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Four of the Biggest Challenges Facing Small Businesses In 2018 By Sylvia Schwartz Any small business knows how time consuming, difficult and stressful it can be trying to grow and survive, especially in the early years. But with small businesses accounting for more than 98% of all businesses in the UK - and therefore playing a hugely important role in the country’s economy - succeeding in this arena is also hugely satisfying and potentially very lucrative for those who can make it work. With various campaigns, including national events like Small Business Saturday and local initiatives throughout the UK, aiming to encourage a greater use of small businesses over large corporations, 2018 has the potential to be a really positive year. There will be
challenges though, with political uncertainty rife even now. We asked small business owners to share their experience of business today, exploring the challenges they’ve faced in 2017, and what they expect to challenge them into 2018.
1. Political uncertainty This was the most common challenge cited by our entrepreneurs - and it’s easy to see why. At the time of writing, the divorce bill is still yet to be agreed and the true impact of Brexit remains to be seen. As 2017 has progressed, decisions around our EU membership has caused much uncertainty, affecting those businesses in the UK who trade
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with Europe, but also those who only operate in the UK, hit by economic uncertainty and a lack of consumer confidence in spending. “I think the biggest challenge in 2017 was without question the impact of Brexit uncertainty on business decision making,” business coach William Buist told us. “My clients are all B2B businesses who have all run up against the impacts of uncertainty both in terms of new projects and on existing work.” The economic uncertainties of Brexit and wider political concerns are expected to continue to affect small businesses. Rebecca Oatley of Cherish PR told us: “Rising inflation and the increasing value of the pound will continue to challenge the business in 2018, but rising interest rates are sure to filter through to small businesses like ours. “With less money in a consumer’s pocket, comes lower sales for our clients and less money to spend. That coupled with continuing uncertainty over Brexit negotiations, we will be operating in a market that lacks confidence which is not good for any business. “Under these circumstances, the biggest challenge next year will be to sustain the levels of growth we have experience in previous years – we will be looking more at profitability than the investment required to grow significantly.”
2. Winning the web For many of the entrepreneurs we spoke to, marketing continues to be a challenge, with the ever-increasing reliance on web sales a concern for those who feel their lack either the
skill, the budget, or both, to succeed in this area. With the majority of web searches still conducted via one search engine (Google), investment into services like search engine optimisation (SEO) and paid advertising online via PPC have continued to grow. But in the battle for the top spots, small businesses are still feeling the pressure. “Our biggest challenge in 2017 has been to improve our organic traffic through higher rankings in search engines,” said Michael Foote of comparison website Quote Goat. “This year we have focused on driving more organic traffic to the site and it has certainly been a challenge, albeit one that we have seen some success in. At times we have felt like abandoning our efforts altogether but reflecting on the growth we have seen this year proves it was worthwhile. “Our aim for next year is to look at ways of increasing our market share without relying on search engines as our main traffic source. We predict our biggest challenge in 2018 will be staying on top of new marketing trends. Online marketing is forever changing, with tactics that worked a year ago now redundant and we don’t see the pace of change slowing down anytime soon.”
3. Pricing pains Alongside the growth of web usage has come the birth of sites like People Per Hour and Fiverr, which offer services at low rates and ad hoc. The so-called ‘gig economy’ means more people are choosing to work this way - which, our entrepreneurs told us, represents a
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challenge for those established companies. “Pricing has a challenge for our business this year,” said Rebecca Newenham of Get Ahead VA. “With the presence of sites like Fiverr, some people do really seem to think you can get something for nothing. I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for. All of my team of nearly forty virtual assistants are highly experienced. They are experts in their fields. Because of the flexible nature of our business, clients can pay for as little or as much of their time as they need, as and when they need it. They do pay more than a fiver, but they still get excellent value for money from services that make a real difference.”
