You don’t need to pay huge amounts of money to agencies and all kinds of professionals to launch your online business.
All you need is a bunch of smart and useful web tools — and the right people to work with.
[Read more…] about Supercharge Your Online Company With These 50 Web SolutionsTime management is one of the biggest concerns when adopting telecommuting arrangements, especially when there are different time zones involved. Remote teams are supposed to increase productivity, at least according to a number of studies including one from Global Workplace Analytics. However, it can also become a stumbling block for those unable to unlock the secrets of time management.
To handle time management issues better, it’s important to get acquainted with the specific challenges facing remote team time management. The coronavirus pandemic is forcing many companies to resort to telework. It’s important to know how to resolve essential issues such as time management to make sure that the switch to a new work arrangement does not result in inefficiencies and other problems.
Time zones affect the operation of remote teams. It’s difficult to change work and rest schedules, especially for older adult workers. Significant time zone differences require adjustments on the part of the employee, the employer, or both.
Almost all workers are willing to adjust their routines, but doing so tends to result in reduced productivity. Not many can adapt their body clocks easily to changing schedules. Also, there’s the risk of suffering from adverse health consequences.
“The arguments in favour of introducing shift work clearly depend on productivity and safety being maintained at an acceptable level. However, the evidence reviewed in this paper clearly indicates that both productivity and safety may be compromised at night,” write Simon Folkard and Philip Tucker in an in-depth review for the journal Occupational Medicine.
“Safety declines over successive night shifts, with increasing hours on duty and between successive rest breaks. The only known way to minimize these problems is to improve shift systems with respect to these factors,” the researchers add.
To make telecommuting work for employees in different time zones, shifting is necessary. However, it is recommended that employees are not given successive night shifts too often. Age and health conditions should be considered. The length of night shifts should also be reduced. Flexibility is encouraged to strike a balance between employee health and productivity.
Even the best remote team managers would have a hard time handling schedule and task management without the proper tools. Dealing with teleworkers who work at the same time may be relatively easy, but working with employees from different time zones can be challenging when done manually or using traditional systems.
There’s a need for solutions that simplify the way employee shifting is managed. Especially during emergencies, it’s essential to have the flexibility to reassign and reschedule to make up for the unexpected increases in deliverables or emergencies that lead to employee absences.
It also helps to have software with an automated system for optimizing schedules and the hiring of employees in relation to demand. Operations data can be analyzed to optimize hires, schedules, and assignments.
The global workforce is changing, with relation to the so-called “gig” economy. It involves instant gratification, where clients or customers get whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want it.
The State of Remote Work 2020 report cites the following as the top struggles of remote workers: difficulties in collaboration and communication, loneliness, the inability to unplug, and distractions at home. The lack of motivation also factors in. These can prevent employees from working at their best and worsen the time management problem that is common among teleworkers.
Poor communication and collaboration can be demotivating to many competent workers. Loneliness can lead to procrastination and the lack of drive to work. The inability to unplug can mess with schedules and result in unwanted effects that prevent employees from following their set timelines. More importantly, distractions in the place of work (at home or at some cafe) can drive productivity down and negatively impact schedules.
Also worth noting is the inability of many remote employees to collaborate in a remote setting. A company can do many things to make the telework setup less disobliging, but it would be difficult to achieve the desired outcomes if the employees themselves refuse to cooperate. It’s easy to come up with excuses when your supervisor can’t be physically present to check on you. Technical difficulties can also get in the way, and the remote worker may not have the willingness to address the problem.
Many tend to believe that managers have already grown adept at the management of remote teams. Asia, for instance, is home to many business process outsourcing companies that serve clients on the other side of the world. The region is also dotted by multinational companies that operate branches or offices in many countries. However, there are still those who find it difficult to hurdle the time management challenge.
That’s why it’s important to come up with suitable solutions for the potential issues brought about by different time zones, compliance requirements, the use of inadequate time management tools, and the inherent resistance of some workers to collaborate.
Featured image: Unsplash
It is possible to have a great marketing present on Pinterest. This is especially a case for companies in creative fields, especially home-improvement or hobbies, such as scrapbooking. However, websites that don’t have a lot of images may not be so successful at Pinterest when it comes to sharing their own content, especially if they’re wanting to share content that doesn’t have a catchy image attached to it.
If this isn’t the case, they may be more successful on content-heavy social media platforms, such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Additionally, Pinterest is a social media platform that needs to be updated daily, much like Twitter. This is because pins are shown by the date that they’re posted, so profiles updated on a regular basis are more likely to be shown in search results. This also leads to better engagement with the target community, which means engaged users will be sharing your company pins and links to content.
