress-causing patterns.

### 5. **Connect with Your Colleagues**

We all have that one person at work we can chat too. Having a colleague you can talk too when your stressed is a great way to reduce workplace stress. It can be from leaving work to get a coffee and detox from a stressful situation to talking about continuous workplace stressors.

---

## 5 Tips for the Employer

### 1. **Chillout Zone**

Create a chillout zone in the workplace somewhere. Giving people a place to destress when needs be. Think about adding beanbags, hammocks, books, board games, and plants. What about getting your employees to help design it. A chillout zone is a great way to reduce workplace stress.

### 2. **Know Your Policies**

Employees needing time off if they become stressed, are struggling with chronic workplace stress or if the stress becomes unhealthy, are situations that may occur at your workplace. Knowing your [policies](https://www.peoplegoal.com/resources/policies) for time off is the least you can do as a manager.

### 3. **Research Flexible Working Opportunities**

What about allowing more flexible work schedules. Think about having greater scope for [remote work](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/remote-work-best-practices) and for flexible hours. You hired your employees because you have trust in their capabilities to perform. Providing flexible opportunities is bound to alleviate workplace stress. Freedom is perfect for morale, freedom and perfecting the workplace balance.

### 4. **Recognition**

Make sure to continuously show appreciation and [recognition](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-recognition-examples-from-peoplegoal) to your employees when they deserve it. Receiving little or no recognition for your work compounds workplace stress with irrational thinking about your work. This causes unnecessary workplace stress.

### 5. **Meditation Classes**

One of the best ways to reduce workplace stress is to introduce meditation classes for your employees to join. Mindfulness and meditation are great ways to reduce immediate stress and keeps chronic stress at bay.


---



Reducing workplace stress is no mean feat. There are ways to reduce workplace stress from the employee and manager perspective. Do you think these may work for you or your organization? Or are there ways which you already use and are effective?

Tips to help employees and employers reduce workplace stress! Helping managers, senior leaders and employees implement ways to reduce workplace stress.

Helping You Reduce Workplace Stress

10 Ways to Reduce Workplace Stress

Tips to help employees and employers reduce workplace stress!

Everyone is on the pursuit of happiness, and happiness itself comes in many differing forms unique to each individual. Chances are that if you're reading this you are at work (and looking for TED talks about happiness), and you may be __striving to be happier by being more successful__.

In his TED talk, *The Happy Secret to Better Work*, Shawn Achor argues that this notion is the wrong way round, and instead we __become more successful when we are happier and more positive__, not the other way round. I’ve broken down some of the key areas he’s covered for you to have a good old read and implement in your everyday life.

---

## TED Talks on Happiness - The Happiness Advantage

For Shawn Achor, __happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential__. He states that “Happiness is not a mood – it’s a work ethic”. He argues that it's those who sit around waiting for work to bring eventual happiness that put themselves at a huge disadvantage. Those who capitalize on positivity at every chance end up coming out ahead. Achor also provides a few ways in which he has developed positive energy to benefit him, such as;

### Meditation

- Neuroscientists have found that monks who spend years meditating actually grow their left prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most responsible for feeling happy.
- Studies show that in the minutes right after meditating, we experience feelings of calm and contentment, as well as heightened awareness and empathy. And, research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness, lower stress, even improve immune function.

### Find Something to Look Forward To

- One study found people who just thought about watching their favourite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent.
- Anticipating future rewards can actually light up the pleasure canters in your brain much as the actual reward will.

### Commit Conscious Acts of Kindness

- A long line of empirical research, including one study of over 2,000 people, has shown that acts of altruism — [giving to friends and strangers alike](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-recognition-quotes) — decreases stress and strongly contributes to enhanced mental health.
- Pick one day a week and make a point of committing five acts of kindness.

### Infuse Positivity Into Your Surroundings

- Our physical environment can have an enormous impact on our mindset and sense of well-being.
- Studies have shown that the less negative TV we watch, specifically violent media, the happier we are.

### Exercise

- Physical activity can boost mood and enhance our work performance in a number of other ways as well, by improving motivation and feelings of mastery, reducing stress and anxiety, and helping us get into flow —- that “locked in” feeling of total engagement that we usually get when we’re at our most productive.

### Spend Money (but Not on Stuff)

- In his book *Luxury Fever*, Robert Frank explains that while the positive feelings we get from material objects are frustratingly fleeting, spending money on experiences, especially ones with other people, produces positive emotions that are both more meaningful and more lasting.
- Spending money on other people is called ‘prosocial spending,’ and also boosts happiness.
- Draw two columns on a piece of paper (or take ten minutes at work to create a nifty spreadsheet) and track your purchases over the next month. Are you spending more on things or on experiences? At the end of the month, look back over each column and think about the pleasure each purchase brought you, and for how long.

### Exercise a Signature Strength

- Each time we use a skill, whatever it is, we experience a burst of positivity. If you find yourself in need of a happiness booster, [revisit a talent you haven’t used in a while](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/work-quotes-for-monday-morning).
- Even more fulfilling than using a skill, though, is exercising a strength of character, a trait that is deeply embedded in who we are.
- Studies have shown that the more you use your signature strengths in daily life, the happier you become.

---

Watch the full TED Talk on Happiness here:

<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en" class="embedly-card" data-card-width="75%" data-card-controls="1">Embedded content: https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en</a>

---

To sum this up this TED Talk on happiness in the workplace, using one of Achor's quotes: *“We’re finding it's not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but __the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality__. And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time."*

Breaking down the happy secret to better work and the Happiness Advantage from Shawn Achor's TED Talk on happiness

TED Talks on Happiness in the Workplace

TED Talks Happiness

The generational gap is the various __differing outlooks, beliefs, skills, attitudes, behaviours, and opinions__ between the older and younger generations. The age difference between colleagues is said to influence these characteristics, and has grown more prevalent in recent years. Within large organizations you are bound to see these differences as you have 60+ year olds working alongside 25 year olds.

A big challenge that comes with having a generational gap in the workplace is that __a leadership deficit is being created__. As older people leave the workplace there aren't enough Gen-Xers to fill vacant leadership roles. Gen-Yers and Millennials are flooding the workplace, but they are not getting enough training to lead as of yet. Added to that, there's also often a __gap between the generations' lifestyles, values, work ethics, communication styles, technological aptitude, and experience__.

---

## 4 Strategies to Bridge the Generational Gap

To start building a bridge between generations there are multiple steps you can take to get the best out of your workforce.

### 1. Avoid pigeonholing

There are of course many stereotypes that come with each generation: Boomers being dinosaurs who are unwilling to change their attitudes; Millennials are lazy and entitled; Gen-Zers are inept without tech. Nonetheless, stereotypes are just that, and it only exacerbates tensions by perpetuating them in the office. Both managers and employees should __strive to move beyond the labels__ and get to know each other's individual traits that are worthy of respect.

### 2. Communicate

Everyone should be given the opportunity to voice their opinion and share their creative thoughts, ideas, and concerns. Within an inclusive environment __everyone should be heard, respected, and communicated with__. If anything, having multiple generations put their ideas forward will make decisions far more informed. Moreover, by openly communicating, [everyone can learn from each other and make sure all employees are on the same page](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-improve-internal-communication). A lack of communication only deepens divides, and clouds operations.

<br>

![4 Strategies to Bridge the Generational Gap](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/5P5A93Iwk2HulY0FbJDvN3/b1886910fef08a739b452e85c4d41821/generational_gap_strategies_peoplegoal_blog.png)

### 3. Create mentoring programs

Promote mentoring within your workplace. __Having a mentorship program enables different generations to communicate and learn from one another__, and works to set up younger employees for future leadership roles. You may be surprised at how much employees can learn from one another if they [spend more time together outside of their own team and manager assignments](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/teamwork-in-the-workplace). There is endless advice the old can give to the young as they have been around longer, and plenty of information and skills the young can provide the old.

### 4. Understand what motivates each generation

A fundamental way to get the best out of your employees is finding out what motivates them. __The motivators will of course be unique for each individual__, however there are by and large differences in motivating factors between generations. Gen-Xers who are close to retirement may be more interested in bonuses or salary increase, whereas millennials may be looking to repay their student loans, or to cover the cost of childcare, or to have more time to spend travelling.

Nonetheless, everyone is unique, so spend time asking each of your members what their key motivators are and [set up a rewards & recognition system to support these](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-recognition-examples-from-peoplegoal). This enables you to boost individual employee satisfaction and retention. Keep in mind that you should also practice transparency and consistency when implementing this to make sure that everyone is treated fairly.

---

When looking to bridge the generational gap in the workplace you must learn about your employees and become accustomed to the drivers and preferences, strengths and weaknesses of each individual and generation. Reduce the use of stereotypes and seek collaboration to improve productivity within your team across generational lines.

Bridging the generational gap in the workplace is vital to many organizations. But what is the generational gap, and how do you address it?

Bridge the Generational Gap in the Workplace

Bridging the generational gap in the workplace - PeopleGoal blog

Generational Gap

We all know the importance of [employee engagement](https://www.peoplegoal.com/guides/employee-engagement) and companies are becoming increasingly aware they need to innovate and keep employees engaged. There are so many blogs out there talking about employee engagement and why it’s important. But very few talking about niche and novel ideas to boost employee engagement. That’s why we’ve got a few for you.

## **9 Employee Engagement Activities to Boost Motivation**

![9 Employee Engagement Activities to Boost Motivation](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4JUfU0GC3iu1cv3X8bIVGU/8ae573b5d0b9d6ec139224b109c239af/EMPLOYEE_ENGAGEMENT_ACTIVITIES.png)

### **Learning Lunches**

Learning lunches are an interesting and adaptable way of increasing engagement. Take your team out for lunch and bring along a topic to discuss over lunch. Or alternatively, have an employee-focused chat about each other. We thoroughly enjoy asking each other ridiculous questions and seeing people’s responses. Have a look at these [questions](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/17-icebreakers-for-team-building) and see if they might work at your next lunch and learn.

### **Special Days**

What about a niche day every so often. Bring your dog to work day or rent a litter of puppies for the office. Think up a random thing to do in the office and put it into action.

### **Team Building Activities**

Getting out and bonding with the team through team building activities is a sure-fire way to boost employee engagement. Boardgame cafes, escape room, paintballing, virtual golf, cooking courses, the possibilities are literally endless. Get out of the workspace

### **Volunteering Days**

Supporting local, regional or national charities through volunteering is not only a good, altruistic act, it is also beneficial for boosting employee engagement. To many employees, engagement isn’t just about perks and healthcare, its also about having a healthy work-life balance, giving back and flexibility. Consider giving employees a number of volunteer days which they can utilize.

### **Casual Days**

This one might not be feasible for everyone. Why not try out a ‘wear what you want’ day, or be more conducive to allowing remote working days. If you have remote workers on your books how can you make sure they remain engaged? Have a read [here](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-engagement-for-remote-workers).

### **Snacks Galore**

Everyone loves snacks right? But what’s better than snacks? FREE SNACKS. Bulk buy snacks for the office. Fruit, chocolate, crisps, healthy bars, etc. Just ask your employees what they like and go out and buy bulk, to keep your costs low.

### **Employee Lottery**

This is a bit of a niche one. Have a weekly or monthly or even annual employee lottery. Charge employees £1 to enter the lottery, and tell them that whatever the total is, the company will match it.

### **Birthday Benefits**

Birthday benefits are a great and easy way to boost employee engagement. There are so many opportunities for birthday benefits. Presents, leaving work early, a small party, lunch out. There are so many ways to show appreciation for birthdays. You could also extend this to anniversaries and personal milestones.

### **Meditation Zone**

Have a little chill-out zone for employees. Plants, bean bags, books and plenty of natural light. Ask employees what they want in their zone, or even better get a few people to design it. You could even have a little competition for employees to design the zone.

So what do you think of some of these activities? Do you think they would be effective in improving employee engagement in your organization? Do you use any novel ways to boost engagement at your company?

We have created a list of employee engagement activities to improve employee engagement. Have you tried any of these?

9 Employee Engagement Activities to Boost Motivation

What employee engagement activities do you use to boost motivation? Have you tried any of these?

Check-ins with your direct reports is vital to monitoring and bolstering their performance. It doesn’t need to be a long and stressful process. You can think of it as a way to keep track of employees performance without it seeming like an actual performance review. They are more like a one-on-one conversation between managers and employee’s about their work, their goals, welfare, and development plans. They will help you gain an understanding on what your employees are working on, and how you can assist them.

There are multiple benefits to conducting regular check-ins:

![The benefits or regural check-ins](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/3c9Rk8YVFwvkJPZPcXbxLy/b4d31b0ab792d1614f411533b4a1c5de/The_10_benefits_of_regular_check-ins.PNG)

**Drives employee engagement**

[Regular check-ins](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/manager-one-on-one-meeting) with employees gives managers an opportunity to provide their direct reports with [valuable feedback](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/positive-feedback-for-colleagues-examples-and-tips). If this form of communication is done frequently, performance conversations between managers and employees leads to engaging conversations and leads employees to stay engaged with their work. It also allows employees and managers to stay on the same page and to help each other stay.

**Provides Direction**

Conducting frequent employee check-ins allows managers to provide their employees with affirmation in what they’re doing well and helps them communication with their employees about what they can improve. It gives managers an opportunity to not just point out their employees shortcomings but also to help them to work through them.

**Promotes continuous learning**

No matter what position you are in, you need to keep yourself up to date with the current industry trends. Every check in that is completed between employees and manages is an opportunity on both ends to [learn](https://www.peoplegoal.com/glossary/learning-style), grow, and develop. Whether it be skills for the employee or managerial skills. If you are conducting check-ins regularly, you open up the opportunity to re-evaluate the employees goals and keep them aligned to the organisational goals. Furthermore it gives the manager the oversight to see what impact they can have on improving the employees performance.

**Motivates employees**

Holding regular check-ins to discuss employees performance plans and the strategies available to improve their performance is a great way to motivate them. This stems from the idea that they are valued as an employee as the management are showing they care about the employee. At the same time it helps managers boost morale within the team which furthermore contributes to improved organisational productivity.

**Prevents miscommunication**

Regular check-ins means greater communication, this prevents miscommunications between the employees and the employers. It allows individuals to compare notes, and for manager’s to make sure their direct reports understand exactly what they are supposed to be doing on the job. A lack of communication whether it be digital or face to face can lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretations on all manner of performance related aspects such as strategy and objectives.

**Drives manager development**

Lastly, just as check-ins can benefit employees performance by helping them to achieve their goals, they can also help managers reach their goals of being good leaders. Managers can use the time to ask employees what they can do to be a better leader, and they can also learn from the employee experience. This in turn also puts the manager in a better position for their end of year review.

**Improves Employee Welfare**

The time spent in check-ins also provides employees with the ability to discuss more personal topics in a safe environment, this could be to do with personal extenuating circumstances, or the like. This provides management with the opportunity to being out an empathetic side which will develop an employees feeling of value, and further motivate them.

**Provides an opportunity for collaboration**

To coin the phrase ‘two heads are better than one’ is suitable here. If you are regularly meeting with your employees, you’re creating more opportunity for collaboration and brainstorming. This time can be used to solve problems on both ends.

**Reduces pressure on end of year review**

By committing to regular check-ins, you are taking off some of the pressure of the [end of year review](https://www.peoplegoal.com/guides/performance-reviews). It gives everyone involved the opportunity to nip performance issues in the bud when they arise since you can identify and solve potential problems as they arise. This can reduce the chances of months of potential mistakes and relieve some of the pressures of the annual performance review.

Now the majority of us are WFH, we should be focussing on how to keep in contact. Here are the benefits of regular check-ins.

The 10 Benefits of Regular Check-ins

Regural employee manager check ins is the way forward

Check-Ins

Having a work from home policy in place now that most companies have switched to working remotely is really important. With the growing concerns surrounding coronavirus (COVID-19), there is no doubt the notion of working from home has been banded around offices across the nation. Although there are multiple drawbacks of the coronavirus, including death it is also giving businesses worldwide the opportunity/ forcing them to test working from home. There are multiple [benefits of remote working](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-engagement-for-remote-workers), and there are lots of different ways you can [make it work](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/work-from-home), however in this extreme case, it may well be worth your time to create a work from home policy to distribute to those employees who are working from home either voluntarily or due to self isolation.