4. Going it alone The quest for a better work-life balance is often the catalyst for entrepreneurs to go ahead and set up on their own. But while the grind of the 9 to 5 can be tiresome, the challenges of doing your own thing can also be significant hurdles to overcome, as many of our entrepreneurs told us. “As I am still not employing anyone to help me with all the various hat wearing, I feel at time I am spreading myself too thin and not nailing any of the goals, more diluting efforts. So it’s all about setting priorities on what really counts and being disciplined enough to stick to it,” Laure Moyle, Chief Fairy and Pudding Fairy, told us. “[My next challenge] is definitely finding a way to make my business wholly sustainable as a full time income generation engine.”
Jessica Vos of Sauceman shared a similar sentiment. “My biggest challenge in 2017 was definitely putting myself out there making something I love and sharing a part of myself in a bottle with customers who may or may not love it. It remains scary and a challenge because in order to grow the business and sell more bottles I need to go out there. You need to spread the word because there is so much competition out there. “I think my 2018 challenge will be keeping the business going, alongside the second business I have started which is a granola brand. I still make everything in my own kitchen, storage space is scarce, I buy, deliver, bake, cook, deliver, look for stockists and try to enjoy the gym and spending time with my husband too. “I love being busy but it can be a bit of a juggle sometimes. It is about finding a balance and staying motivated. Life can be both exciting and tough for a small business but despite that I don't compromise on quality and taste ever.”
About the Author Sylvia Schwartz is the manager at business services provider Company Address. Having helped thousands of small businesses take their first steps, Sylvia regularly shares advice via the Company Address blog.
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Can and Should the UK Keep EU Business Laws? By Mitchell Labiak In theory, business within the EU is easy. When everybody plays by the rules, a common currency, freedom of movement, and free trade mean that businesses in each country can prosper from a wider market than the market of just their own country. In practice, business within the EU can be difficult. Countries like the UK don’t want to play by the rules — or rather, 52% of the electorate don’t want to play by the rules — and the result is negotiation over a new set of rules. This is where the UK and the EU currently are. It’s easy to imagine that all of this negotiation is happening and will continue to happen in Brussels. That’s certainly how the media likes to portray it, with story after story on the gaffes and mishaps of the negotiators. What Is The Great Repeal Bill? The truth is that there is a lot which the UK will need to decide for itself in the House of Commons. This is what the Great Repeal Bill is for. Many people have imagined the bill passing through the Commons as some kind of victory for the Tories, believing it means the Tories will be able to pick and choose the
EU laws they want to keep, the ones they want to change, and the ones they want to scrap. The reality is much more nuanced. First of all, the whole notion of an “EU law” is a very tricky concept. Depending on your opinion on the EU and your definition of “EU law”, the amount of British law influence by the EU could be anywhere between 10% and 70%. The reason for this discrepancy is the fact a percentage figure on British law makes no sense. For example, EU directive EN 15635 recommends expert pallet rack inspections at least once every twelve months. It’s because of this directive that HSE recommends rack inspections from a SEMA approved racking inspector once every twelve months. This HSE recommendation is consistent with the Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations 2015 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998. So, while the recommendation itself is not the same as a law, you could argue that it helped to influence these laws. Or, you could argue that it helped to influence some other laws. Or, you could argue that it didn’t influence any law.