When first setting up company Pinterest account, it’s a good idea to get a base of 100-200 pins minimum in order to make a profile more credible. Pinterest profiles that are more likely to be spam usually only have a few pins (usually under 50). If you don’t have time in your company to set aside time for creating these initial pins and then maintaining the profile on a daily basis, it may not be worth the hassle. It’s important that companies are dedicated to providing a constant queue of new pins in order to be successful.
Another important step that may be obvious to some but surprisingly many companies don’t do is to completely fill out the profile. This includes the bio, links to Twitter and the company website, and making sure that your website link is verified. This usually involves uploading custom file or tag to your website to prove to Pinterest that you own the website you listed. It is important to note that only one Pinterest profile can verify one website at a time (for instance, Lowe’s can’t have 2 Pinterest pages and both have Lowes.com as their verified website).
When you have your initial pins and your profile is completely filled out, it’s time to set a schedule for maintaining your profile. This includes a pin strategy that list how many links to your own website content that should be pinned every week. For e-commerce websites that have several products, distribute this gradual process is over many months. Besides your own content and products, be sure to pin related images from other websites.
Much like twitter and other social media sites. Pinning other sites content, show that you are invested in being a valuable participant in the Pinterest community, making your target Pinterest count you as a profile to find creative ideas.
Finally, if your company is not yet open minded enough to give the employee managing Pinterest a more creative reign over what is posted, then Pinterest may not be right for your company at this time. However if your company is looking for creative outlet that is customer friendly and inspiring, then the Pinterest profile may find success and bring more traffic to the company website.
Many innovations in the modern day and age are a necessity rather than a preferred choice. Data masking is one such innovation. Thrust upon us by the increase in technology and the concomitant reduction in barriers to the theft of data as well as expansion in regulation of industry in general, data masking has become a compulsory part of virtually every business that works with sensitive data and non-production databases.
Data masking goes by many names, such as data obfuscation, data scrambling, data cleansing, and data anonymization. And although the names may be different, the purpose is the same – to keep private data just that; private. Working from the premise that prevention is better than cure, data masking provides protection against the potentially business destroying act of having your data compromised. [Read more…] about Benefits of Data Masking
The strategy of positioning a website in social networks must be coherent and in concordance with the general business strategy of the company, and the efforts to position the website online need real and reachable objectives. We always say that the positioning strategy is the one that must guide the webmaster in choosing his social media platform. One thing is certain: without social media, a website can’t survive today, therefore it is important to have a strong online presence, and this can only be done with a good marketing campaign. [Read more…] about Do Social Media Really Anchor Your Marketing Campaign?
Social media is an excellent resource for every type of business—brick and mortar, online, or both. Twitter is one of the biggest social media networks out there, which means you’re missing out if you aren’t maximizing your tweeting potential. Here’s how to get more Twitter followers for your business, both the easy way and the hard way.
1. The Easy Way – Buying Your Followers
Social media can feel like a popularity contest—people judge the importance and prestige of their peers based on a single number: how many followers. The more followers you have, the easier it is to accrue even more followers. But how do you get people interested in the first place, when you’re just starting out? One shortcut that’s been gaining momentum recently is the practice of buying Twitter followers. If you want to buy some fake followers to raise your profile, all you need to do is visit one of the many third-party websites offering the service, enter your credit card number and Twitter handle, and you could gain thousands of “fans” over the course of a couple days. Prices vary, though it tends to be relatively inexpensive: some sites offer 1,000 followers for only $5. Though the practice is technically against Twitter’s terms of service, it’s incredibly widespread; high percentages of even the most famous tweeters’ followers are fake. [Read more…] about 2 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers
Jumping in to the world of social media marketing arena for entry-level and small businesses might be quite a headache. There are strategies and a firm plan that must be followed to have a strong social presence on the web to effectively market and advertise the brand, product or services. Sufficient time and patience is required for the strategies to take effect. There are some do’s and don’ts that must be appropriately followed to bring your social media marketing plan strong recognition over the web.
Following are some of the useful tips that might be of great benefit to the beginners in the field of social media marketing. [Read more…] about Useful Tips for Entry-Level Businesses Planning to Jump into Social Media Marketing
You’ve got a business, you want to increase your sales (duh!) and you want a larger Internet presence and market share. In the old days, you know, circa 1992, you could put an ad in the local paper, you could run an ad on television (1 minute = $$$) or you could try radio (1 minute spot = $+ a half $). As for marketing, you could slap your logo on a hat, pen, refrigerator magnet, tote bag (think PBS’ annual telethon), and then go to conventions and trade shows to give them all away.
Several of these methods still work. Television works, but it’s even more expensive now than it was back then. Same with radio. You can advertise in the local paper, but in all likelihood, the only person who will see it is your grandmother, and unless she’s your target demographic, kiss your ROI goodbye. [Read more…] about Why You Should Use Performance Marketing