This policy is the first step in the most fundamental aspect of remote work – Communication. There is lots of different aspects you will need to consider when drafting this policy. For example, there are certain jobs where working from home just is not possible, for example working in a bar, on retail. Therefore, your policy will need to specify which roles in your business are viable to work from home. These will by in large be the roles which have the duties that can be completed via a laptop.

One question that may arise is the question of ‘is there a working from home law?’. In short, no. Although after 26 weeks of continuous employment an employee has the right to request flexible working, as an employer you have no legal obligation to accept the request, unless for specific medical/personal reasons. However, it would be advisable to have a discussion with the employee understand why they requested it, and if in turn in may well increase their productivity. By accepting their request, you may be helping them manage an illness, or family commitments. This in turn will show the rest of the staff that you are committed to their wellbeing.

Nonetheless, there are risks to consider when drafting your working at home policy. For your staff working at home, they will usually need:

- A laptop/computer
- A phone
- A good internet connection
- Access to software the organisation uses
- A suitable working environment

![Work from home policy](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/6KvE7xBpLbvby3QoVpg27q/5bd6764ade423c4bf87406be7026a008/work_from_home_policy.PNG)

If you are planning to allow your employees to use their own devices, you will need to consider a way for them to keep any important data safe and private. Therefore your policy should include rules such as:

- Employees must protect their own devices with antivirus software where necessary. (Offer to pay for this)
- Employees must store and save all files in the company’s central cloud storage, not locally on their device.

Or alternatively you can use the template we have provided below:


---


### Work from Home Policy Sample

This Work from Home Policy example can be custom-made to your organization's needs and should be used as a beginning stage for building up business strategies on remote working. This example strategy ought to be altered in line with your organization's particular qualities. A Work from Home Policy may likewise be alluded to as a Telecommuting Policy or Home-Based Work Policy.

### Policy brief & purpose


We planned our work from home arrangement to ensure that telecommuting/digital communication is advantageous to our employees and organisation.

### What this covers

This organization telecommute arrangement applies to every one of our employees who are working remotely. Click on the template below to view and download the work from home policy sample:

[![Work from home policy template](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/2WCz1yJBa0FZGh3w3qB2GT/85d3b00ddb1cf1b93f2716d89ef9f2a0/work_from_home_policy_template.PNG)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tduu1khactMRYm80zwA8j-hlbAIAnGIrMEwir9JIdlQ/edit?usp=sharing)



A work from home policy is a must for every company that switched to working remotely due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

A Work from Home Policy to Deal with Coronavirus at Work

With the ever-growing threat of COVID-19, it's time for all to prepare. Here is a work from home policy for you to use.

Work From Home Policy to deal with COVID-19

A work from home policy is a must for every company that switched to working remotely due to Coronavirus outbreak.

The World Health Organization recently announced the Coronavirus or COVID-19 is now a global pandemic. Many leading public health bodies have provided detailed advice on how to protect you. We’ve condensed it down to a short, quick read. Here’s what they have to say.

## Protection

The first thing public health organizations suggest is to wash your hands. This is especially true if you have recently been traveling on a bus, train, tube or other forms of public transport. This means properly washing your hands as well. Wash them for twenty seconds, focusing on all parts of the hands, not just the palms. Back of the hands, around the nails, around the wrist and in between your fingers. Once you are done, turn off the tap using tissue and throw that tissue in the bin. 

Secondly, avoid touching your face, nose, mouth, and eyes, as this is one way the virus can enter your body. Touch your face only when you’ve washed your hands prior. Experts think that coronavirus is spread by droplets that come from your mouth and nose. This means you need to cover these areas when you sneeze or cough. Try and catch them with tissues, then wash your hands. Disposable tissues are better than the handkerchiefs you carry. If you don’t have a tissue, sneeze or cough into the crevice of your elbow. This means that the droplets are away from your hands. As silly as it may sound, try and avoid touching things with your hands. This means handrails, buttons, door handles, etc. 

Try and stay away from people who are ill. If they are unwell, stay away from them, the closer you are, the more likely the virus is likely to spread to you. Apart from this, life should continue as usual. Meaning you should go to school, work, etc. and carry on with your daily life.

If you think you are exhibiting the symptoms of coronavirus, do not rush to the doctor. Instead, call your local advice hotline. If you are in the UK that is 111.

## Symptomology

The current evidence suggests a range of symptoms associated with coronavirus. These are the most well-supported symptoms:

![COVID - Advice On How to Protect Yourself](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/1B2fpEcjVJCVgjQDrF4WUe/5cdf051182e5409747dd9bc8c471d78e/_COVID_-_Advice_On_How_to_Protect_Yourself.png)

- Fever
- Dry Cough
- Shortness of Breath

These symptoms can be present, but are less common:

- Headache
- General Aches and Pains
- Fatigue
- Exhaustion

These systems have been reported in some cases:

- Sore Throat
- Sneezing
- Stuffy Nose

The virus seems to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough. After seven days, shortness of breath may become apparent. Here, the individual should contact for medical advice. This is a condensed, brief advice message for protection and awareness of symptoms pertaining to the coronavirus. 

## Common questions and answers for employees: 

What if I need to take time off work because I contract COVID-19? 
Employees who are ill should use their employer paid sick leave. Remember, medical certification can be done electronically. This can be emailed to your healthcare provider and emailed back to you to provide to your employer. 
 
### If I become seriously ill and I need to quit my job as a result of COVID-19, will I qualify for unemployment benefits?

You may qualify for Paid Family & Medical Leave while you are sick. Once you recover and are available for work again, you can apply for unemployment benefits. 
 
### What if I am asked by a medical professional or public health official to quarantine as a result of COVID-19, but I am not sick?

If you are following guidance issued by a medical professional or public health official to isolate or quarantine yourself as a result of exposure to COVID-19 and you are not receiving paid sick leave from your employer, you may be eligible to receive unemployment benefits.  If you know you can return to your job as soon as your isolation or quarantine is lifted, you may not need to search for work. You must be able to accept any work offered by your employer that would not cause you to break isolation or quarantine.
 
### What if my employer goes out of business as a result of COVID-19?

You may be eligible for unemployment benefits if you’re out of work due to a lack of work. (These benefits are intended to assist workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.)
 
### What is a request to isolate or quarantine?
 
A request to isolate or quarantine is:
A letter documenting a voluntary request or involuntary order to isolate or quarantine from a medical professional, local health official, or the Secretary of Health.

A note from your medical provider or medical records officer recommending isolation or quarantine.

A self-determination that Department of Health’s quarantine guidance applies to you.


A quick and condensed look at advice from public healthcare bodies, on how to protect yourself against coronavirus. 

Advice on how to protect yourself against coronavirus

COVID - Advice On How to Protect Yourself

Protecting yourself against coronavirus

Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Advice On How to Protect Yourself

The World Health Organization has recently announced that the coronavirus, or COVID-19, has been upgraded to a pandemic. This has lead to widespread panic. It has also left uncertainty for how employers and employees should deal with work. Below we give a few details as to how employers should plan and respond to coronavirus, with an overarching concern giving to the safety of them and all their employees.

## Information about the Virus

The coronavirus is a virus that was first identified in the Wuhan region of China in January 2020. The coronavirus is actually part of a common set of viruses seen around the world. However, it is a new strain that is causing widespread disruption. This strain is COVID-19. The self-isolation period of COVID-19 is between 2-14 days.

## Symptomology

Here are the main three symptoms associated with coronavirus:

![Guidance for Employers to Plan and Respond to COVID-19](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/3LNMvkgvMGuqyVPrCQknMl/d774a1fbf74e8e5af18e662df6761545/_COVID_-_Advice_On_How_to_Protect_Yourself.png)

- __Fever__
- __Cough__
- __Shortness of Breath__

These symptoms have also been reported, but aren’t as common as those above:

- __Headache__
- __Fatigue__
- __Sore Throat__
- __Sneezing__
- __Stuffy Nose__
- __Body Aches__

The virus seems to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough. After a week, shortness of breath may become apparent.

## Advice for employers

### 1. Prevention in the workplace

Employers have a duty of care in the workplace. There is a need to inform employees about how to stay safe, and a need to take measures in the workforce. Employees need to wash their hands more regularly and more thoroughly. Wash them with soap, for twenty seconds, all around the hand. The palm, the fingernails, the wrist and in between the fingers. Turn off the tap with a tissue, and throw that tissue in the bin. Employees should use disposable tissues. If they need to cough or sneeze they should try and use these disposable tissues, then throw that tissue in the bin. If they cannot get to a tissue in time, they should use their crack in the elbow. As an employer, make sure to clean and disinfect regularly touched objects and surfaces.

### 2. People travelling

Many world governments have placed travel bans, most notably the US placing a ban on incoming travel from Europe. Any employee or partner travelling back from the areas under containment measures, most notably: the Hubei province and wider China, Iran, Daegu, Cheongdo and wider areas of the Republic of Korea and large parts of Italy. These employees should self-isolate for two weeks, and call for medical advice if necessary. 

Employees who have planned holiday for the foreseeable future need to fully investigate where they are travelling and the potential risks involved. If for example, they are travelling to Italy, this has to be an absolute necessary travel plan. They should also keep up to date with government bans and delays to travelling, as these are expected in the forthcoming future.

### 3. An employee has come back positive

Closure of the workplace is not recommended, but if employees can work from home, this is a possible outcome. Dependent on location, management should contact a public health body. Who in return should contact with a protection team to discuss the case and advise on precautions and measures which should be taken. A risk assessment will be taken with the outcome on advice regarding isolation, cleaning and the rest.

### 4. An employee is suspected of coronavirus

There is no need for closure. Recommend the employee to self-isolate and await confirmation or refutation. 

### 5. An employee has had contact with a confirmed case

Again, contact a public health body for advice. Contact if an employee has had contact with a confirmed case with:

Close face-to-face contact or touching
Talking with or being coughed on
Anyone who has cleaned up bodily fluids
Contact with close friendship groups or workgroups
Living with 

### 6. Handling post, packages and food

There is no perceived risk increase in handling external goods.

### 7. Certifying absence

Legally, medical evidence is not needed for the first week of illness. After this, it is up to the employee’s discretion if they require evidence from the employee. This is not a usual situation and if employers need further advice on sickness, self-isolation and absence contact the relevant government body.

### 8. Discrimination

As the coronavirus originated in South-East Asia, there is room for potential discrimination of these groups. Employers need to be aware of direct and indirect discrimination. Employers need to have proper discrimination and grievance procedures in place. Action must be taken swiftly.

The coronavirus is more than likely to increase in volume and spread in the forthcoming future. This means these factors and situations are also likely to increase in likelihood. Make sure to be clued up on these outcomes and act swiftly and correctly.


A helping hand digesting the public health information surrounding coronavirus. Helping employers plan and respond to coronavirus.


Helping employers plan and respond to coronavirus

Guidance for Employers to Plan and Respond to COVID-19

Helping employers respond to coronavirus

Guidance for Employers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

We’ve all been there. We are walking into our new job, nervous as anything, wondering how it will go when you meet your new colleagues. You feel like the onus is on you, but realistically it should be on the employer to make you feel welcome. Welcoming a new employee isn't the hardest task, but it sure is important. Here are some great ways to welcome a new employee into your company…

## **How to welcome a new employee in your company?**

![Welcoming a new employee in your company: How to?](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/6R50frkavn90zGRtU6K34w/1b122b81b884056df87b5b36a3e8a736/Welcoming_A_New_Employee.png)

### **Personal Colleague**

Whenever you’ve got a new hire coming in, think about assigning them a buddy to help get them through the first day or so. Get this person to be the new hire’s first port of call. Show them round the place, show who’s who, show what’s where, go out for lunch and give them the information they need or ask for. As a note, although this buddy system is aimed towards an individual, other colleagues should take their time to help out and start building a relationship with the new employee.

### **Company Culture Immersion**

There are loads of ways to immerse your employee into the new company culture. A mission and values presentation. A brief history lesson on the company.

### **Warn Your Staff**

You need to let your staff know about the new employee. Ask them to introduce themselves and make the new recruit feel welcome. Maybe you could let your employees know a few bits about the new recruit, so they feel more at home when they first came. Maybe their name and where they come from?

### **Lunch and Learn**

This is a great way to make the employee feel wanted on the first day, but also offers them an opportunity to meet some of their colleagues. On their first day, don’t let the employee go and eat on their own. Get someone to take the colleague out to really get to know them, or if you prefer get a group of you to go out.

### **End of Week Review**

We talk about [feedback](https://www.peoplegoal.com/guides/360-feedback-the-essential-guide) all the time. It should be an important part of the process from the word ‘go’. By the end of the first week, the employee will have answered twenty questions but still have a million unanswered ones. Go through an end of week review, covering all the employee wants to know, finding out how they are feeling and how you see the next few weeks playing out.

### **Have a Proper Process in Place**

Onboarding. Onboarding. [Onboarding](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/onboarding-a-new-employee). A super important process, and one you need to get [right](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/onboarding-for-new-hires-how-to-make-it-a-success-story). This should be in place long before the new recruit comes. Its an important process to ensure engagement and motivation at your organization. We’ve written extensively about onboarding and recommend giving some of the articles a quick read.

It's particularly daunting for a new hire starting at your organization. The pressure of new work, new colleagues, new managers and a new environment. Help welcome them better into your organization with these tips!

We've all been there. Walking into a new company on our first day and being super nervous. But welcoming a new employee isn't hard. Help them out! 

Welcoming a new employee is easier than being the new employee yourself! Help out your new hires as much as you can.

Need Help Welcoming a New Employee in your Company?

Welcoming a new employee in your company: How to?

It's tough being a new hire. Help these people out!

Welcoming a New Employee into Your Company: a How To

Communication is important. There is no getting around it. It is the one essential pillar in an effective organization. Without communication, the world and all the organizations in it would stand still. Communication skills are arguably, the most important set of skills you can have as a manager. But why is it so important. ‘Drop this spiel about why it’s important’, and tell me I hear you say. So let’s give you a quick overview as to why [communication](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/workplace-communication-can-suffer-when-individuals) is so essential.

- Improves Business Performance
- Builds Teamwork
- Improves Customer Service
- Improves Customer Loyalty
- Organizational Growth
- Enhances Creativity
- Improves Knowledge Sharing
- Builds Strong Company Culture

## 8 Communication Skills Every Manager Needs

In the past we've discussed the top characteristics of a [good manager](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/7-characteristics-of-a-good-manager), and the traits of a [bad manager](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/manager-characteristics-to-avoid). But what are some of the key communication skills that every manager needs? Here we list our top 8 skills that every manager needs.

![8 Communication Skills Every Manager Needs](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/5422BtXH8hEui8t8JHsi4f/afdb9bc71fbd3d3eadad7f02f61ce376/Communication_Styles.png)

### __Rapport Building__

A key skill in team-building and developing good, effective interpersonal relationships. The ability to build rapport with people is essential and will help to create a positive and safe working environment. Regular, supportive communication is needed to develop a positive working rapport with people.

### __Active Listening Skills__

How are your active listening skills? Do you interrupt people? Are you waiting for your turn to listen? Are you really listening to others? Your team needs to know that you are listening to them, that you recognize their points of view and that you will put some points into action. Active listening means giving an individual or team your full attention, noting and responding to verbal and non-verbal cues.

### __Clarity__

Providing clarity through your communication is an essential skill that is likely to lead to goal success from everyone in your team. Be efficient with your language. Get the message across and don’t waste time being floral, which is bound to make people confused.

### __Showing Understanding__

As I’m sure you know, communication isn’t a one-way street. You need to listen to others and put yourself in their shoes. Understand their perspective, what are their arguments, why may they have this position? Different people have different opinions, different communication styles and they may prefer informal or formal styles.