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And, even if you were able to figure out whether or not this EU directive did influence a British law or British laws, what percentage figure would you put on that influence? The second complication is that the Great Repeal Bill is more of a technicality than anything else. It’s a functional piece of legislation which allows for a smooth transition of law as the UK leaves the EU. As such, the bill is not a victory for the Tories as they won’t really have the opportunity to “pick and choose” anything. The real unpicking of EU laws, directives, and recommendations will happen during the ongoing Brexit negotiations in Brussels as well as in the Commons once the UK is out of the EU. As such, there’s a huge amount British businesses and the British public can do to influence the shape of UK business laws postBrexit. In fact, there’s a huge amount that people and business all over the world can do to influence the shape of UK business law postBrexit. The Will of the Public… And The Customer How you want the UK to look post-Brexit entirely depends on your business model. A startup which relies on labour from EU nationals will push strongly for freedom of movement, or something resembling it, postBrexit. David Davis has suggested that such a future is a possibility — but only for London. By contrast, a startup which might benefit from closer UK-US relations post-Brexit would want to push for that. Michel Barnier has
suggested that this future is also possible. If you’re a business owner who is staunchly opposed to the whole idea of Brexit, you could also push for some kind of second referendum. This idea has been entirely dismissed by the two major parties, but it’s something which the Liberal Democrats are still pushing for and still believe could happen. Whatever your opinions on Brexit, it’s also important to figure out what your target audience might want you to push for and what would most benefit them. Just as a politician is elected to represent their voters, a business should represent its customers. Consider that each pound or dollar a customer spends on your service is a vote for your company’s stance and political outlook. When customers disagree with a company’s stance, they often revolt. As such, it’s important to recognise your responsibility. Even for businesses outside the UK, if Brexit is a decision which affects your customers, you need to decide what how you’re going to react to that and what’s worth campaigning for. Much like a politician, your elevated position as a business leader will allow you to have a real impact on how the UK operates postBrexit. Much like a politician, you will also be expected to respect the views of the people who give you power. If you can balance those two things, you’ll be able to know how much you can and should try to influence business law post-Brexit.
Mitchell Labiak is a digital marketing expert who works for Exposure Ninja as well as the editor of “The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing and Digital PR”. He also creates YouTube videos about history and can write down all 50 US states from memory.
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7 Useful Tips for Developing Your Sales and Marketing Strategy By Brooke Harper At best, sales and marketing teams are acquaintances. At worst, they’re enemies. At least, that’s the situation at most organizations. While a healthy bit of sibling rivalry typically doesn’t hurt, the sales and marketing relationship often suffers from miscommunication—or a complete lack of communication—as well as occasional animosity. This is remarkable, especially considering that the two teams typically have the same goal: increasing business revenue. There is a point in the history of sales and marketing in which it may have made sense for these teams to display more competition than camaraderie. John Wanamaker—a marketer active in the 1800s who is often
called the pioneer of advertising—is quoted as saying: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” It is easy to understand why salespeople didn’t appreciate marketing efforts in that time. There was no accountability to business results, and salespeople could find themselves wondering whether the marketing team was contributing at all to their work, even while marketers took some of the credit for business success. Those days are over, though. With the rise of digital marketing and the advent of marketing technology, marketing
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accountability is at an all-time high. Furthermore, these advances have allowed marketers to take more responsibility in not just catching the attention of ideal clients, but also in nurturing them down the sales funnel to ensure a perfect hand off to sales. responsibility in not just catching the attention of ideal clients, but also in nurturing them down the sales funnel to ensure a perfect hand off to sales.
Explaining the Definition of Sales and Marketing: Strategic Sales and Marketing and International Marketing What is Sales? The sales team is responsible for moving products or services to customers. They are also responsible for upselling current customers and clients. While sales teams may practice some form of outreach through cold calling, they typically deal with leads that are brought to them by the marketing team. Salespeople develop relationships with these individuals, determine what their needs are, and determine the proper products and services to fill those needs.
What is marketing? The marketing team is responsible for everything from increasing brand awareness to delivering high quality leads to the sales team. From a higher level, the marketing team identifies and defines ideal customers, communicates with them on relevant online and offline platforms, and primes them for a relationship with a salesperson.
Strategic Sales and Marketing and International Sales and Marketing
While these two teams often operate on their own, strategic sales and marketing is the ideal state. Strategic sales and marketing requires two important elements:
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Working together in a separate but equal capacity that relies on great communication.
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Looking to the future by highlighting trends in consumer behavior and pipeline growth as well as keeping a foot in the present by addressing customer’s needs in the day-to-day.
