Working from home is top-of-mind for many people these days. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in innumerable businesses sending innumerable employees home to work to keep them safe and isolated from others. Working from home has long been top-of-mind for us–we’ve been a virtual business since 2008. So from a workday standpoint, the virus hasn’t created that much disruption for us. It has created some new opportunities, though.
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
The results of a recent experiment by Microsoft Japan lend additional weight to previous real-world data showing significant gains in productivity by—wait for it—working less!.
The company found that shifting to a four-day workweek resulted in productivity gains of 40 percent. While this correlation might sound counterintuitive at first glance, it’s easy to understand the direction of the impact when taking a closer look at productivity; although the size of the impact is still impressive. For context, the biggest jump in national year-over-year productivity in the United States going back to 1949 was about 10 percent with other cyclical peaks usually ranging somewhere between three and 5 percent. There have been some dips of negative productivity growth, but those are relatively rare. (more…)
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
Even with an ever-increasing number of our “clocks” smart enough to change themselves on daylight saving time, most of us have to take a few minutes to remember how to change the time on our ovens, microwaves and cars. Or maybe we just let them be an hour off until the clocks switch back in a few months. Either way, it’s a minor annoyance. For most of us… (more…)
There’s an old saying that is familiar to any job seeker: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” That same idea could be applied to recruiting and hiring. Smart networking can provide big benefits when it comes to recruiting. The broader the network, the better the chances of reaching job seekers. In a digital world, hiring and recruiting often takes place online. That doesn’t mean, though, that online recruiting should be the only channel used, or that social media is always the best place to find candidates.
While much of our work involves helping individuals and organizations promote their products and services, more and more lately we’re being called upon to help them with their recruiting. For good reason! The same tried-and-true principles that work for effective product and service marketing also work when “marketing” for employees. And, perhaps even more so than with traditional product or service marketing, networking can make a big difference and have a great impact in companies’ ability to recruit top candidates.
We often hear about the importance of networking and it’s tough to challenge that notion. Networking is a great way to make new connections that can lead to job offers or other professional connections. For small business owners and entrepreneurs, networking is especially important, because simply generating awareness of your organization can be difficult without meeting people in person and building personal connections. (more…)
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
Staffing is one of the biggest challenges for small and mid-sized businesses. The challenge can be especially acute when a company reaches the stage in which it thinks it needs more help but maybe not necessarily an FTE or when a single FTE might not be enough, but two might be too many.
Just as many workers crave flexibility in their employment relationships—as illustrated by the growth of the gig economy—small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) also value flexibility in their labor relationships. Rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, for example, go to great lengths to ensure their workers are classified as contractors instead of employees. The costs of ongoing disagreements over this classification is something Lyft cited as a potential risk in its recent IPO. (more…)
Maybe it’s because I grew up in a family-owned business. Maybe it’s because I grew up a bit “socially awkward.” Maybe it’s because I spent 20+ years in corporate communications. Whatever it is, I grew up with a very strong sense of inclusiveness when it comes to interacting with people. The concept that you “can’t judge a book by its cover” has always been meaningful to me; I’ve always enjoyed interacting with and learning from a broad range of people–trying hard not to pre-judge those I come into contact with. That has served me well. (more…)
So you want to be an expert? Seems like just about everybody does these days and social media makes it relatively easy, and very inexpensive, to take steps to gain expert status, or thought leadership. We work with a wide range of clients, primarily in business-to-business (B2B) related industries, many who are business consultants wishing to establish themselves as thought leaders in various industries. Here are “3 Steps for Gaining Traction as a Thought Leader”: (more…)
In a recent Entrepreneur article, John Rampton explains to readers “Why You Should Stop Wasting Your Time on Networking Events.” In the piece, Rampton writes, “If people will be there that have great ideas and energy to share, I’m game. But attending an event just to hand out business cards and get a stack in return with the hopes of landing a new client or important connection is not for me.” (more…)
Networking is an important activity in any industry. The term has many definitions depending on who you talk to, but in a broad sense you can think of it as just getting to know people in your industry. It’s surprising how many employment, mentorship, sales and partnership opportunities come about just by tapping into who you know and who you’ve met through networking activities.
Unfortunately, we don’t always leverage those relationships to best advantage. (more…)
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