### __Flexibility__

Being able to talk to a range of people is imperative in any professional life. People are different. Different ages, different likes, different backgrounds, different levels of seniority. Being able to communicate effectively with all these people is a key skill.


### __Dealing with Conflict__

Whether you like it or not, conflict is an inevitable element of life. Conflict at work is just the same. How you deal with such conflict is in your control. Using certain communication styles is an effective method for dealing with conflict. One of the greatest skills to deal with conflict resolution is communication. However, conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing and as such de-escalation isn’t always the best option. Conflict can give rise to different viewpoints, changes in direction and creativity. Managing conflict to your benefit is a key skill that few possess. Communication is a key element in this.

### __Being Available__

We are currently in the era of hot-desking, gig workers, remote working and open offices, it’s not good enough just to have an ‘open door’ policy. You need to convey the message that as your employees’ manager, you are always available. In-person, over the phone or digitally. Being available for your employees when and where they need you, is an important communication dimension for a manager.

### __Assertiveness__

Assertiveness is a key communication skill. Assertiveness means expressing yourself clearly and effectively. It doesn’t mean steamrolling other people’s points of view or controlling the conversation. Being a [leader](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/leaders-are-born-not-made) means being assertive in an effective manner.

Communication is the cornerstone of organizational effectiveness. It is arguably the most important skill to have. Do you, as a manager, evoke these communication skills? Or is it time to improve on them?


What are the top communication skills every manager needs and why are they important? Have a read to see if you agree with our thoughts. 

Communication skills are arguably the most important skill repertoire you can have as a manager. We think these communication skills are the most important.

Top Communication Skills Every Manager Needs

What are the top communication skills every manager needs and why are they important? Have a read to see if you agree with our thoughts.  

8 Communication Skills Every Manager Needs

What are the key communication skills every manager needs?

## What is burnout?

Burnout is the state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion. Burnout is caused by prolonged and excessive stress. Symptomology of burnout includes exhaustion, extended fatigue, lower concentration levels, attention deficits, reduced performance levels and struggles with initiative and imagination. Individuals who are struggling to cope with workplace stress are the most at risk of burnout.

Different sources will give you different interpretations of burnout. The most commonly accepted amount of stages are 5 and 12. Let’s go through them quickly.

    

---


## The 5 Stage Model

Recently, [Calmer](https://www.thisiscalmer.com/blog/5-stages-of-burnout) adopted and adapted a model of burnout devised by Bob Veninga and Jim Spradley. Here are the five stages they outlined:

### __Honeymoon Phase__

The honeymoon phase is characterized by high job satisfaction, energy, commitment, and creativity. The pertinent point here is the choice of coping strategies when the inevitable stressors of one’s job become apparent. If the coping patterns are effective and positive then burnout should be avoided. If however, these strategies are not enacted, then burnout is a possibility.

### __Stress Onset__ 

The second stage of burnout begins when stress begins to become apparent. Not every day, but some. It is the awareness of stress on different days which signifies the onset of stress.

### __Chronic Stress__

This is the experience of stress on a daily basis. Signified by a marked continuous change in stress and motivation levels.

### __Burnout__ 

This stage, symptomology becomes more critical.
Habitual Burnout - The symptomology of burnout is so ingrained in an individual’s life, they are more likely to be labeled with habitual burnout.

### __Habitual Burnout__

The symptomology of burnout is so ingrained in an individual’s life, they are more likely to be labeled with habitual burnout.


---



## The 12 Stage Model

The 12 stage model of burnout was developed by psychologists Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North. Here are the stages they outlined:

### __The Compulsion to Prove Oneself__ 

A desire to continuously demonstrate individual worth.

### __Working Harder__

Inability to leave work at home.

### __Neglecting Needs__

Neglecting basic needs i.e eating properly or getting enough sleep.

### __Displacement of Conflicts__

Dismissing problems that may threaten us.

### __Revision of Values__

Values that were previously important are changed to fit a work focus.

### __Denial of Emerging Problems__ 

Intolerance to problems which if not dealt with, will manifest.

### __Withdrawal__

Stress relievers are dismissed, i.e. social life, etc.

### __Odd Behavioural Changes__

Irregular changes in behavior.

### __Depersonalization__

Seeing oneself and others as unimportant.

### __Inner Emptiness__

Feeling empty inside.

### __Depression__

A vast topic, generally defined as severe despondency and dejection

### __Burnout Syndrome__

Mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.


---


## 6 Ideas to Prevent Burnout

![6 Tips to Prevent Work Burnout](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/8fp55D20MWTqtUCg4EKlF/30d2655c209c7d1fd2367cca23a16bdd/WORKPLACE_BURNOUT.png)

### __Perform a Job Analysis__

Experiencing work overload on a daily basis isn’t nice, and it certainly isn’t healthy. Perhaps a job analysis will help you to quell this overload. Job analysis is the culmination of techniques used to determine the content of a job. The content of a job includes the roles, activities, attributes, and requirements. A job analysis will help clarify what your remit is. What is expected and what is not. Helping ease the work overload you are experiencing.

### __Regular Exercise__

Exercise is an excellent stress reliever, helps to create a sense of well being and is an excellent way to get your mind of work and the focus on you. Making sleep, exercise and rest a regular part of your working life plays an important role in avoiding burnout and staying healthy. Exercise results in increased energy, productivity, and creativity. Exercise helps you to get a good night’s sleep. When can you get some exercise in? At work, at lunch, after work?

### __Stress Management Tactics__

Why not face stress head-on? Using stress management tactics to reduce stress immediately or to prevent it from affecting you. So, what strategies can you use? The NHS recommend these tactics for dealing with stress:

- Be Active
- Take Control
- Connect with People
- Personal Downtime
- Challenge Yourself
- Avoid Unhealthy Habits
- Help Others
- Positive Mindset
- [Work Smarter, Not Harder](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/work-smarter-not-harder)

### __Mindfulness__

One of the best ways to avoid burnout is to have a focus on mindfulness. Mindfulness is a type of meditation involving silent relaxation, listening to your thoughts and focusing attention on you. Plenty of apps have now been created to help you along your way, including: Headspace and Calm.

### __Support Workplace Recovery__

Employers can develop a workplace recovery plan to help support employees who may be experiencing burnout. You may wish to integrate accommodation strategies into your workplace recovery plan. You can find such strategies [here](https://www.workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com/managing-workplace-issues/Accommodation-Strategies).

### __Keep to your Work Hours, and Schedule Breaks__

Usually, an accompanying factor of burnout is the inability to leave work in the office and on time. Make sure to keep to your work hours, schedule breaks during the day.


---



Workplace burnout is dangerous and unwanted. Use these strategies to help prevent burnout and manage stress. Use one or all of these strategies and see which are effective for you.


What is workplace burnout? Why is it dangerous? How does it manifest? And how can you prevent workplace burnout and manage stress effectively? Find out here. 

How to Prevent Work Burnout?

6 Tips to Prevent Work Burnout

What is work burnout and how can you prevent its appearance?

## **9 Ways to Support your Learning at Work**

We all want to be more effective at work right? So how can we do it? One of the best methods is to implement different learning strategies. This makes you a more effective problem solver, helps you to be malleable when it comes to solutions and so much more. Lets have a quick look at some of the ways we can learn at work.

![9 Ways to Support your Learning at Work](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4xv0O5Tb9dS6WUleZ7Fs23/baadd13b4932d6d58269066f0dee514a/LEARN_AT_WORK.png)

### **Mentoring**

How can [mentoring](https://www.peoplegoal.com/glossary/mentoring) help you learn? Mentoring can help develop leadership skills. Mentoring help to develop your strengths further and address your weaknesses. Mentoring provides you with someone who you can discuss difficult decisions with, and who has experience. Mentoring helps you to connect with a wider range of people and helps you to develop your interpersonal skills.

### **Role Models**

Having an individual to look up to, to base some decisions off and someone to strive up to can only be a good thing. It helps to motivate your learning and development. Good role models influence and motivate us. They are a guide for self-improvement.

### **Best Practice Learning Strategies**

Back to school with this one. What are the most effective practices to utilize when trying to learn? Here’s the low-down:

- **Chunk** - Break down the learning material into chunks. This makes the material more manageable.
- **Taking Breaks** - Experts suggest that attention span and concentration last around 45 minutes. Thus take short breaks around the 45 – 60 minute mark, to optimize learning.
- **Context Dependent Learning** - The best way to learn and remember things is to try and keep the context at time of learning and repetition similar.
- **Attention** - Try and reduce distractions so you can boost focus.
- **Spacing** - Break up your practice. Don’t try and learn it all in one block. This isn’t as effective as breaking the learning and placing breaks/spaces between learning phases.
- **Multi-faceted approach** - Mix up your techniques, material, learning approach and more, to get a balanced strategy when learning.

### **Emotional Tying**

Try and find good emotional reasoning as to why you want to learn. Ask yourself what will it do for you? Why is it needed? Is this the best time for it?

### **Making Use of your Procrastination Time**

What do you do in your procrastination time? Can you mix it up? Can you give some of this time to your new learning? Every little counts, especially when it comes to learning your new skill or knowledge.

### **Habituate Learning**

Integrate your learning into your daily routine. Set realistic aims regularly for your learning. Once acquiring the skill, keep it, and move onto find another skill. Keep on developing and improving. Keep on moving forward.

### **Stretch Assignments**

Every so often its good to stretch yourself. Go beyond your capabilities. A stretch assignment is a task given to employees which is above their experience, knowledge or skill level. It challenges employees by making them uncomfortable. It helps employees to learn, develop and grow. You don’t have to wait for your employers to give you a stretch assignment, stretch yourself!

### **Ask Questions**

‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get’. Ask questions, absorb knowledge. You’re not going to develop unless you ask questions. You’re not going to improve without asking for help. Don’t be afraid of asking silly questions, they all help.

### **Establish Support Pillars**

Find a support pillar. You need someone to get advice from, someone to share your concerns with and someone who has been through it all. They will be the perfect support and mentor for you when learning. Build a good relationship with your pillar and they’ll be there for life.

Do you recognise any of the ways that you learn above? Are there strategies you didn’t think of? Strategies that you are surprised to hear about? Strategies you might consider using? Whatever the answer to these questions it is always useful to know of the different methods used by people. Consider using these strategies in different situations to see if there effective for you.

How can you learn at work more effectively? Needing some help implementing new learning strategies into your work? Look no further...


We all want to be more effective at work right? So how can we do it? Here are some ways to help you learn at work.

Supporting your Learning at Work: How to do it?

How can you learn at work more effectively? Needing some help implementing new learning strategies into your work? Look no further...

9 Ways to Support your Learning at Work

How can you make learning more effective at work?

Human resources should __focus on measuring employee performance as well as managing performance, the efficiency of the manager-employee relationships, if the performance goals are being achieved or the levels of employee engagement and satisfaction__. 

It is a task more complex you might initially assume. Therefore, it is important to dedicate the necessary time and resources to make sure your evaluation is going to help you evaluate the current situation, identify the areas necessary to focus on to improve the performance of your business and develop an adequate strategy to reach those goals.

____

## 5 Tips to Measure the Effectiveness of Performance Management System

![tips to measure performance management effectiveness](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/cKNRHfKWI9COgh3xF6RTl/470b3a2e06ad99f5c7bc150930c17558/tips_to_measure_performance_management_effectivenness.png)

### 1. Benchmark best performance management system practices

Research the best practices and appropriate measures to inform yourself what success looks like in performance management in general and your industry. It is important to dedicate time to research to understand what success looks like.

Examine success stories of companies similar to yours, explore and analyze the current performance management trends to provide yourself with a comprehensive understanding of the best practices.

____

### 2. Define organizational goals and objectives

What is it that your company attempts to achieve? Are you trying to improve organizational performance or individual performance? Or are you focusing on increasing employee motivation and engagement?

In order to make the plan effective it is important it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. To find out more about how to set such a SMART goal read our essential guide for SMART goals.

____


### 3. Establish Your Success Measures

Once you have established your goals you need to define measures to identify if your objectives were met. Some of the usual measures of performance management effectiveness include:

-  __Increase or decrease in profitability__

At the end of the day increasing profitability and growing revenues is the aim of every business.

- __Productivity rate__

It is calculated as the total output of your employees divided by the hours worked. 

- __Quality of personal goals and rate of their achievement__

Assessing the quality of goals; how SMART are they, and whether or not are they aligned with the wider organizational objectives.

- __The response rate of employees and managers to performance management activities__

What is the response rate to the employee performance reviews? How many of your employees successfully set their goals? Does management provide constructive ongoing feedback?

- __Employee engagement survey results__

Evaluating and measuring the levels of employee engagement will provide you with an ample understanding of the effectiveness of your performance management process.

- __Performance review results__

If there is a significant number of negative performance reviews and underperforming employees it is a sign that there is something wrong with your performance management system.

- __Employee turnover rates__

It is the number or the percentage of the employees that leave your organization and need to be replaced. The rate can help you evaluate the cost to hire for budgeting purposes and highlight issues with management.

- __Employee satisfaction index__

It is based on three questions;

  1. How satisfied are your employees with their current workplace?
  2. How well does their current workplace meet their expectations?
  3. How close is the current workplace to their ideal one?

The employee rates each of the questions on a scale of 1 to 10 (one being the lowest score and 10 the best one). The Employee Satisfaction index is then calculated as ES= [((question mean value ÷ 3) – 1) ÷9]*100

___

### 4. Evaluate the Results

Based on the baseline you calculated and the benchmark you can justify if you are satisfied with the performance or not. 

Remember to acknowledge and celebrate success. Even if you are satisfied with your performance it is important to track and assess the progress on a regular basis. Performance management is a process that should be continuously measured and adjusted to meet the everchanging needs of your employees and business.

____

### 5. Take Action on the Results

Develop a strategy and [set new goals](https://www.peoplegoal.com/guides/smart-goals) on how to improve the deficient performance or problems in your performance management process. Make sure to make the new goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and with a clear timeline.

___

However, we are aware that implementing change in your organization can be challenging. Hence, we have created a guide to help you implement change in your organization. 

It is not an easy task to measure performance management system effectiveness. There are various aspects to consider when evaluating the performance management process. 

It is not an easy task to measure performance management system effectiveness. There are various aspects to consider when evaluating the performance process. 

How to measure performance management effectiveness and efficiency

measure performance management system effectiveness

## What is zero-discrimination?

__Zero discrimination day__ is an annual day celebrated on the __1st March__. Created by the UNAIDS Executive Director, Micheal Sidibé in 2014. The day __celebrates and promotes equality__. It aims to engender people to practice equality throughout their daily activities. The day is particularly prominent for organizations combating HIV and AIDS. Zero discrimination day has now been adopted by campaigners speaking out about LGBTQ+ discrimination. The day aims to promote equality before the law and in practice throughout all of the member countries of the UN.

Zero-discrimination day aims to show people how they can become informed about and promote inclusion, peace and compassion for all. The emblem for zero-discrimination day highlights this. The movement uses a butterfly, which is suggested to represent a message of transformation and trying to encourage people to share their stories.

This year zero-discrimination day falls on Monday the 1st March. The focus <a href='https://www.unaids.org/en/2020_ZDD_campaign' target='blank'>this year </a>is on discrimination against women and girls. So what can you do in your organization to celebrate zero-discrimination day? We’ve got some ideas for you, but first we recommend reading the UNAIDS zero-discrimination <a href='https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2017-zero-discrimination-day_en.pdf' target='blank'>booklet</a>.

____

## How to make zero discrimination day count at work?

### Workshop

Why not schedule a company wide equality training workshop? Equality and diversity training will not only highlight the issue of discrimination, it helps align people to a goal of an inclusive environment, which respects and values everyone in the workplace. It enables people to work together effectively and creates a healthy environment of inclusivity.