When it comes to international sales and marketing efforts, these elements are doubly important, given the expanded range and larger customer database.
7 Steps for Strategic Sales and Marketing 1. Create Personas in a Joint Sales & Marketing Effort Personas are generally considered the responsibility of the marketing team, and they are sometimes ignored by the sales team. Considering that each of these teams is speaking to the same ideal customers, though, this is a huge missed opportunity and an effort that should be worked on together. In the end, this work will benefit both teams.
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While the marketing team may still be tasked with the work of creating these influential strategy pieces, sales should be heavily involved in the effort. Getting the input of salespeople up front, interviewing them throughout, and seeking their approval at the end will help marketers create personas that serve both teams and result in vital buy-in from salespeople.
2. Make an Effort to Document the Buyers’ Journey for Each Persona The buyer’s journey should be the basis of all sales and marketing efforts. Unfortunately, this step is often skipped. Even more unfortunate is the fact that sales and marketing rarely collaborate on this vital piece of strategy, despite the fact that they each are responsible for significant parts of it. Sales and marketing leaders should work through each persona in joint sales and marketing sessions, examining how each persona becomes aware of their company, how they become a lead, and how they eventually become a sale. As the teams work through these stages, leaders should keep a list of the various needs and questions each persona will have. This process will help with the next step, which should address what assets are already available to answer these questions and to move each persona through to the next step.
3. Audit Sales and Marketing Assets and Document Gaps Along the Buyer’s Journey Now that both sales and marketing know what each persona’s journey to purchase looks like, it’s time to examine whether or not they have assets to speak to audience needs along each step of the process. In this stage, both sales and marketing need
to spend some time collecting everything that both the sales and marketing teams have created, including whitepapers, infographics, interactive quizzes, e-books, case studies, assessments, email streams, and more. Once this is compiled, marketers and salespeople should organize these content pieces along each step of the funnel identifying where they have appropriate assets, and where they are lacking.
4. Establish a Content Marketing Plan Across the Buyers’ Journey Content marketing is often regarded as a brand awareness tactic, and one with questionable impact on revenue. While some sing the praises of content marketing, those who are focused on quantifiable business results may not be sold on the concept. What many don’t know, though, is that content marketing is an ideal method for connecting sales and marketing as well as building a strong strategy that will move interested buyers through the sales process. When creating a sales and marketing content strategy, make sure to get both sales and marketing leaders in the room to discuss what audience they needs’ like to address, and how content assets can support throughout the different stages of the funnel.
5. Develop a Joint Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategy While a content marketing strategy may seem to favor the marketing team, an account-based marketing strategy will focus on the needs of the sales team. Still, these
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efforts should be worked on together. Marketing and sales leaders can choose to create an organic ABM strategy or to adopt a more expensive—but very effective—ABM technology solution that will allow for sales and marketing automation. While the sales team may be more in tune with the accounts they want to target, the marketing team should be brought in at every level. This is especially true when it comes to content creation for the ABM ads or for dynamic, account-focused content on websites.
6. Implement Regular Sales and Marketing Communication Efforts One of the simplest steps for ensuring a great sales and marketing strategy that creates and maintains alignment of the teams is creating a regular cadence for communication. This could be as simple as a weekly email or as complex as a quarterly offsite. Its best practice, though, to ensure that both teams are completely on the same page in terms of regular sales and marketing efforts as well as long term business goals.
7. Repeat Steps 1-6 on a Quarterly or Annual Basis Finally, the last step for a successful sales and marketing strategy is revisiting and refining the steps above. The work of creating
successful sales and marketing strategy is never finished. Instead, sales and marketing leaders should make it a priority to track progress, evolve their tactics, and stay abreast of both industry changes as well as client and consumer behavior changes. Whether marketers are looking to bolster their international sales and marketing or simply start taking steps towards more strategic sales and marketing efforts, the 7 useful tips above will help to create a sales and marketing strategy that drives organizational success. What’s most important is that marketing teams and sales teams are aggressively working together with an understanding of shared goals and responsibilities. Ultimately, as the roles of sales teams and marketing teams grow closer and the lines of accountability continue to blur, it is in everyone’s best interest to start working together. The best part is, the more sales and marketing connect on personas, buyers’ processes, strategies, and results, the more refined the efforts will become and the better business results will be. In other words—everyone wins. This article is originally published at Tenfold.
About the Author Brooke Harper is a seasoned writer and sales consultant, and has written hundreds of articles and white papers covering all aspects of B2B sales, phone marketing, and advanced sales strategy. Brooke is one of the top writers on Quora in B2B and her answers get over 100K views a month, and growing.
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How to Improve Your SEO with Proper Site Architecture By Stephen Fox Improving your website architecture will definitely help with your SEO campaign. Good site architecture is basically all about how visitors and search engines find their way around your site. It’s about getting top-notch, relevant content that serves the needs of your visitors, and reducing the number of times they have to click through your website’s pages to find it. With proper site architecture, your website will have a better indexation rate and an increase in search engine traffic.
If it’s your first time hearing about site architecture, then you have a lot to learn. In this article, we are going to discuss in detail what website architecture really is, why it’s important to implement it, and some useful tips to help you get started.
What is site architecture? Think of site architecture as the blueprint of a building. Without a blueprint, there's a good chance the building will fall and
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crumble. Likewise, if you fail to develop a proper site architecture, it will be difficult for your visitors to navigate your site. Your site’s architecture basically lays out how your website should be structured so as to best serve your visitors and search engines. Proper site structure will ensure that your content is organized (which can improve your search engine rankings) and uses effective internal linking to create topical relevance. Topical relevance helps search engines easily understand the topic of your website.
Why does website architecture matter? There are various benefits you will enjoy with proper site architecture. Improved Search Engine Rankings Search engine crawlers will be able to
navigate your site quickly and much more
efficiently, which will help improve your rankings. Improved User Experience Your visitors will be able to easily and quickly navigate through your website’s pages. This will create a more enjoyable experience, which will entice them to visit your site more frequently. Increase Website Authority Your site’s authority will increase because links will be equally distributed throughout your site. This means you'll need to obtain less links to rank your website.
How to design the perfect website architecture There are various ways in which you can design your site architecture in such a way that it is responsive, quick, and easy to navigate. Limit the amount of internal links per page It’s important that you reduce the number of internal links on a single page. Instead, it’s best to send internal links to pages that have a similar topic. For example if your post is discussing “weight loss tips” avoid sending an internal link to a blog post discussing “how to clean your carpet.” Instead, send a link to a post discussing “best juice recipes for weight loss.” Remember that the less internal
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links you have on a single page, the more link equity and quality it will have. Reduce the amount of clicks it takes to reach each single page on your website When designing your site’s internal linking, it’s important that you limit the amount of clicks it takes to reach every page on the site. The more clicks it takes to get to a single page, the harder a search engine crawler will need to work to reach your pages. You want to make it as easy as possible for them. The easier it is, the higher they'll rank your website. At a maximum, no page should take more than four clicks. Use keyword-rich anchor text for internal links The anchor text should be placed in such a way that it entices your visitors to click through to the next page. It’s important to use keyword-rich anchor text for internal links. I recommend using 50% keywordrich anchor text, 25% generic anchor text, and 25% branded.
Let's use an example to clarify. For this example, the name of our company is “Wymax cleaners” and we're trying to rank a page for the keyword “Denver carpet cleaners”. In this case, 50% of the internal links pointing to that specific page should have the anchor text “Denver carpet cleaners”, 25% of the internal linking anchor text would be “Wymax cleaners”, and the remaining 25% would use generic anchor text such as “visit this page” or “click here”.