### A gentle reminder

Signs, posters, a little email. All gentle reminders that today is zero-discrimination day. Alternatively, have posters up all year round. What’s the point of having just for one day? Why not have gentle reminders available to employees all year round. You can design your own posters, or UNAIDS has some <a href='https://www.unaids.org/en/2019_ZDD_campaign/posters' target='blank'> ready made</a> for you.

### A talk from a keynote speaker

What about a keynote speaker? A keynote speaker is a talk from a known individual or expert, which establishes an underlying theme. This could be integrated into other zero-discrimination activities, i.e. a workshop. Keynote speakers usually raise interest in a specific event or topic. Think about bringing a speaker who has previous experience working in fields dealing with discrimination, someone who has been subject to discrimination, an academic with a particular focus on discrimination or someone with a very different perspective on discrimination to the norm.

____

## 5 tips to implement to promote zero discrimination culture at your company

![Ideas to Make Zero-Discrimination Day Work](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/sTmYFPU3I4vlHL0AqL7LU/3341903fe72700f1bc7d54b36a4a0398/Zero_Discrimination_Culture.png)

### 1. Effective Recruitment

Recruiting new staff is exciting. If you’re just starting to recruit staff, you're entering a brave new world. If you are a big company you can always improve your hiring process. Perhaps the first step to promoting a zero-discrimination culture, is to implement an effective recruitment strategy which avoids discrimination. How do you do that? Firstly, advertise your job widely, and not in singular places which attract similar groups. Secondly, in the person specification and criteria, avoid loaded language and be objective for the role. Don’t describe a certain person, describe the role.Try and avoid [unconscious biases](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/10-examples-of-unconscious-bias) throughout the recruitment process During interviews their are given questions you cannot ask, i.e questions based on age or prospective children. Finally it is imperative that you maintain a record of your decision making and contact with potential employees.

### 2. Promote Supportive Dialogue

Creating an environment which is inquisitive and open to supportive dialogue is bound to help drive you towards zero-discrimination culture. Try and create a culture where people can ask about others’ backgrounds and cultures, and an environment where people feel comfortable explaining said background to others. A big misconception is that with a lack of knowledge comes the fact that you may want to try and avoid these types of conversations. But without encouraging people to learn from others, you can’t reach a point of inclusivity at work.

### 3. Training and Awareness Workshops

Regular training, diversity, awareness and anti-discrimination are great ways to maintain a zero-discrimination culture. Training helps employees become more aware of unconscious biases, unknown knowledge and other barriers to inclusivity. Training of this type can motivate positive behaviours and change attitudes in the workplace. It also helps to create a culture of respect, diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.

### 4. Equality, Diversity and Discrimination Policies

It is essential, in order to achieve zero-discrimination, to have proper equality, diversity and anti-discrimination procedures and policies. They are needed to protect employees from individual discrimination and structural discrimination. They are needed to protect the opportunities and rights of different groups of people. Make sure to have proper structure, processes and policies in place. You can have a look at ours [here](https://www.peoplegoal.com/resources/policies/diversity-and-inclusion-policy).

### 5. Understanding Biases

Making people aware of their unconscious bias is tough. Training and workshops are a great method to try and make this happen. By promoting awareness of possible biases, it makes people more receptive to others’ position. By not addressing unconscious bias it can lead to unintentional discrimination and poor decision making.

____

So with zero-discrimination day just around the corner it’s time to think about how you can create a culture of openness, diversity and inclusivity. Think about trying these strategies for zero-discrimination day, and also for creating a culture of zero-discrimination at your organization.

What and when is zero-discrimination day? What can we do as an organization to make zero-discrimination day work for us?

What can you do as an organization to make zero-discrimination day work? And how does one achieve a culture of zero discrimination?

Ideas for Zero-Discrimination Day

Ideas to Make Zero-Discrimination Day Work

What and when is zero-discrimination day?

## How to deal with negative feedback?

Recieving negative feedback is something that happened to all of us at some point. What we have *not* all experienced, and I can look back on previous personal experience, is the best way to deal with it. How can you respond to someone looking upon your work negatively? What steps are best to take? __No one likes receiving negative feedback, but it is there for our benefit__. Now, it is possible to reason unfair negative feedback. But the focus of today's blog is to look at how to best respond to negative feedback, not how to respond to unfair feedback. With that covered, lets look at some steps you may want to take in order to get the most from negative feedback.

____

## 10 Steps to Help Deal with Negative Feedback

![10 Steps to Help Deal with Negative Feedback](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4v2H5q0BI5IOP7TFgtX5sU/c16a7d27088bcb1511e9fae13b531774/Negative_Feedback.png)

### 1. Pause First

This one happens to us all, so don’t feel like you are on your own. The natural reaction to any criticism is to respond defensively. This is true not just for workplace-based feedback. Now, we aren’t telling you not to respond defensively, as this is really hard to control. However, what you can control is pausing. 

Pause when you hear the feedback. Listen to it. It may be the case that once you review the feedback, you can start to understand your supervisor's feedback.

### 2. Review the Feedback

Evaluate the feedback as objectively as possible. This will help you get the most out of your feedback. So, how do you do it? Firstly, listen to your reviewer. Ask for evidence and examples of the described behaviors, so that you can get more clarity on the feedback.

### 3. Negative Feedback is Positive!

There are so many reasons to view negative feedback in a positive light. Firstly, negative feedback means that your manager or supervisor cares about you. They want you to improve and they are motivated to see you develop. If they were not bothered, they would have given bland, neutral feedback.

Negative feedback is an eye-opener for you. It’s great to hear positive feedback and be [recognized](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-recognition-quotes)but negative feedback helps you to identify areas which need improving. While it may be bitter to swallow, if you want to improve, you need to hear what you’re not so good at.

### 4. Don’t React Defensively

During a feedback meeting, it is likely that you might feel slightly attacked when given negative feedback.

Reacting defensively is normal. You have a choice in your reaction though. Try not to respond with, ‘*that’s incorrect*’ or ‘*no, you’re wrong*’. Pause for a short-time, and come back with a measured response. Giving yourself time will allow you to process the feedback. It is rather easy to interpret comments in a way that they were not meant. Give yourself time to think, and come back measured.

### 5. Don’t React Impulsively

Receiving particularly negative, emotion inducing or critical feedback is tough. You may want to react  in the moment to defend yourself. In order to make feedback more effective and in order for you to look professional, try to avoid reacting impulsively when hearing critical feedback.

### 6. Ask for Exemplary Behavior

If your manager has given you areas where you need to improve, ask for specifics. Ask for where you haven’t been up to scratch. Why weren’t you up to scratch in that area and how do you improve? Ask for exemplary behaviour in that area so you can give yourself a target to reach.

### 7. Ask Questions

Asking questions is particularly useful. Firstly, it follows on from the classic saying, ‘*if you don’t ask, you don’t get*’. If you don’t ask [questions](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/what-feedback-questions-to-ask), you won’t receive the desired benefits.

- __What areas aren’t I improving in?__
- __How can I get better at X?__
- __What do I need to get better at this? __
- __Who is an expert in this field?__
- __Can I work more closely with an individual to improve?__

…

Secondly, asking questions eliminates the perception of defensiveness or impulsivity. Instead questions allow you to pause, and provide you with the opportunity to understand and clarify feedback.

### 8. Ask for Time

Ask for a bit of time to review the feedback. Managers shouldn’t expect you to assimilate negative feedback and respond immediately. We aren’t telling you to take a few weeks and come back to your manager. It is essential to respond quickly, but ask for time to respond appropriately, and in order for you to properly assimilate the negative feedback.

Asking for time prevents you from reacting defensively or impulsively. It also conveys the message to your manager, that you are properly considering what they have to say. And for you, it gives you time to consider the validity and appropriateness of the feedback.

### 9. Take Action

Following on from the point that negative feedback is actually positive, you need to take action. Take accountability for the areas you need to improve. Own your prior actions and take action for the areas which have been identified as your weaknesses.

### 10. Move on

An important one to finish, __try not to get hung up on the criticism__. Do not get too down on negative feedback. Absorb the reasoning, take on board the lessons, implement actions to improve and move on more positive from the feedback.

Negative feedback is not easy to hear at first. And we aren’t saying it should be. however negative feedback when provided [correctly](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/6-principles-of-constructive-feedback), has the potential to do a lot of good. We’ve tried to provide some steps to make sure you get the most out of the feedback if it is ever negative.

Receiving negative feedback is never nice. But it often can be a positive experience. Here's how to make negative feedback benefit you.

Receiving negative feedback is never nice. But there are ways to make it benefit you. Here's how to make negative feedback benefit you.

10 Steps to Help Deal with Negative Feedback

360 reviews have become a popular part of the continuous performance management cycle because they allow us to __assess a broader picture of our behavior and skills__. These can be consequently discussed in our regular employee-manager meetings. We all have blindspots in our work life that impact our professional development. 360 reviews that are __focused on personal performance improvement__, not performance outcomes, can be an incredibly valuable tool for encouraging new perspectives and __developing skills__ in a long term.

___

## What is a 360 review?

A 360 review (also often called [360 degree feedback](https://www.peoplegoal.com/glossary/360-feedback)) asks for individual assessments across many different work relationships. 360 reviews provide an insightful, broad-picture assessment of an individual's behavior from multiple touchpoints. While most organizations are familiar with annual employee performance appraisals, __a 360 review is not a performance review__! 

360 reviews are personal and help employees to develop their business and interpersonal skills, and shouldn't focus on the delivery of targets and outcomes. Everybody can improve no matter what level they're at. 360 reviews are therefore useful for everyone from the CEO to middle management to entry level employees.

___

## Who participates in a 360 review?

There is no set formula for who should participate, but always keep in mind that the 360 review is about the individual. You want to gather 360 evaluations from __participants at multiple levels__ in the employee's working life. Also be aware that you want enough participants to give a broad performance feedback picture for the individual, but not too many that you overwhelm everyone with the number of feedback reports they need to write. Generally __4-7 reviewers per employee__ works well, and these should include:

- Supervisors (project-based or dotted line managers)
- Colleagues
- Subordinates
- Senior leaders
- Clients and external suppliers (if relevant to the employee's role)

![360 Review Participants](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/5ZeTrwwm19yAv5H6TwEzsT/79446e7caab8810456232302c7b82a02/360_Review_Participants_PeopleGoal.png)

___

## Why are 360 reviews useful?

Flatter organizational structures can see managers and team leads supervising upwards of 20 individuals at a time, and that can create difficulties in assessment when you're relying on just a direct manager's feedback.

360 reviews provide a more __rounded view of an employee's behaviors and contributions__. Meeting one's targets is important. However, if they get there by undermining fellow employees and causing stress for others, both they and their manager need to be aware of that and implement steps to improve their interpersonal skills.

Your colleagues can also have areas of skills and expertise you're not aware of, and can provide really useful suggestions for your own professional development that are as important as a direct manager's plan.

____

## The 360 review process

- Administrators create a set of review questions to assess skills, competencies and development areas for all employees.
- Employees (in consultation with their line manager) nominate participants to provide feedback.
- Managers receive and collate all feedback.
- Managers deliver summary feedback to the employee and develop an action plan together.
- Development and progress from the last 360 review cycle is discussed.

___

## Questions to include in a 360 review

360 review questions should focus on __skills development, interpersonal relationships and an individual's demonstration of competencies and company values__. Keep your questions short, simple and focused on one core area at a time. Make sure that your 360 review doesn't take participants longer than 15-20 minutes to complete. Otherwise you will have people losing interest in the process, especially over multiple review cycles.

Some of the skills you can assess are:

- Teamwork
- Communication
- Organizational values
- Problem solving
- Leadership

You can also grab a few of our [general feedback questions](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/what-feedback-questions-to-ask) that will help you to design a 360 review form across a few different business areas.

---

### New to 360 reviews? Try our feedback phrases builder!


<div align="center">
  <iframe
    src="https://www.peoplegoal.com/feedback-templates"
    scrolling="yes" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px"
    height="460px" width="800px" allowfullscreen>
  </iframe>
</div>

---

## Tips when creating 360 reviews

- __Keep it short__ (no long-form surveys).
- Consider __start, stop and continue feedback__. Ask reviewers to identify what an employee should start doing (where they can improve), what they should stop doing (critical areas hindering their work) and what they should continue doing (what's going well).
- __Train and coach__ individuals to give and receive constructive feedback well. People can be reluctant to participate when they've never done a 360 review before and don't have the right tools to help them. Some resources to help you with training include:

[Examples of positive feedback for colleagues](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/positive-feedback-for-colleagues-examples-and-tips) <br>
[How to ask for feedback for yourself](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-ask-for-feedback) <br>
[How to give feedback to a supervisor](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-give-manager-feedback-5-examples) <br>

- Take the time to properly explain __why you're running a 360 review__, what the outcomes will be and what levels of confidentiality are enforced.
- Always follow up with __face to face meetings__. Receiving critical feedback can be tough, and it's a manager's job to summarize key themes and deliver these in an empathetic and encouraging way.
- __Don't feed 360 reviews in to compensation and bonus plans__. Doing so almost guarantees you'll stop getting honest feedback when people are aware that their bonus is on the line.
- Get __senior leadership buy-in__ to the 360 review process. When leadership is modelling the behavior they want to see in the organization, it's 10 times easier to get employees to understand the importance and benefits of 360 reviews.

---

When properly constructed you can deliver a great 360 review process that really helps individuals to develop their professional skills. Always remember that the feedback loop is continuous, and you can improve on every feedback cycle. If you'd like to learn more about the history of 360 degree feedback and why it has such a big impact on organizations, check out our [Essential Guide](https://www.peoplegoal.com/guides/360-feedback-the-essential-guide).

A great 360 review encourages employees to develop their professional and interpersonal skills and highlights the blindspots we all miss in our own behavior.

How to Deliver a Successful 360 Review

360 Review

Workflows are the ways people get a task done, the vast majority of the time these can be illustrated as __a series of steps that need to be completed sequentially in a diagram or alternatively a checklist__. This helps individuals breakdown and visualize the steps that need to be taken to get a task done. You can execute a workflow as an individual, or if a task includes other people, they can also be incorporated into the process. Each workflow example starts by describing the overall goal of the process, which in turn summerizes what the workflow should achieve, and the context in which you may be able to automate this process.


This system can be hugely beneficial to the majority of human resources processes, as such we have put together 5 custom workflow examples for human resources processes. Each workflow example starts by describing the overall goal of the process, which in turn summarizes what the workflow should achieve, and the context in which you may be able to automate this process.


____

## Hiring an employee

There’s no right or wrong way to conduct your recruitment, so this system can be manipulated as a workflow constantly. This example changes focus from filling a vacancy to responding to a job application, which makes more sense when there are few applicants for positions that generally stay open. It gives you an overarching view of what needs to be done for an employee to be successfully recruited. Once you have advertised your job, and had applications sent in, the second step in the hiring process is evaluating the CV. This will primarily be completed by the talent manager, however those CV's that stand out will usually be put forward in front of the individual that will be managing the new hire. 

Once the CV's have been evaluated and a certain number of them approved, the next stage will be to plan the interview. Considering you will most likely need more than one person's opinion on hiring an individual, you will need to organize three calendars accordingly to find the best suitable time to conduct the interviews. Conducting the interviews in bulk can work better as you can set aside a whole morning for interviews and get them done in slots. Once you've find a time that works for both the interviewee and the interviewer, you'll need to interview the potential hire. During this stage, it would be useful to take notes to refer to in the future when you are making the decision. Once you have conducted all the interviews of the individual candidates, you will need to decide which candidates are succesful, and which are going to be rejected. Once this has been decided, you can draft up an offer of employment which will need to include information along the line of; a job title, job description, reporting structure, salary, starting date, benefits information and eligibility, acknowledgement of offer. 

![worflow1 peoplegoal](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4iDXegqGXDueMBGPCK6VcZ/e33ac1b64c648f6f8eed8e7723a4a0ce/worflow1_peoplegoal.png)

____

## Approve Vacation Request:

Perhaps we should have started with this as it’s the most basic, but even approving a vacation request can have a workflow. The greater purpose of using such a system within workflow software is to be able to track the steps each individual took within the process for future reference. 

Here you can see the simple steps incorporated, starting with an employee submitting a vacation request. The employee's, manager with then be notified that the employee has submitted the vacation request and will have to analyze the request and decide if the employee has enough days holiday left, and if the vacation time requested will suit the running of the business. If if the vacation time requested is feasible, then the manager can approve the request, or deny the request if not. Either way the employee will then receive a notification dependant on the outcome. 

![workflow2 peoplegoal](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4sZoGZXucqkKeCWrXoeamz/0eda45006e74e0035ff678feebd2d62e/workflow2_peoplegoal.png)

____

## Onboarding

The onboarding breaks down into a series of phases, each of which includes a number of parallel preparation tasks. The key milestones are signing a contract with a start date, the first day in the office, and the end of an initial trial period. Nonetheless, prior to the onboarding, an employer should gather the future employees details necessary for employment, this can range from national insurance numbers to proof of residency. The next step would be conducted by the hiring manager, and will incorporate the pre-employment checks, this can range from vetting a new hires social media, to a full Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). 

The next step - new joiner activities- will incorporate the more social side of onboarding, this can range from providing the assets necessary to do the job such as a laptop or a car, to introducing the individual to the team they will be working with, and then taking them out for lunch to go through some icebreakers. The confirmation stage is necessary for the employee to confirm that they have everything they need, both material and knowledgeable to complete the tasks they have been set. The last stage 'Post-employment review' is a highly important aspect of onboarding, it's dependant on the employer as to the time scale of when this is undertaken, but usually this happens at the end of ones probation. This is essentially a check in to make sure the employee has everything they need to complete their work, and is coping well with the work they have been given. This opens up the conversation of what the next steps are to improve the employees performance. 

![workflow3 peoplegoal](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/1upsXM8F3DLC7rTH5yI8E8/2fcbe288a5b2b852bcf2bc9d9ea77605/workflow3_peoplegoal.png)

____

## Reimbursement of expenses

Reimbursing expenses is a vital HR component of many big corporations, therefore having a process in place is key, and to control and approve all of this is a complex procedure, involving several departments. Creating a workflow process for this makes everything happen faster in additions to allowing cost control and cost analysis to check deviations or procedures that can lower costs. 

This begins with an employee submitting a reimbursement request for an expense they incurred to the whoever may be responsible, this is usually management. Management will then analyze the expense to judge whether or not the claim fulfils the necessary requirements, then approve or reject it. If approved, the necessary documentation will be needed to be sent to the individual(s) in charge of company finances who have the ability to reimburse an employee. Once the reimbursement has been paid, the employee will need to receive an email deposit receipt for their own reference. 

![workflow4 peoplegoal](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/qcqYXSAZ4te0DEDBCNDu9/f89b9f08fe759688fd4616379272c7d9/workflow4_peoplegoal.png)

____

## Employee offboarding

A perfect resignation procedure is quite significant for both employers and employees. As for the former, the staff are very important for company's long-term development and profit earning. So it's crucial for employers to retain talented workers and maintain image in exit procedure. A good resignation process not only ensures that relevant things concerning resignation are dealt with effectively but can also help to receive much useful feedback from resigning employees. Here is an example workflow for employee off-boarding. This has been broken down into phases, each of which incorporates specific details: 

__Phase 1__: The basic information to be submitted by the employee that is leaving the company such as name, team, manager, date of resignation, and an attachment of their letter of resignation. 

__Manager input__: A manager will need to acknowledge the change, and notify those who the change will affect, and start putting a plan into action for the handover. Furthermore they will need to analyze which documents (if any) the employee will need to fillout and send over before they leave. 

__Phase 2__: The employee will need to complete all the necessary documentation provided by management. This is dependant on your own organisational requirements, however it could include; NDA's, non compete agreements, benefits documents, and asset documentation. 

__Document & Asset Recovery__: This is an acknowledgement upon receiving the necessary documentation, and assets from the employee. 

__Phase 3__: Knowledge transfer. This is the process of the employee transferring any knowledge that they may need to such as client introductions, and research conducting, or project management if they are part of a project that is yet to be complete. 

__Knowledge transfer Acknowledgement__: The manager must acknowledge that all bases have been covered, and all necessary information passed over. 

__Final Stage__: Hold a farewell gathering for the employee, perhaps buy them a departing gift, or just say 'goodbye', its totally up to you. 

![workflow5 peoplegoal](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/6YcVDv2vGlZCdw9PmEiiGY/25e85ca3bbac3719c83164923cd7d8ee/workflow5_peoplegoal.png)



HR workflows are a great way to break down and visualize the steps that need to be taken to complete a task. They can be complex, so we have put together 5 workflow examples for you.

HR workflows are a great way to break down and visualize the steps that need to be taken to complete a task. 

5 Custom Workflow Examples for Human Resources Processes

HR workflows are a great way to break down and visualise the steps that need to be taken to complete a task. They can be complex, so we have put together 5 workflow examples for you.

## What is Employee Loyalty?

Employee loyalty is thought of as a generic term. But its actually a really important workplace concept, which organizations need to make sure they are doing the best they can to increase employee loyalty in the workplace. Employee loyalty can be defined as the extent to which employees are devoted to an organization. The extent to which they are devoted to an organization and believe that staying at the organization is in their best interest. 

Further, they are not actively seeking other employment. Employee loyalty is about reciprocity. Reciprocity between an employee and the employer. Wherein the employee feels wanted by the organization and in return continues to work to their best and is not seeking other work. Employee loyalty is a spectrum. From active disloyalty to active loyalty.

____

## Why is Employee Loyalty Important?

Maybe you are asking yourself why employee loyalty is important? Should you hope to boost loyalty organically? Or do you need to actively look at how you improve employee engagement? Employee loyalty is super important, here’s why?

![The benefits of employee loyalty](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/3dDrCZfT3pD3t6k7CUtBgS/d61eb6348173d2c62fc2fb5b8f485143/The_benefits_of_employee_loyalty.png)

- Loyal employees contribute the most to your productivity levels.
- Value creation
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Organizational Success
- Customer Loyalty
- Greater Employee Retention
- More engaged employees

___

## 5 Steps to Improve Employee Loyalty

We know that making employee loyalty strategy work can be tough. So we’ve got some top tips to help you out;

![5 steps to improve employee loyalty](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/1PSf0jQ1Lz72jLZW2aJk39/a4a3546f1b4648b74c095c568dd546fe/5_steps_to_improve_employee_loyalty.png)

### Invest in Progression, Education, and Training

One of the best ways to show employees you care about them is to invest in them. Invest in their progression by investing in education and training courses for them to enroll on. Provide education and training so that you show them you care about their development. Perhaps stagger your training so with greater experience you can do harder training courses. Or alternatively, make more challenging courses optional.

A little caveat, before investing in additional training, make sure you provide necessary training. A sure-fire way not to get loyal employees is to have no training at all. So, include the basics. What does the role mean? What equipment and systems training will be needed.

### Promote Internally

Hiring staff internally gives staff a clear message. You want them to progress and lead this company. Promoting internally will show your employees a clear career progression. It will show to them that you care and appreciate their work, and that you want them to succeed. Further, it shows that their hard work and loyalty is recognized and rewarded. This isn’t to say that external candidates shouldn’t be considered. Some positions will require external candidates. Consider having an unwritten policy of internal promotion in order to improve employee loyalty.

### Co-create your strategy

Your employee loyalty strategy shouldn’t be top-down. It shouldn’t be thought up and implemented purely by management and senior leaders. Your strategy should be vertically integrated. Using people from all around the organization and should have a heavy employee focus. Who knows what employees most want in order to become more loyal? The employees. 

Organizations that have a better understanding of what their employees want have the best chance of supporting them and making them feel wanted. Think about the things which will feed into loyalty. Goals, development, career progression, appreciation.

### Open communication and feedback channels

Create healthy communication and feedback channels with your employees. This is essential to the success of manager-employee relationships in the workplace. Try and make communication more open. Managers should meet with employees frequently to discuss development, satisfaction, goals, etc. 

As a manager, you will be able to identify key areas for development or issues that need addressing. Gallup research indicates that managers who invest time with their employees in order to build trust and positive relationships contribute 48% higher profits to companies.

### Control

So much to fit in this topic. What does control mean for loyalty? Let’s start with micro-management. Micro-management is the embodiment of overbearing control. The employee has no authority or scope for maneuverability in their work. Part of gaining employee loyalty is employee trust. Showing them that you trust them to do their work is necessary to gain loyalty. On the other end of the spectrum is [employee empowerment](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-empowerment). 

Employee empowerment is a sure-fire way to gain employee loyalty. It means giving employees a degree of autonomy, responsibility, and freedom to do their work. It is essentially ‘handing over the reins’ to the employee.

_____

Employee loyalty is essential to the success of any organization. Consider implementing these steps into your strategy to make yours a success.

Find out what is employee loyalty, the importance of employee loyalty and how to implement an effective program in your company.

Improve Employee Loyalty with these 5 Easy Steps

Employee loyalty

__If you're looking for a new performance management system for employees it's likely you've uncovered problems with your current system, or you've reached a point in your growing business where you need to implement one for the first time. Remember that human resources processes are about developing people. Sounds obvious, but many performance management systems fail to deliver results if you don't focus on the key component: your employees.__ 

## How does a performance management system benefit employees?

Performance management is not simply the annual appraisal. It should be a continuous part of a productive work cycle that encompasses __target setting, tracking, reflection and development__. Don't just replace your annual review process with an online process. Performance reviews on their own generally focus on the past, and when done poorly [the negativity that can creep in is extremely demoralizing](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/effects-of-performance-appraisal-on-employees-the-empirical-evidence).

Performance management for employees should be __continuous__, focusing on what's happening right now, what can be improved and what skills you should develop to further your career. A performance management system that looks ahead is far more motivating and results in:

- __Engagement__: feeling responsible for your own professional development fosters genuine engagement with your work, your colleagues and the business.
- __Timely feedback__: [82% of employees appreciate receiving feedback, regardless if it’s positive or negative](https://officevibe.com/employee-engagement-solution/employee-feedback#statistics). Regular feedback aimed at encouraging growth is a powerful motivator, and one that most employees actively seek out from colleagues and supervisors.
- __Role clarity__: getting visibility of the company's direction and aligning measurable objectives to that strategy allows you to see how you contribute in to your team and are valued at the organization.
- __Structured development__: a great performance management system focuses on employee growth, and gives individuals a structured coaching plan to develop the skills they need to progress.

---

## Benchmark your performance management system with employees

In order to implement successful performance management you need to understand __where and how your employees do their best work__. The easiest way to start? Talk to people! Before you go searching for a new system, you need to benchmark the effectiveness of your current performance management processes.  Find out what the issues are with your existing system - is it too complex, inflexible, difficult to use? Do employees feel that performance management keeps them motivated to do their best work? [Take our benchmarking survey to get you started](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l10JFW-stX2zbn-vp8idydUWsMpubhR6y64tzW4MUEo/copy).

![Performance Management System for Employees](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/GXTpSTPZn2bljqqfdmmpF/373fd7c1aa635b088070919181371d75/Performance_Management_Survey_PeopleGoal.png)

---

## Define with leadership what you want to achieve through performance management

Based on the results of your benchmarking, pull out the main areas you're doing poorly and __identify the problems you want to solve__. What are the business outcomes that a performance management system should support for your workplace? Some of these could be:

- Creating more accountability for deliverables
- Deepening [engagement with employees' work](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/why-employee-engagement-is-important)
- Giving more clarity in their roles and contribution to the organizational strategy
- Encouraging self development and [employee empowerment](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-empowerment)
- It may even be to simply deliver more visibility to management about their team's priorities

Getting leadership involved is important to demonstrate the behaviors they want to see across the organization and to __motivate others to join in__. If you're struggling to sell the benefits of a new system, we've covered [four main areas that really make performance management software worth the investment](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/dont-think-performance-management-software-is-worth-it-think-again).

---

## Identify the components of a performance management system that are most important to employees

- __Ease of use__. A great performance management system shouldn't take too long to learn the ropes and should be easy to access.
- __Works where you work__. Are the majority of employees desk-bound, remote, travelling? Your performance management system should not only be available on multiple platforms to be easily accessible, it should link in to the other systems where work takes place. Bringing performance management into the flow of work, rather than leaving it as a standalone task in itself, is the number one way to boost adoption of a new system.
- __Provides structure and flexibility__. Performance management should focus on developing the individual and giving them the tools they need to do their best work. Having a solid framework to start with is important, but so is allowing flexibility to tailor processes to teams and individuals.
- __Actually improves productivity__. Measurable outcomes, ongoing feedback and coaching, identification of strengths and skills and being creative about how to bring those into your organization.
- __Brings clarity__. Everyone thrives when they feel like they have a purpose. Performance management should encourage open communication, clarity on the organizational strategy and accountability for individual development.

A performance management system doesn't have to be online, but it definitely helps to automate your processes. If you're deciding to implement performance management software, we've covered [nine features that every system should have to be effective](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/nine-features-an-employee-performance-review-software-must-have).

---

> Now that you're ready to revamp performance management for employees, [our whitepaper on modernizing performance management processes](https://www.peoplegoal.com/resources/whitepapers/modernising-performance-management-process) will help you to set a project plan, define your deliverables and successfully roll out a new system.

---

## A few more items to consider when selecting a performance management system for employees

- __Be accurate and fair__. Put in structures to be fair, transparent and accountable. Rating scales are extremely useful to measure overall results, but everybody needs to be on the same page about what they mean. Avoid manager bias by including multiple sources of feedback wherever possible.
- __Train employees and managers__. Recognize that the tool is not your culture, it's there to help you live that culture. Focus on formal coaching and skills development. Make sure managers understand the action steps they're expected to take.
- __Respect people's time__. Simplify your processes and allow for flexibility - it's about developing the individual, it's not a check-box exercise.
- __Maintain a record of performance discussions__. Not only is this important for employees and managers to be able to track improvements over time, it's a legal protection for your business.
- __Aim for overall improvement, not just meeting baseline minimums__. Personal development should elevate performance beyond the job requirements. Link performance management for employees to the overall strategy and communicate the big picture.

---

Selecting a performance management system for employees isn't an easy task, and the bottom line is you're going to want something that will be able to __adapt and grow with your organization and your workforce as their needs change__. You should be aiming to create a work environment that __allows individuals to perform at their best__, by the measures that work for your organization.

Performance management is about developing people. Talk to your employees, understand how they do their best work and build your performance management system into the flow of work.

Performance management is about developing people. Talk to your employees and understand how they do their best work.

How to Select a Performance Management System for Employees

Performance management system for employees PeopleGoal

Performance Management System for Employees

## What is Workforce Planning?

Workforce planning is __a core business process. Workforce planninng aims to align evolving organizational needs with people strategy__. It is a continual process due to the ever changing nature of organizational change. It may sound difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Workforce planning can be changed and adapted in order to fit the maturity and size of your organization.

Workforce planning __can be adapted to fit the size and maturity of an organization__.

A bit more in-depth now. Workforce planning is __the process of analyzing the current workforce, the future workforce needs, identifying the gap between present and future needs and devising solutions so that organizational change occurs effectively__. It’s all about finding the perfect fit. It is about __getting the right amount of people with the necessary number of skills__. It is possible that bigger organizations will have dedivated workforce planning teams. Workforce planning is the systematic identification and analysis of organizational needs with respect to workforce size, experience, skills, knowledge. 

____

## Benefits of Workforce Planning

Why should you consider investing in workforce planning? Does it even help? Is it worth my time and the organization's resources? Well, yes. 

And here’s why:

### Benefits of Workforce Planning Processes

- Reduce labour costs.
- Identify changing and future customer needs.
- Devise appropriate strategies for people development.
- Identify and improve target improvement areas.
- Improve employee retention.
- Boost productivity.
- Improve work-life balance.