Different Types of Site Architecture Design that are Beneficial for SEO The type of website you have and your budget will determine which type of site architecture you should use. Conventional Architecture This approach starts with the homepage of your site. With this type of architecture, you will have your internal links flowing from the homepage to the category pages, all the way to individual product pages. If you structure your site in this manner, all the external links you receive to your homepage will transfer link equity to your internal pages. This method works best for sites that naturally receive a majority of their links to their homepage. The downfall of this approach is that it's much more difficult
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and less natural to build a high quantity of links to your site's homepage. If you think of it logically, people are much more likely to link out to a high quality blog post than to your website's homepage. Reverse Architecture The reverse architecture involves creating your site’s authority from bottom to top. To use this method, you'll need to create unique and high-quality content. From your blog posts, you'll internally links to the pages you want to rank. Once you have this in place, you'll then start building external links to that content. Reverse architecture works great for ranking e-commerce stores, local businesses as well as multi-national companies. The only disadvantage is that it can be costly and time-consuming to produce unique and high-quality content on a regular basis. Website Silos Building multiple website silos is another incredible strategy for improving your site architecture. A silo basically consists of three pages that are closely related to one
another. The first page will target a broad keyword while the second page will target a long-tail keyword. The third page will target a more specific long tail keyword. After creating these pages, you will then interlink the first page to the second, the second page to the third page, and the third page to the first page. This is beneficial because it will greatly improve the topical relevance of each page, and evenly distribute link equity throughout the pages in the silo. When you receive a link, it'll benefit every page in the silo. As you create more content on your site, you will eventually build multiple silos and interlink those that have similar topics. When you focus on building a proper website architecture, you'll have a much easier time ranking high in search engines and provide a much better user experience for your visitors. You're now equipped with everything you need to get started, so go take action!
About the Author Stephen Fox is the co-founder of Upkeep Media, an online marketing agency specializing in search engine optimization. He's a huge fan of working out, travelling and reading. If you'd like to connect with him, add him on LinkedIn.
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Office Trends of 2018: Can an Effectively Designed Office Space Promote Productivity By Simon Clark With the end of 2017 looming, it’s inevitable that businesses globally are considering freshening up their work spaces to ensure maximum employee satisfaction. Simon Clark, office interior specialist at business supplies firm Irongate Group, speaks to the experts to see what could be on the cards when it comes to the workplace design trends of 2018.
Continued trends from 2017 Office design trends are frequently changing in relation to the growing
demand of dynamic business models. A number of trends we saw last year will continue to change the workplaces of 2018, according to Peter Grant, a member of British Council for Offices: “The office has seen many changes over the last 15 years with main drivers being technology, the need to attract and retain quality staff, real estate costs and sustainability. “The continuing trend for open spaces will
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continue into 2018: the overall feel and look of the office will be a softer almost residential in appearance with the trend to create many types of spaces to suit different working groups, personalities and needs.”
New year, new trends… A home from home
“Unconventional offices are becoming more commonplace with space given to collaborative working utilising soft seating and privacy areas away from the desk. Whilst many businesses won’t go as far as putting a slide in their office, there are a number of benefits in making your office furniture more interesting and attractive bringing it into the modern, changing world. Creating an environment that combines the necessary desk and chair with soft upholstery colour, natural light and plant life will significantly help to attract the right talent and retain them.”
Being at one with nature
Employers are becoming ever more focused on employee satisfaction and realise that by creating an enjoyable working environment, with designated lounge areas, relaxed lighting and comfortable furniture - such as sofas and bean bags - they’re likely to see higher retention levels as a result. Long community tables in the workplace can also encourage better integration and interaction among different teams, whilst also effectively utilising the office space. John Ravenhall, managing director of Nomique Seating, says:
Creating a more collaborative and flexible working environment has taken off over the past couple of years and now biophilic design and plant life is expected to be on the rise commercially. This interior design trend uses nature and natural lighting as an architectural framework to boost productivity and improve mental wellbeing in the workplace. Peter Grant adds:
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“The use of more natural materials from responsible sources will continue, strong accent colours will not be so prominent and will be replaced by more natural pastel colours and materials.” Research has shown that different colours and intensities have different effects on our mood and productivity levels. Green, for example, creates a calming, cheerful and rejuvenating atmosphere. When stepping into the workplace every day and being surrounded by an abundance of nature and pastel colours, this is likely to impact employees in a positive manner.