![Top Tips for Effective Workforce Planning](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/2BGFWOvZFq6A9V2VVWAUEx/649cca970b87a96f47fb5aebc6963915/Effective_Workforce_Planning.png)


### This will follow into improve key HR practices:

- Organizational development
- Succession planning
- Improve employee engagement by improving employee work-life balance.
- Recruitment.
- Talent management
- Career planning
- Reward and recognition.

_____
 
## Top Tips for Effective Workforce Planning

Here are some of our top tips for effective workforce planning. Implement these into your workforce planning strategy and process.

![top tips for effective workforce planning](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/SLf7v62WNcY3V2AoZcWvo/7f5ba55f2b345ee7f8ce3e8d86a23d81/top_tips_for_effective_workforce_planning.png)

### Building a Team

As mentioned previously, some big organizations will have dedicated workforce planning teams. But what do you do if you can’t accommodate this? Here’s how you start. Establish a team. Remould their duties so that they carry on their predefined role and can also join the workforce planning team. Build your team wisely. Link corporate, finance, HR, people, business and workforce strategy. Establish communication channels. Engage stakeholders. Segment specific roles within the strategy. Distinguish between strategic workforce planing and operational workforce planning. Review existing data, identify gaps, set your targets.

### Analysis of Current Position

What does your workforce currently look like? What are the capabilities, skills and size of your workforce? Determine the current profile of your workforce supply and demand both internally and externally. Get data on your workforce demographics.

### Environmental Scanning


Environmental scanning is a process which systematically gathers and interprets a range of information and data. Information covering events, strategies and internal and external oppurtunities and threats. Environmental scanning invesitgates the relationships between an organization internal and external environments. Environmental scanning's basic aim is to help management and senior leaders determine the future direction of an organization. Environmental scanning can be utilized to make workforce planning more effective by identifying information about events which influence workforces. In turn, you can implement this information into your strategy.

### Consider External Advice

This blog may boil down workforce planning and make it seem quite easy. But workforce planning is not easy. It is a big project and at times it is easy to forget certain ongoing elements, or see how you will reach you targets. Don’t be afraid to seek external help. Experts will provide you with valuable help and support to make the process more effective. They will be able to give you useful advice on any part of the process.

### Risk Assessment and Mitigation

The process should have inherent concern on risk. It is important to assess which risks may arise during the planning, implementation and future stages. It is also important to consider risk mitigation. Develop protocols of mitigation in order to ensure workforce planning success.

### Monitor, Evaluate, Revise and Re-adjust

You need to continuously monitor the progress of your workforce planning strategy to determine its effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses. The process needs to incorporate clear mechanisms of review learning, in order to feedback changes into the process. Evaluating and re-adjusting workforce planning strategy depends on this feedback. Workforce planning strategy is about trying to predict the future to inform decision making. Evaluation methods needs to relate to the process and for desired outcomes.


Workforce planning is not easy. But don't fear, we've got some top tips to help you with effective workforce planning.

Workforce planning is not an easy process. It's not a short one either. We've got a few top tips for you to ensure effective workforce planning.

Effective Workforce Planning: Top Tips

Workforce planning

What is workforce planning and some top tips to help you along the way!

6 Top Tips for Effective Workforce Planning

We have previously explored the art of writing a self-assessment review and how to structure it, providing some useful [examples for various industries and areas of work](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/10-annual-performance-review-employee-self-evaluation-examples). In this article, we provide sample __answers for assessing soft skills that are essential for each and every role__.

Remember that once you are writing your self-evaluation you should __always be critical and reflective__ but __shouldn’t put yourself and your achievements down__. Provide facts and figures to illustrate your achievements and make your statements stronger. Be specific and descriptive of both positive and negative attributes of your work.

For each of the areas, you should always consider the positive and negative attributes of your performance. Determine where did you exceed the expectations, where did you meet them and where and how you can continue to improve.  Additionally, you might want to connect your self-assessment to the core values of the company.


## 1. Collaboration and Teamwork
Think about how other team members see you, how effective are you at collaboration and what are your relationships at work like. You might also want to think about your ability to come up with creative solutions as a part of a team.


#### Positive Sample Answer

“ I believe that during the past quarter I have demonstrated strong teamwork skills. I have effectively collaborated with my department and team as well as I have shown my ability to work with external parties. During projects, I have shown confidence to express my creative ideas and opinions that added value to the team discussion. “


#### Negative Sample Answer

“ I am aware I can be overly controlling and take over a project, not allowing others for enough space to contribute and develop their skills. I need to work on my ability to work effectively as a team and give others space to express their opinions and ideas. I need to learn how to take a step back and follow others rather than attempt to take a lead in every project.” 

____

## 2. Self-motivation

Do you have a positive attitude towards your job and the company you work for? Do you meet the expectations of your role and maintain sufficient levels of productivity? Are you working to improve your knowledge and skills?


#### Positive Sample Answer

“ Throughout my time at XX I have demonstrated high levels of self-management and motivation. I continuously manage to meet deadlines and finish my responsibilities in a timely manner. 


#### Negative Sample Answer

“I feel sometimes I get too focused on a task and take much longer than is appropriate due to my perfectionism. I have to learn to effectively dedicate resources to not only get work done well but also efficiently” 

_____

## 3. Leadership

Are you able to effectively manage people and work with others? Can you provide direction to your reports and teammates? 


#### Positive Sample Answer

“I reckon I effectively lead by example and take actions and adopt behaviors I expect from my team. I feel I am defined by the actions I take at work rather than by what I say.  I dedicate time to spend with my reports to help them resolve their challenges and issues and encourage their personal and professional development.”


#### Negative  Sample Answer

“I think I should focus more on promoting the company culture and values around my team. Despite the fact I am effectively developing individual relationships across the team and support them through regular check-ins and one-to-ones, I should focus more on promoting team-spirit and collaboration across the team.”

![leadership negative sample answer](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4HqTKB78Gfhc3JNsiSMSRh/e7d95f9e03e807b73f6aa463189dadc5/leadership_negative_sample_answer.png)

_____

## 4. Problem Solving

Are you able to effectively solve problems? Do you come up with creative solutions when a challenge occurs? What methods to solve problems do you use?


#### Positive  Sample Answer

“ I strongly feel problem-solving skills are one of my strongest characteristics. I usually manage to solve complex problems effectively by taking into consideration different perspectives and breaking down the problem to analyze it. When solving problems as a team I apply active listening to understand the issue thoroughly through the experience and knowledge of others. I seek clarification if the problem is not well understood.”


#### Negative Sample Answer

“ I tend to get overwhelmed if an important decision needs to be made, and seek the support of others rather than looking at the facts myself. I need to work on how to prioritize and evaluate complex problems.”

_____

## 5. Decisiveness

Are you able to make effective and informed decisions that are beneficial for you, your team and the whole business?


#### Positive Sample Answer

“I effectively prioritize the most urgent tasks and decisions. When a difficult decision needs to be made, I evaluate the positives and negatives and possible outcomes to make an informed decision. When analyzing a problem, I research it and request evidence from those who are more familiar with the theme.” 

![decisiveness positive sample answer](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/60cj0nwLbIMNqeKjVQNLYO/d8191dfead6eae1eee567ea037d27b91/decisiveness_positive_sample_answer.png)

#### Negative Sample Answer

“I tend to rely too much on my past experiences and assumptions rather than putting effort into doing my research before coming to difficult decisions. Additionally, I should dedicate more time to self-reflection when things go wrong to eliminate bad habits and prevent the issue from happening again.”

_____

## 6. Ability to work under pressure and Time Management

Are you able to work under pressure and manage your tasks? Do you manage your workload and avoid having unfinished commitments?


#### Positive Sample Answer

“ I always meet my deadlines and effectively manage my workload. I believe I have a strong ability to prioritize the most important tasks. I am also aware of my lack of experience and thus I leave en


#### Negative Sample Answer

“I tend to struggle with time management. I often leave tasks that I find too challenging or boring last minute and then I do not have enough time to finish them to a required quality. If I am under stress, my attention to detail worsens.”

_____

## 7. Communication

When evaluating your communication skills you should consider your written communication as well as verbal communication skills. Effective communication is key to a happy teamwork


#### Positive Sample Answer
“ I try to cultivate a culture of openness and sharing among the team. I appreciate critical conversations and positive confrontation over ignoring problems and challenges. I actively listen to my team and promote shared decision making. In my communication with clients I engage in professional manner and successfully build a positive rapport.”

#### Negative Sample Answer
“ I sometimes get involved in miscommunication. Hence, I often spend too much time clarifying problems and tasks. I need to work on my ability to manage my emotions and not let them affect my professional relationships.”

______

## 8. Flexibility

Being flexible and adaptable is a must-have in a modern workplace. You have to be able to respond to change quickly and be able to adjust.

#### Positive Sample Answer
“ I handle change with ease and often make improvements to make the transition easier. I also appreciate comments and criticism when adjusting to change to make it smooth. If things go wrong I remain calm and positive and aim to find a solution in a proactive manner.”

![Flexibility positive sample answer](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/3K2ejuezqYBAYiMK5xEw58/973728279e7992ef9a4f854995fb38ef/Flexibility_positive_sample_answer.png)

#### Negative Sample Answer
“ I have to work on my ability to support others through change and avoid micromanagement. I also struggle to adopt new work assignments and tasks that I feel are outside of my job responsibilities.”

____

## 9. Negotiation and Conflict resolution

Do you have a sufficient ability to negotiate deals for yourself and your business? Are you able to effectively resolve conflict?


#### Positive Sample Answer

“ During my time at  xx I have effectively negotiated xx deals and brought xx to the business. I believe that my analytical character and strong people skills allow me to be in control during the meetings and direct the manner to achieve results.”

#### Negative Sample Answer

“ I think I have made great progress in my negotiation skills since I first stared at xx, yet I am aware of the areas of my improvement. I feel I approach the meetings in an appropriate manner and make the other part feel comfortable. However, I struggle to actively listen; I tend to interrupt the others, I also should, seek clarification when needed and thus I often jump into assumptions that are not 100% correct.”

---

## 10. Emotional intelligence 

To get more examples on your performance read our article on 70 performance reviews phrases examples that will help you evaluate different areas of your job. 


#### Positive Sample Answer

“ I feel I am very aware of my strengths and weaknesses and thus I am able to manage my emotions and frustrations as well as to recognise the value of my colleagues ideas, opinions and challenges. I am an effective listener and always try to understand and listen to colleagues' objections.”


#### Negative Sample Answer

“ I often get frustrated when other members of my team struggle to keep up. I get overly emotional and do not handle frustration, stress or anger well. I struggle to communicate and often engage in conversations that are off-putting to others and am too controlling. Therefore, I often get distracted and do not take others' points into account.”

_____

Writing a self-evaluation can be tricky. To some, it can be difficult to recognize the areas of improvement while others struggle not to be overly critical. The most fundamental thing is [be refelctive](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-self-leadership-can-drive-innovation-in-your-organization), and to take a step back. Be objective. Highlight your achievements without bribing or giving yourself too little credit and also identify areas of improvement and how they can be reached.


These self-evaluation sample answers will help you to keep the management informed of your work progress and to encourage your personal development.

Employee Self-evaluation Sample Answers for Key Soft Skills

self-evaluation-sample-answers-peoplegoal

Self-evaluation is often part of an annual performance appraisal, to keep the management informed of your work progress and to help your personal development.

## Dealing with Coronavirus in the Workplace

As concerns over coronavirus continue to grow, there are a few key issues for employers to consider when dealing with coronavirus in the workplace. Coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China and has since been confirmed to have spread to over 20 countries worldwide. It is of the SARS syndrome and is a viral, respiratory illness. Symptoms present themselves as a cough, high temperature and shortness of breath.

__Professional health guidelines__ recommend:

- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeve when you cough or sneeze.
- Wash hands with soap and water, or use hand sanitizer if not available.
- Place used tissues immediately in the bin.
- Do not come into contact with your mouth, nose or eyes if your hands are not clean.
- If you have been to China, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea Republic, Singapore, Taiwan or Japan in the last 14 days, see the recommendations on this [page](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/).

---

## Recommendations

These recommendations are relatively general as you would expect. But what are the recommendations for dealing with coronavirus concerns in the workplace?

![how to deal with coronavirus in the workplace](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4dg49SlVtVcrfJJ07HX5vu/422c847e973021ffc421e8563705d9ee/how_to_deal_with_corona_virus_in_the_workplace.png)

1. A recommendation that is very easy to research and to implement is **educating employees** on the signs, symptoms, and precautions that can minimize the risk of the coronavirus. Recent updates suggest that symptoms appear within two days to two weeks.
 
2. Think about providing **hand sanitizer, facial tissues and handwashing stations**. Put posters up in bathrooms, informing employees of the need to wash hands in soap and water.
 
3. **Business travel restrictions - People going, people coming, people returning.** Let’s begin with people who are returning from China or surrounding danger areas. Employers could ask people who have recently returned to work from home or place them on paid leave to ensure the virus does not enter the workplace. This approach should take into account the recency of travel and specific areas traveled to. Employers should be sensitive to employee’s concerns and try and accommodate them. With respect to people who may be going to China, some employers have placed a ban on people traveling to China, or at the very least they need senior management approval. Employers should look at alternative ways of manae=ging work abroad, i.e. video conferencing. Employers should consider whether travel restrictions are appropriate and how to approach international business relationships. Employers may wish to insist that employees do not take personal travel to affected areas, but imposing restrictions should be carefully considered.

4. Allowing **sick employees** to work from home or take leave as appropriate. Similar to the point above, allowing employees who feel unwell, particularly if they are experiencing respiratory symptoms should be considered. Alternatively, employees could take sick leave.

6. **Employees refusing to attend work?** A situation which is odd, but may arise. What if an employee decides to refuse to come to work? Employers should assess a number of metrics, the current risk of the virus, staffing requirements and organizational needs. Employers may be able to accommodate for [remote working](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/work-life-balance-in-2020) or holiday release. However, employers should be wary of the fact that the employees may need to come into work, and that they withhold the right to require attendance. If you allow remote working, you should be allowed to reserve notice of remote work. Refusing to come to work should be handled carefully.

7. **Potential Discrimination**. A rather nasty and unfortunate trend that may arise in light of the coronavirus is potential discrimination. If this arises it needs to be dealt with swiftly and appropriately. Employers should be aware of indirect and direct racial discrimination. There have been recent reports of racial abuse aimed at British Chinese people in connection with the coronavirus outbreak. Employers must make sure to have clear [discriminatory and harassment policies](https://www.peoplegoal.com/resources/policies/diversity-and-inclusion-policy), they should have regular diversity workshops and their managers should be well trained to identify and prevent discrimination in the workplace

8. **Update control and hygiene policies**. Constantly review and update your control and hygiene processes and keep staff involved and in the know.

9. **Communication with employees.** An important part of dealing with coronavirus in the workplace is communication with employees. We have prepared some sample email templates that you can use to notify employees:

**Working From Home or Feeling Unwell Email**

To our employees,

In the wake of the recent coronavirus outbreak, we are trying to become particularly sensitive about workplace hygiene. Alongside inputting handwashing stations and placing educational posters out, we are recommending that employees that are feeling unwell choose to work remotely or take sick leave.

Many thanks,

(Employer)

_____

**Travel Ban Email**

To our employees,

In light of the recent coronavirus outbreak, we are in the process of reviewing our travel regulations. We have recommended that all professional work arrangements abroad to certain danger zones are to be restricted. We are currently working on ways to work with our partners abroad. We also recommend that any personal travel arrangements to danger areas be reviewed. If you are due to travel abroad soon, please let your manager know.

Many thanks,

(Employer)


---

With growing concerns over the coronavirus, it is important to implement some recommendations. Consider whether the recommedations are appropriate and if they are needed in your workplace.


With growing media concern around the coronavirus we ask, how can we deal with the coronavirus in the workplace?

What is the coronavirus? What are the symptoms and how do you deal with coronavirus in the workplace?