A smarter office
It’s no secret that rapid advancements in technology over the past 15 years have completely changed the way we work, arguably for the better. The importance of high quality technology in a business environment is becoming vital for a more efficient workplace. We predict that there will certainly be a growth of wireless charging surfaces, where all technologies are integrated to create the ultimate ‘smart office’. Alex Tebbs, founder of VIA, a unified communications company, says: “Technology is changing the way we work, and that’s set to continue as cloud adoption increases. Smart offices of the future will take an integrated approach to things like their communications platforms, meaning it will be much easier for businesses to facilitate remote working and cross-location collaboration. We expect to see technology playing a more prominent role in offices of the future.” The introduction of collaborating furniture and technology to increase efficiency through office booths and work pods with technological features such as a built in power and audio visuals.
About the Author Simon Clark is an office interior specialist at business supplies firm Irongate Group who specialise in a variety of business supplies across various industries.
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Five Ways to Effectively Deal With Staff Sickness in the Workplace By Gemma Harding We all know that days off due to sickness
lowest recorded figure since its records
and injury can create problems with
began in 1993, when it was at 7.2 days.
meeting deadlines and schedules,
But when you scale this four days a year up
maintaining morale, delivering high levels of
across the country, it means a staggering
service and maintaining productivity.
137.3 million working days were lost. And
Yet the latest Office of National
certain organisations and demographics are
Statistics figures tell us that on average in
responsible for significantly higher levels.
2016 there were just 4.3 days lost per
These include:
worker due to sickness or injury in the UK.

Women

Older workers
It goes on to point out that this is the
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Those with long-term health conditions
Identify when increases occurred and
and smokers
review other organisational changes at the
time
Workers in Wales and Scotland
Public-sector workers and those working in the largest organisations (those with 500 or more employees)
Are there types of workers particularly prone to absence or departments particularly affected?
If you translate this into the cost to UK business, the results are
2. Start reviewing cultures rather
alarming. Personnel Today reports that one
than people
of the largest recent surveys extrapolated that the cost to employers is an average of
Wilmar Scaufeli pinpoints in the Journal of
£16 billion each year. While the latest
Organisational Behaviour that increases in
figures may be slightly lower than this, the
job demands directly influence
cost is still high enough to make us all pause
absenteeism. He also notes that decreases
for thought.
in job resources, such as feedback and learning opportunities, are causally related.
So what can you do about it? Gemma
Particularly where stress at work, or at
Harding, Head of Corporates Services
home, has led to absences, implementing
at CALLCARE collected her top tips to what
flexible working (such as unpaid leave,
managers can do to effectively address
different hours and days working from
employee absences:
home) can help.
1. Gather hard data Absenteeism is not just about individuals: it’s about how unplanned leave affects your organisation as a whole. You need to know the scale of the problem and be able to
Encourage your management team to
review working practices and introduce training and support where required Consider a more flexible approach to working patterns
identify if there are organisational issues that affect it.
3. Develop a clear absenteeism
policy
Look for patterns in terms of timings or
groupings of absence
It’s important to be clear about exactly what is acceptable and what support is on
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offer.
Any written warning issued should be
signed by the employee and placed in their
Detail how many absences are
acceptable in a given period of time
personnel file
Document acceptable reasons for
absence
5. Start thinking creatively
Thinking outside the box opens up a whole
Describe the support offered to help
address increases in absences
new world of potential solutions.
Delineate consequences for violating the
Outsourcing can often relieve the strain on
policy
your staff. Offering intelligent outsourcing can help businesses maintain
4. Address issues at an individual
productivity without the stress. Taking in all above advice can ensure a
level
healthy relationship between managers
While absenteeism is not all about the
and employees in communicating and
individual, it must also be addressed at this
dealing with absence issues.
level.
Meet with the employee and discuss
possible solutions
Offer support, training and flexibility if
required
Document every meeting in writing
If things still do not improve, issue a
verbal warning and ensure this is also documented
About The Author Gemma Harding, Head of Corporate Services at CALLCARE As Head of Corporate Services Gemma is an expert in the call handling process and guiding organisations to an improved customer service strategy.
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How to Attract and Retain Top Talent Top Talent Don’t Care About Free Lunches The unemployment rate in the United Kingdom has dropped to its lowest since 1975, and employment is at its highest in the last four years, yet workers and their employers don’t appear to be better off. The CV Squad have examined why 30% of UK employers said hiring had increased compared to the previous year, while an almost equal amount (29%) declared that employee turnover is growing, and that they are struggling to attract and retain highpotential employees and top performers. Why Are Businesses Struggling to Identify, Attract, and Retain Top Performing Employees? Employers Don’t Know How to Identify Top Talent 32% of employees expect to leave their job in next two years, and alarmingly, many businesses focus their retention efforts on
the wrong employees. By focusing on the retention of their top employees, employers can avoid being part of the 60% of UK employers that have faced the difficulty of attracting high-potential and top-performing workers. They Prioritise Perks Employees Don’t Care For 83% of employers say retaining employees is their top benefits objective. However, according to Ben Muir, recruitment director at The CV Squad, “Employers and employees appear to have their wires crossed as to what is offered and what employees want.” “Employees are often more concerned with competitive base pay, job security and benefits that ease their personal life. However, employers tend to emphasize other benefits, like challenging work, freebies and a cool company culture”. How to Identify, Attract, and Retain Top Performing Employees
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Identifying Top Talent According to Muir, “Employers should look to the needs of their top 5% employees, as these are likely to be the company’s most motivated, proficient, and likely to rise to positions of accountability and leadership”. What Employees Really Care About ICIMS found that, “92% of full-time employees believe that companies that offer non-traditional benefits are more likely to recruit top-tier talent”. But, top employees won’t work for unfair pay, and they also won’t be easily swayed with mundane rewards, like free coffee in the mornings, office-served lunches, minibars, or nap pods. With nearly three in five (57%) people reporting that benefits and perks are among their top considerations before accepting a job, here are the benefits that top employees really care about: 1. Fair or generous pay 2. Healthcare insurance (e.g. medical, dental, vision) 3. Substantial paid leave 4. Performance bonuses 5. Paid sick leave 6. Retirement plan or pension 7. Fair maternity and paternity leave and pay 8. Work-life balance While extra benefits make work and personal life more comfortable and manageable, according to MetLife, 39% are living payday
to payday while 34% are distracted at work due to financial worries. It’s clear that rewarding employees with non-monetary rewards is important, but a decent income is still the most crucial. What Does This Mean for Employees Today? The dilemma employers face when trying to locate top talent is an advantage for workers in any field who aren’t feeling valued, or who are looking for a job that challenges them more. According to Muir, “Workers know what they want, and it is up to employers to offer what meets their needs and wants”. For skilled workers in the UK, this is a great opportunity to get back into the job market, be identified and retained as top talent, and be valued – receiving fair income and benefits that really make a difference. About The CV Squad: The CV Squad are an award-winning team of highly experienced international recruitment industry experts who have come together to share knowledge and arm jobseekers with the tools they need to secure the best jobs, earning potential, and career success. The CV Squad offer their customers a bespoke professional CV writing service, LinkedIn profile writing, career coaching, and go as far as pairing customers with their ideal employer and company culture.
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