How to Deal with Coronavirus in the Workplace

coronavirus in the workplace

How to Respond to the Coronavirus in the Workplace

Dealing with Coronavirus in the Workplace

## What is an employee survey?

[Employee surveys](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/engagement-surveys-done-right) are tools used by organization leaders and senior staff to measure, gain feedback and discover areas for improvement on a range of organizational faculties. These include [employee engagement](https://www.peoplegoal.com/guides/employee-engagement), performance, morale and job satisfaction. Typically, the surveys are answered anonymously and collated to form meta-data. Surveys are considered effective due to their ease of use and easily analyzable data. If effectively administered that is.


---

## 15 Tips to Run an Effective Employee Survey

![tips to run an effective employee survey](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/2ULaFfL6nwKJAna8AZrNoe/f77ec1271f7547b1adf49c3d1d403c73/tips_to_run_an_effective_employee_survey.png)


### 1. Measure your baseline

Find your baseline for what you are measuring. Where are you at the moment? By creating a baseline it makes is so much easier to track your progress. Finding your baseline will help you, to see which areas you have significantly developed, and areas that haven’t been improved as much as you would have hoped.

### 2. Spread the word

Communicate that you have a survey coming up and everyone should complete it. The classic approach is to send a few company-wide emails. If you don’t find that this is effective, maybe try posters, newsletters, table toppers, intranet, gif messages - or slightly more entertaining messages than your classic ones. Use internal communications as your friend to spread the word better.

### 3. Get leadership on-board

It’s rich to expect your employees to complete your survey if your senior leaders aren’t going to bother. What kind of message does that send out? In fact, go a step further. Get your leaders to promote the survey and explain to employees why it is important.

### 4. Communicate benefits

Why will it improve the life of your employees? Explain it to them. Show them how their responses will translate into real benefits for them and for the organization as a whole. Market the benefits of your survey to get more people to complete it.


### 5. Communicate employee confidentiality

Perhaps a somewhat overlooked tip. It is important that you convey a message of anonymity to your employees in order to achieve the level of honesty in responses which will help you to uncover areas for development.

### 6. Write questions in the correct tone and language

How do you normally speak to your employees? How do you normally speak to anyone? Use a tone and language which you would normally do. Don’t start using grandiose terms just because it’s written down. It makes it unnecessarily complex and will turn your employees off completing their surveys.

### 7. Use relevant questions

A similar point to the last one. Use questions that are worth asking and will actually lead to real benefits. Asking questions that are not relevant will just turn employees off AGAIN.

### 8. Avoid loaded questions

Do not use loaded questions. Yes, it is always tempting to try and sway your employee’s opinions to influence your results in your favor. But this is dangerous. Not only does this paper over cracks, but it can also be detrimental if a serious issue is being masked. You need to find out areas of improvement.

### 9. Accessibility

Use a method that is accessible to as many employees as possible. Paper, email, or online tools. I would suggest trying out a survey monkey to get the biggest scope, and it is super easy to use.

### 10. Consider the flow of questions

Here there is no perfect answer. It is up to you how you choose the flow of your questions. The two main methods are randomized question grouping, which will slow the response time of questions but will get your employee to read the question properly. However, it may begin to frustrate the employee and may end up in incomplete survey responses or untrue answers - as employees just try and get to the end of the survey. Alternatively, you could use grouping techniques, so that questions that are about the same topic are grouped together. Easier for employees to complete, but is more likely to lead to boredom.

### 11. Consider the different types of questions to use

As we have said before, don’t use loaded questions and consider the flow. Think about the scope of areas you want to look at, and how in-depth you want to look.

### 12. Each question should serve a purpose

Questions shouldn’t be aimless, and you should choose questions because you know they can give you the information which you need. If you want a bit of help choosing questions, we’ve got a few [tips](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-engagement-survey-key-questions) for you.

### 13. Communicate results

Let employees know the results of their survey. Keep them involved in the process from start to finish. 

### 14. Have a post-survey process in place

Be systematic. Be strategic. Make sure you have processes in place so you can translate the results of your survey into real action. To increase effectiveness, create a timeline of when certain actions will take place. Develop the plan, and communicate it to your employees throughout the process.

### 15. Take action

Take action. Its all good and well doing the survey, but if you get your results and don’t do anything its pointless. Your employees know this and it will have detrimental effects.


---


## Conclusion

So there we have our tips for you to use. What do you think, and what tips did we miss? Surveys can be really easy to use and have real benefits when implemented effectively. Boost their effectiveness by using these simple tips.


Surveys can be really easy to use and have real benefits when implemented effectively. Boost their effectiveness by using these simple tips.

Surveys can be easy to use and have real benefits when used appropriately. Make your employee survey as effective as possible by implementing these simple tips.

Tips to make your employee survey as effective as possible

effective employee survey

What is an employee survey and how do I make the most effective one possible?

15 Tips to Run an Effective Employee Survey

## What is employee empowerment?

__Employee empowerment__ means __giving employees a degree of autonomy, responsibility, and freedom__. It is a management strategy that aims to ‘hand over the reins’ to employees, giving them authority over decision making and how they achieve their goals. It means giving them control and responsibility to manage their roles, set their objectives and be the decision-maker over their tasks, deadlines, and priorities. It is essentially, the opposite of [micro-management](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/5-employee-engagement-tactics-for-2018).

![9 ways to encourage employee empowerment](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/asPErgu1EHvXCkJS1Tmlj/2f6b97d2ea1dfc6d9c54cb1158ebdc0d/9_ways_to_encourage_employee_empowerment.png)

____

## 9 Ways to Encourage Employee Empowerment


### 1. Provide Opportunities for Upward Mobility

Employees who see no opportunities to improve and go further in their career, won’t be your employees for very long. Providing opportunities for upward mobility and employee empowerment go hand in hand. Employee empowerment helps to develop a range of skills including leadership and management. While going further in your career demands such skills.

_____

### 2. Delegate More Than Just Work

Make sure to delegate work. How can employees develop and feel empowered without getting greater responsibilities? Delegate with the remit of growing, developing and empowering your employees.

_____

### 3. Constructive Feedback Along the Way

As we will get on too soon, mistakes will happen as you teeth into your employee empowerment process. What is important is that you offer good [constructive feedback](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/6-principles-of-constructive-feedback) during the process. This means when employees do something wrong, and when they can do improve in certain areas. Instead of bluntly telling someone where they went wrong, or praising them when they do something right, be specific about the actions which you base your reasoning on. Be specific about where they need to improve and how.

_____

### 4. Recognition for Success and Effort

There are a plethora of [reasons](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/employee-recognition-examples-from-peoplegoal) why you should provide recognition and appreciation. Showing recognition to your employees for their hard work and for their successes. Your recognition provides motivation to them and will encourage them to take action, embrace decision making and engender creativity and persistence.

_____

### 5. Provide Time

This one can be tough at times, especially if you are managing a lot of people. You can’t always give your employees as much time as you would like or as they would like. You can give them time though. Don’t forget it. And they will need it, especially at the start of their employee empowerment journey.

Another important point with regard to time is that you need to give your employees time to make empowerment work. Time to figure it out, time to try out new methods and strategies.

____

### 6. Forgive Mistakes

Giving employees a greater degree of autonomy is bound to lead to mistakes. But then again, if you aren’t making mistakes, then you’re not challenging yourself, your team and your organization. However, make sure that everyone knows the differences between an unacceptable versus an acceptable mistake.

____

### 7. Encourage Communication

Do not make the mistake of assuming that employee empowerment means that communication is now the employee’s problem, and not yours. Instead, what it means is that communication is now more two-way than before. Establishing better [communication channels](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-to-improve-internal-communication) will make the empowerment process a lot easier.

_____

### 8. Keep Accountability Clear

Making sure that employees know that their decision making is their own. They are accountable. This may seem like a bit of a paradox, but it actually works. Hear me out. By giving accountability for their own work, it means that employees have genuine ownership over their work. Giving them autonomy and responsibility - key ingredients of employee empowerment.

Employee empowerment is a powerful tool to improve employees’ skill set, leadership and management abilities as well as decision-making. The increased scope of responsibility and autonomy means that employees will feel more motivated, more appreciated, more engaged and feel like they are developing.

____

### 9. Provide Opportunities to Teach Flexibility and Creative Thinking

Although employee empowerment will engender flexibility and creative thinking, it is important to provide employees with opportunities to develop these skills. It will make the process of empowerment easier and more effective. With regards to flexibility, allow the employee certain benefits, flexible working or remote working for example. With respect to creative thinking, although doing a task the same way is a sure-fire way of getting things done, encourage the employee to think of new and innovative ways or strategies to integrate into their work.


What is employee empowerment and how do you go about devising a great strategy for achieving it?

What is employee empowerment? Here are some top tips to help you develop a great employee engagement strategy.

What is employee empowerment and how you should go about achieving it?

Employee Empowerment

Top tips to achieve employee empowerment at your organization

Employee Empowerment: 9 Ways to Make it Happen

Have you thought about hiring a career or life coach? Perhaps you wonder if hiring a career counselor is worth the time and expense. You may wonder if someone who has never met you before can offer sound advice on how to advance your career. 

Here are some ways your life coach or career counselor can help you.

![benefits of having a life coach](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/5dy7AIf99hrcHX1gW3tirg/20e0a3a68646654cd2517ab99b86128f/benefits_of_having_a_life_coach.png)

____

## Good Counselors See Right Through You

A career counselor may assist you in realizing that you have chosen the wrong job.

Perhaps you are in the wrong profession. Maybe you studied a particular subject in college for the wrong reasons. Perhaps you went into a job because of your family’s involvement in the industry. It could be that you went into a field, enjoyed it for many years, and now realize that your career needs have changed. A lot of people tend to feel this way, in fact, most people [change their careers 5-7 times](https://careers-advice-online.com/career-change-statistics.html). A counselor will help you determine this by taking in a number of factors like going into upper management positions, whether you take initiative in your job, and most importantly, whether you feel challenged. 

A good counselor will be able to ask the right questions to determine if your chosen field is right for you based on your reasons for entering the profession.

_____

## A career counselor can help you analyze your skills to find the right job

We are happiest when we are well-suited to our careers. Your career counselor should help you analyze your strengths and weaknesses to determine what job is the best for you.

A career counselor may have you take placement tests to determine what fields are right for you. The problem with career placement tests is that some people don’t have an accurate view of their strengths or weaknesses. Or they may take the tests desirous of a particular outcome and answer the questions dishonestly. 

_____

## A good career counselor looks at the whole picture

Besides looking at the results of placement tests, he or she should get to know you. A career counselor should ask you about your motives for your career choice. He or she may be able to determine whether your personality is conducive to particular fields or not. 

Keep in mind that the [career counselor](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2018/10/03/3-reasons-to-hire-a-career-coach/#67863ccc39d2) may give you the news that you don’t want to hear. He or she is not in the business of being a cheerleader or offering platitudes that “you can do anything.” If you struggled to pass basic math and science classes, you aren’t going to be an engineer.

_____

## A career counselor should be a resource to help you find training and educational opportunities in your chosen field

Once you have determined a field that you would like to explore, your career counselor should assist you with this part of your journey. That means that your counselor should be knowledgeable about local or online programs that offer training or education in particular careers. 

This professional should be resourceful. If you want to job shadow an occupational therapist, he or she should have resources to make that happen. If you want to know where you can receive training to become a motorcycle repair person, he or she should be able to direct you to training programs in your area. If you had a negative experience at your last job, your counselor should be able to direct you on [when you need to hire a worker’s compensation lawyers](https://www.krasnolaw.com/blog/when-to-hire-workers-comp-lawyer) or not. This person should be an expert on all aspects of “work.”

_____

## A good career counselor should help you with writing or editing your resume

Once you have chosen a career and been trained in your industry, your career counselor should help you in writing your [resume](https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/10-resume-writing-tips). Whether or not writing is your strong suit, it is imperative that you have several other qualified people look at your resume before submitting it to potential employers. Your career counselor should have the skills to offer valuable resume-writing advice.

_____

## A career counselor should be able to help you with your interview or presentation skills

Unfortunately, some of the best people don’t get the jobs that they applied for because they struggle with [interviewing](https://www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/10-interview-skills-you-need-to-get-hired-and-how-to-improve-at-them.html). Some candidates get so stressed that they crumble when answering even the easiest questions.

Your counselor should assist you with this process. He or she should help you practice your answers to common interview questions.

If you need health advice, you consult with a doctor. When you need legal help, you find an attorney. Why would you leave such an important aspect of your life to chance? Why wouldn’t you spend a few bucks to get advice on how to have a productive, rewarding professional experience?

Consult with a life coach or career counselor today.

Explore five ways career coaches can empower their clients for a better career path. 

6 Ways Career Coaches Can Ensure Better Career Experiences 

career coach

Customer-centric businesses pride themselves on the care, attention, and satisfaction they provide their customers with, at every touchpoint and with every interaction. 

This is a noble goal for every single brand, and if you indeed manage to build a bond based on trust and meeting customer expectations, you’ve come a long way in your industry, whatever it may be. What makes a great brand different from a good one, however, is its role as an employer. This is where the relevance of company culture becomes pivotal in the process of developing your brand. __Without a strong culture among your employees, you risk losing the integrity of your entire organization__.

Yes, customer-centric is amazing, but __employee-centric should be a part of your identity__, too. In a way, how you build your brand from within will shape how your employees communicate your brand to your customers, if they are aligned with your values, and if you craft a stable business based on high retention rates. To achieve all of that, __your brand-building process should certainly focus on establishing the right <a href="https://www.techcrackblog.com/2019/02/diversity-training-is-essential-for-company.html" tarhet="blank"> company culture </a>__. Here’s why that matters so greatly, and what you can do to evolve your culture.

## Developing an Exeptional Employer Brand 
![developing an exceptional employer brand](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/1D7M7BySPq7Dxfc12WVJFj/48881aeb74822d50a61380fb7b3186b0/developing_an_exceptional_employer_brand.png)
_____

### Start with your recruitment protocols

Understanding how you choose your employees can make all the difference in how your company culture evolves, and thus how your brand develops over the years. Your employees are your most powerful brand builders, and you need to start thinking of this as part of their roles from the moment you start <a href='https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2018/09/28/what-it-means-to-hire-for-culture-fit-and-how-to-do-it-right/#7d1dfbec7986' target='blank'>looking for new talent</a> to expand your company. So, naturally, your elimination system, your hiring criteria, and your interview all need to reflect your need for brand ambassadors first and foremost, not just workers to fill a role.

Talk to your potential employees about more than just their skills and experience. Get into what they expect from your office atmosphere, the relationships among employees, what kind of communication they enjoy, and ask them to share examples of successful collaboration or problem-solving in their previous position. This can give you a better insight into their personality in the workplace and how they handle their role in the process of building a culture. 

________

### Build your employer brand

While keeping your focus on the employee is vital, you should also take a closer look in the mirror – to see your brand in its role as an employer. This is that one <a href='https://pactapac.com/' target='blank'> key aspect of brand development </a> that can help you gain a stronger presence and a better foothold in your industry, since your capacity as an employer will define the kind of people you attract and the kind of people that will ultimately build that brand. 

To do just that, you need to define your values and look at your purpose from this new angle, see what you have to offer as an employer, and if that matches your promise as a customer-facing entity. If you can pinpoint the driving force of your business to make your customers happy, you should be able to recognize your purpose as an employer, too.

_____

### Empower collaboration over competition

Yes, there are certain people who thrive on healthy competition, but when your teams don’t know how to help one another, share ideas, and develop them together, you’ll always end up with a house divided – one that cannot stand. Building a positive workplace, one that uses collaboration as the key mindset is more likely to lead to happy employees. In turn, happy teams have the potential to <a href='https://www.fastcompany.com/3048751/happy-employees-are-12-more-productive-at-work' target='blank'> have a 12% increase in productivity</a>, which ultimately leads to a more powerful brand. 

This is certainly one of the key mindset-shifts modern companies need to make in order to reap the rewards of a more inclusive, supportive, transparent company culture. In such environment, where people feel their ideas are encouraged and respected, employees work better, and brands grow stronger.

____

### Strive for less stress for employees

Much like you’d never want or aim to [cause stress](https://fierceinc.com/blog/how-to-keep-stress-from-sabotaging-workplace-culture-and-productivity) in the lives of your customers through your offers, you should definitely do everything in your power to avoid the same in your employees’ lives. After all, they are the ones giving it their best every day for eight hours to expand your presence, sell your offers, and inspire loyalty in your customers. Your brand should do the same for them. Your company culture and your attitude towards your teams will greatly shape their own representation of your business.

How happily do they talk about their role? Do they feel valued and purposeful? Do they understand how they contribute to your business? Are they happy to recommend other people for your jobs? When they talk about your brand, do they truly know how to convey your essence and your purpose? The answer will be affirmative only when your company atmosphere isn’t a source of excessive stress for your teams. It’s time to show them how much they’re vital for your brand for them to truly feel compelled to build it together with you. 

_____

A company culture doesn’t sprout out of thin air, much like your brand reputation or your footprint in your community. To build it, you need to embed your brand with your values, hire based on those values, and build an atmosphere that appreciates people for their contribution every day. This is the only way for the true identity of your business to spread its wings and shine in your industry. Use these bits of advice to guide your own teams through the process of culture creation that will ultimately support and build your entire brand. 

_____

#### AUTHOR BIO

Jacob Wilson is a business consultant, and an organizational psychologist, based in Brisbane. Passionate about marketing, social networks, and business in general. In his spare time, he writes a lot about new business strategies and digital marketing for [Bizzmark](https://bizzmarkblog.com/) blog.



Employer brand is a vital aspect of the transparency and integrity of your business.

How Important Is Company Culture If We Want to Develop a Great Brand?

ladies having a discussion over a computer

Company Culture and Employer Brand

__Keeping your employees motivated is a vital__ aspect of any organization. It __increases productivity, performance, welfare, loyalty, and efficiency__, whilst at the same time __decreasing staff turnover rate__. One of the biggest challenges many leaders face is in motivating their team. Being able to spot a lack of motivation in the workplace can be a difficult task, unless you know what signs to look out for. 

____

## Key Signs of a Lack of Motivation

We’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of key indicators for you to look out for in your workspace:

![key signs of a lack of motivation](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/1Xvp4HyhE86XGG0civJbgB/9af41516ea7ee06ea7d719558a577603/key_signs_of_a_lack_of_motivation.png)

### 1. Employees being reactive, not proactive

When people are unmotivated, they often feel like they lack control of the world around them, to them it may feel, as if no matter what they do, they struggle to make progress. Therefore, they tend to be reactive about situations, instead of being proactive, and taking preventative measures to avoid certain situations arising.

This can commonly occur in teams that are failing to work well together. Team members learn that it’s almost impossible to stop problems occurring, so they simply wait until thy happen before acting.

A solution to this issue is to clarify roles and responsibilities to your team members and delegate tasks, enabling them to focus on the objective in a proactive way.

### 2. An employee is not pitching in

Motivated people speak up when they have an idea, or a question. They are eager to pitch in or learn. They are willing to solve problems and own up when they are wrong. This is because they care about fulfilling their potential to the maximum and they want to contribute to the success of the team.

However, when there is low motivation, you’ll see a drop off in communication. Or the communication will just be one way, as in team members will follow orders instead of trying to have an influence on the task to have the optimum outcome. One solution to this is to ask your team for feedback, ask them directly for input into tasks, give them some decision-making powers so that they have to communicate and contribute.

### 3. Poor body language

Body language is a great indicator of an individuals state of mind, if you know how to read and judge it. However, you have to be careful here, just because someone has their arms crossed, this doesn’t guarantee that they are guarded, they may just be super chilly. None the less, people who are crossing their arms and legs may be subconsciously comforting themselves. This may be a sign of low motivation, couple this with being unwilling to pitch in, and you have an individual that needs some attention.

Furthermore, actions such as eye rolling, shoulder shrugging and producing big sighs are all signs of being demotivated. It’s better to confront these actions head on and to drill down on the problem when it arises instead of letting these feelings fester. Find out what is determining these body language signs of demotivation and take actionable steps to prevent them from reoccurring.

### 4. Clock watching

Team members that are consistently checking the time, clocking off at the earliest opportunity, and spending 30 minutes in the toilet may just be very demotivated. Whist it’s true that work never ends and there is always more to do, some tasks have more urgency than others. If people are dropping their work immediately at the end of the regular work day, it generally means they aren’t too invested in their work. Ideally team members will work harder or longer to finish an important task when it is needed. At the times when there is no impending deadline, this is when people can relax and potentially leave early to make up for the extra time they spent the week before. Nonetheless, one way to motivate individuals is to value their time, if they are working hard and hitting their daily goals with time to spare, perhaps let them leave early from time to time, or find an alternative way to reward them.

_____

With all this in mind, its obvious that the question of how to spot a lack of motivation in the workplace is a key aspect of leading a team. __Keeping your team motivated is vital to succeeding in reaching your goals and retaining staff__.

How to spot a lack of motivation in the workplace is a question all leaders should be asking themselves. And we've got the answers for you.

How to Spot a Lack of Motivation in the Workplace

lack of motivation

__Succession planning is all about future-proofing your business. You need to identify and develop your internal talent to fill both the existing critical roles in your company and the new roles that will be required as you grow. However, effective succession planning is one of those  areas that everybody knows is important but which very few organizations actually implement. Partly because as a growing business it's hard to engage committed and driven leaders to consider their replacements, and partly because the succession planning process can feel far more complicated than it really is.__

With a good succession planning template in place that simply assesses a few key development areas, you can easily run regular succession evaluations to ensure you're on track with developing your top talent and planning for the future of your business. Addressing this in a__ data-driven but empathetic__ way should include both the current position holder and the internal candidates for succession that will help to create an objective plan for the future of your business.

<a href='https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IB3qDLci0GSXNPOSvnlGfOOG5-uYsJmPKL7w4QRL07M/copy'>Download the Succession Planning Template in Google Sheets and Excel here.</a>

![Succession Planning Template](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/29T4Yz16VjhKEQ6fJYLQn4/d5f7ce4a9213f85781fb43c2a2201b80/succession_planning_template_peoplegoal.png)

*This template is designed to help you identify and assess high-potential employees in order to fill important leadership roles in the future. You'll need to find the key competencies required for each business-critical role, and analyze both the performance and potential of the nominated candidates for each role. Once you're done, you should create action plans for your internal talent to develop their skills.*

---

## Why should you create a succession planning template?

A detailed study by Deloitte found that ["while 86 percent of leaders believe leadership succession planning is an “urgent” or “important” priority, only 14 percent believe they do it well."](https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/leadership/effective-leadership-succession-planning.html)

If a critical role in your company is vacated, you need to be prepared. __Keeping your business running in the face of unforeseen challenges__ is the most important reason, but succession planning is also about __identifying company-wide skills shortages__ that could be holding back overall organizational growth.

In preparing for the future of your company it's far more beneficial to __identify and develop your internal talent__ than to constantly bring in outside hires — which is an expensive process, not to mention the time it takes for a new starter to find their feet in a fast moving company. Succession planning is about finding employees with high potential who, with the right coaching, could be perfect for leadership roles in 1, 3 or 5 years.

---

## The benefits of succession planning

- __Talent retention__: engaging your top performers with a plan for their future at your organization, and offering the training and development they need to build their knowledge, experience and leadership skills, means they're less likely to get snapped up by other businesses who recognize their potential.
- __Future-proofed business__: ensuring that you're filling current and future vacancies with the right people in the right role, and that you're prepared for unexpected losses of leadership.
- __Skills gaps are filled__: developing your internal talent builds critical organizational skills and keeps that expertise in-house.
- __A more diverse leadership group__: being data-driven about your succession planning means you're likely to identify leadership candidates who you may not have considered by relying just on "gut feel" or those who've been with the company the longest.
- __Stronger company culture__: you've got more leverage to build a leadership team of engaged, motivated employees who know your ways of working and embody the company culture.
- __Greater organizational stability__: you're better prepared for an emergency situation which fosters confidence in your company's ability to weather unexpected changes.

![Benefits of succession planning](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/3u4VChuxMoJmEwSsuRbq5z/bd7474e005bab4b0637da2a29cad3558/Benefits_of_succession_planning.png)

---

## The succession planning process

There are three stages to succession planning:

1. Identify the __business-critical roles__ that you'll need to replace in the future, or fill as your business grows.
2. Assess employees on their __competencies and skills__, their performance and their potential.
3. __Coach and develop__ high-potential employees to fill the business-critical roles in 1, 3 or 5 years.

### 1. Identify business-critical roles

Make a list of the key positions that are critical for your business to operate effectively. It's a good exercise to engage your senior leadership team in this process, and to tie succession planning into the overall strategic organizational planning. Define where you want your company to go in the future and what roles will drive this growth.

For each business-critical role, define the [skills and competencies required to thrive in this position](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/skills-for-managing-people-in-2020). This will become the basis for your talent assessment and the development areas to train individuals in to take over this role.


### 2. Assess employees' competencies and skills

As part of your continuous performance management process, you should be regularly assessing all employees' skills, demonstration of competencies and overall performance through __360-degree feedback, employee/manager one to one meetings and performance reviews__. For your succession planning process, you'll also need to __evaluate their potential__ in the key competency areas of your business-critical roles.

> "We found few organizations that were combining a disciplined, data-driven process with a user-friendly, people-centric approach that adequately engages stakeholders. Many organizations can still default to subjective or political succession decisions based on factors such as likability, sponsorship, or tenure." - Deloitte Insights
>

The easiest way to do this is by using ratings (typically 1-3, but 1-5 is also effective). For each competency, rate every employee on their performance of the competency as well as their future potential in this area. Feed these into an overall __performance vs. potential score__, and plot the full organization along a 9-box (or 25-box!) chart. You can create charts for each business-critical role, and use totals for one overall organizational chart. The 9-box assessment is typically done by senior leadership in partnership with Human Resources, but a powerful extra step is to build potential assessments in to your [360-degree feedback](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/6-principles-of-constructive-feedback).

*PeopleGoal's 360 degree feedback grid gathers ratings for employees' performance and potential from a wide range of participants - colleagues, supervisors, leadership and clients - and automatically plots your employees on the chart to easily identify high potential candidates based on a holistic view of their performance.*

![peoplegoal feedback grid report](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/4QJ14gUeTvAsIvJvGbvP9U/d059d8f46c66c1d2365a7cb2845e09df/peoplegoal_feedback_grid_report.png)

Asking for evaluations from not just line managers delivers a less biased, __more holistic evaluation__ of potential leadership candidates that takes into account their ability to collaborate across business areas. The outcome of the 9-box exercise is that employees in the top-right are your __high potential leadership candidates__. Map out how their current skills match up to the business-critical roles, and draw out the areas for development they need to be ready to fill a role. Indicate the time-frame for succession, and whether they'll be ready to move up - generally immediately, in 1-2 or 3-5 years' time.

### 3. Develop your high-potential talent

Each potential candidate should now create a [development plan](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/development-plan) to get the [training and coaching](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/positive-psychology-for-coaching) to build their skills and experience for progression. It's important to involve the employees themselves in this process, to discuss the future they see for themselves in your organization and to develop [innovative self-leaders](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/how-self-leadership-can-drive-innovation-in-your-organization).

For candidates on a longer development timeline, you should also __consider lateral moves__ within the business to broaden employees' skillset and give them more exposure to other areas of operation. This is especially important for employees who may be ready for promotion immediately, but no position is available. You need to recognise their leadership potential and keep them engaged to ensure they're not poached by other companies.

---

The process of succession planning can seem daunting at first, but really it's just taking a data-driven approach to employee assessment that feeds into many other areas of talent management: monitoring performance, boosting employee engagement and planning for the future. A simple succession planning template will give you a place to start with these evaluations and make sure you're prepared for any change to your organization when it happens.

Creating a succession planning template will help you to identify the business critical roles in your organization and train employees to fill those roles, future-proofing your company and driving employee engagement through professional development.

Creating a succession planning template will help you to identify the business critical roles in your organization and future proof your company.

How to Create a Succession Planning Template

How to create a succession planning template PeopleGoal

Succession Planning Template

## What is work-life integration? 

I hear you say; It’s the perspective of unifying your personal and work life in a way that complements both areas instead of desperately and ineffectively separating them. With our growing reliance on our digital devices, creating a strict division between your home and work life is becoming increasingly difficult. Therefore, one effective approach is to unify them instead of having them compete against one another.

One practice becoming increasingly common, is having the opportunity to bring your dog to work. This is a great example of contributing to a better work-life integration.

There are __multiple benefits__ to a __work-life integration__, for instance, your mood can be negatively affected if you are to separate your work and home time so savagely in some cases such as having to work overtime. Therefore, integrating the time is more realistic. Moreover, having this fresh outlook on your work can reduce the mundanity of your work, by creating a more flexible environment. And finally, it’s a great way to prioritise effectively. __By mixing up your personal and business duties, you’ll be able to manage your tasks in a way that suits your needs instead of being time restricted__.

_____

## Work-Life Integration Tips

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, there are a couple of things you can do to undertake a work-life integration:

![work life integration tips peoplegoal](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/44jYkZf15qdMt5jcfGUbPt/61da953338193ae9d2f99ebb73342d49/work_life_integration_tips_peoplegoal.png)


### Flexible working hours

You should check to see what flexi time policies your employer has in place. If they don’t, you can always put a case together and ask your manager to consider flexible working hours.

____

### Schedule your time

Making a schedule combining your work and home life duties in accordance to your body clock rather than your office hours will allow you to utilise the time that you feel more productive for the important tasks whatever they may be. And whenever you feel burnt out, you can allow yourself to recharge instead of feeling guilty for taking time out during office hours.

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### Requirements

What are your requirements? This is something you’ll need to ask yourself before organising your time. Not everyone has the same routine, so choose what you need to prioritise and when you need to get tasks done by.

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### Coordination

You’ll need to coordinate your plans with those they will involve, that may be both your colleagues and your family. You’ll beed to arrange your time in conjunction with theirs whether it be doing the school run, or spending afternoons with them if you are looking to work in the evening.

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### Productivity over hours

If you are integrating your time, it may be easy to associate the time you spend on business related tasks with the measure of your contribution. However, this will not always be the case. Instead focus on the value you create, and if you manage to get a task done before the deadline you set, reward yourself with some personal time, or crack on with more work if you so wish. If you are a leader, you might want to look into introducing [4-day-work-week](https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/work-4-days-a-week-the-advantages-and-disadvantages) to your company to create a unique culture.

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### Boundaries

Although work-life integration is usually a great way to fulfil your personal and career goals simultaneously, there is room to go wrong. Therefore, you will need to set some boundaries. It is hard to merge both areas of your life fully so keep an eye on your welfare and the balance that you are taking control of. Do what is right for you, and what makes you the happiest.

The work-life integration is a progressive concept becoming an increasingly common concept used within SME's but what is it and how can you make it work?

Work-Life Integration and How to Make it Work

work life integration peoplegoal

Our __public roadmap is available here__:

[PeopleGoal Product Roadmap (Notion)](https://www.notion.so/evermind/94701324b0d1486396e5d266177e6665?v=3b7eb87e97264a62b878767cf83df1fb "PeopleGoal Product Roadmap (Notion)")

[![peoplegoal product roadmap](//images.ctfassets.net/6g4s9n00xmsl/cWFs7EiKVvspN3DNRtcYP/f6b448fc70fcc3f46875e8edbb7ff401/peoplegoal_product_roadmap.PNG)](https://www.notion.so/evermind/94701324b0d1486396e5d266177e6665?v=3b7eb87e97264a62b878767cf83df1fb "PeopleGoal Product Roadmap")

This is maintained on a monthly basis. Feature requests from customers and team members are reviewed in our product meetings. Approved feature requests are added to the product roadmap in the document above. If you have any questions please reach out to the team at contact@peoplegoal.com.


This is the public product roadmap for PeopleGoal v2. It contains the upcoming and completed features.

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