Culture Archives - PerkSpot

Constructing Hybrid Communication Streams that Work

Max Goldenberg January 12, 2023

Hybrid workplaces have come with a host of benefits, but these new methods of organization have also led to new challenges. One of the most prevalent issues faced by evolving hybrid companies is the opening of new avenues of communication. When a hybrid worker has to sort through videoconferencing, email, slack, and in-person meetings, it can easily become overwhelming. Doubly so if different information streams are delivering inconsistent information!

In-person meetings are a great way to deliver important information and boost social cohesion in the workplace. Conversely, if teams that collaborate are in the office on different days, videoconferencing meetings might occur despite being physically available.

This opens up additional unnecessary communication streams that can contribute to overwhelming an employee. Additionally, if flexibility is a key aspect of your hybrid model, you may develop a culture of workplace proximity bias. Employees who frequently come in and hold face-to-face conversations can be prioritized in the flow of information and favor. These problems should not be taken lightly, poor communication and preferential bias can easily cause inefficiency within the organization.

Hybrid Communication Solutions

So how can communication be effectively managed in a hybrid environment? The absolute most important thing to do in the evolving hybrid workplace is to act with intentionality. Pay attention to not just what employees are communicating, but also how they are communicating; especially if teams or individuals are closely collaborating, it’s vital to take the initiative and organize scheduling efforts so that closely affiliated co-workers are in the office at the same time, cutting down on the number of open communication channels.

This is also an area where Human Resources can really step in and be a big help. HR check-ins are important for taking the pulse of employees in general. In the hybrid era they can be extra important. Some effective simple solutions include organized collaboration and clear channels of communication. If one employee prefers acting on emails and another prefers in-person discussion, HR might serve both to remind others to communicate over e-mail when sending information digitally while encouraging relevant teams to come into the office for in-person collaboration on one specific day.

Flexibility Vs. Communicative Efficiency

One of, if not the most serious problem facing hybrid communication structures is the seemingly direct conflict of allowing employees flexible work-from-home schedules against the need to have employees in the office on the same days to cut down the number of open streams of communication. While it can be a challenge to get employees to come in when they have control, it’s possible.

To encourage employees to come in on certain dates, consider hosting in-person events that coincide. These can be anything from a simple happy hour at the end of the work day to a yoga class. What matters is that these events are clearly communicated to employees as an incentive to come into the office. Plus, unique events like these are a fantastic and often inexpensive way of boosting morale! It’s easy to give workers a fun incentive to build their schedule around. You’ll be able to retain a high level of employee flexibility while making sure collaborators are in the office at the same time.

While communication management has certainly become more challenging in the hybrid era, the new difficulties it poses are far from insurmountable. And even the challenges it does provide are significantly outweighed by the benefits, in flexibility and work-life balance among others. Through intentional action and providing incentives that direct employees into the office intelligently, you can cut down on the ballooning amount of communication channels available to employees and, in doing so, curb sensations of being overwhelmed before they even start. An easier way to provide employee stress solutions is through helping their financial security – an ask that PerkSpot can help with, if you’re interested in scheduling a demo to hear how we can save employees money and help promote positive internal culture.

Employee Priorities You Don’t Want To Miss In 2023

Max Goldenberg December 29, 2022

Employee priorities have never been shifting faster than today, in the age of the Great Resignation and “quiet quitting”. Millennials and Gen-Z are starting to make their voices heard and failing to understand means losing out on essential talent! So, what trends characterize the changing workplace, and what are the main employee priorities shaping up to define 2023? Some requests are as simple as a shift in focus, such as…

1. A Renewed Focus on Mental Wellness

It’s no secret that Gen Z workers face greater mental health challenges than ever seen before, with the two year pandemic lockdowns having taken a disproportionate effect on their mental health. Younger workers in general are looking for workplaces that take mental health seriously. Employees want to have the hard conversations necessary to provide adequate support for anxiety, imposter syndrome, and other struggles.

2. Growing Enthusiasm for the Four-Day Workweek

Studies around the four-day workweek have ramped up in the wake of Covid-19, and the results to date have been overwhelmingly positive. Not only have many studies shown greater productivity, the four-day workweek is also a desired perk especially among younger workers. The concept of the four-day workweek is a rapidly growing employee priority that you’ll definitely want to keep an eye on in 2023.

3. Increased Flexibility around Hiring and Work Expectations

This trend is especially relevant for ‘front-line’ workers who have been denied much of the post-pandemic flexibility that’s been afforded to office workers, but increasing flexibility both for employees and as an organization will continue to be a major trend, and a factor that many workers are specifically pining for. Modern workers have made it clear that they’re interested in having control over their own schedules. This should extend to organizations seeking the agility to function at maximum efficiency while allowing employees the ability to maintain work/life balance through managing their own schedules.

4. Investing in Personal Relationships and Addressing Employee Burnout

Burnout continues to rise, and combined with mental wellness struggles in the digital era, managing it effectively will likely prove to be a key employee consideration going into 2023. More than anything, it’s become clear that burnout management requires a personal touch. Employees are looking for co-workers and managers that they can be comfortable and honest with, and trust that their emotional difficulties won’t result in citations or scoldings for reduced performance. Learning to approach stress and burnout with a gentle hand will become a key differentiator between high-turnover organizations and those that retain talent for years to come.

5. The Growing Power of AI and Automation

Automation and Artificial Intelligence continue to rise in relevance and practical use, with industrial robots seeing deployment from the factory line to the self-checkout aisle. Machine learning models and other innovative AI technology has recently proved its potential to disrupt even skilled labor fields such as coding and graphic design. While these tools are powerful, it’s up to organizations to deploy them in responsible ways, and that responsible deployment is likely to be an increasingly prominent employee priority moving into 2023; workers will be paying attention to irresponsible rollouts of automation that eliminate positions without recompense, and be expecting their employers to use these new technologies in ways that streamline their work instead of making it more difficult.

While priorities will vary from employee to employee, these key points will rank among the top concerns of global workers as we move into 2023. From mental wellness to robotic takeover, 2023 promises to be both an interesting and surprisingly optimistic year – presuming that organizations can tackle the chaotic landscape of the modern hiring market, assuage an exhausted workforce, and deploy new tools and technologies responsibly!

Check out PerkSpot’s Blog for more modern workplace trends, or schedule a demo if you’d like to hear more about how PerkSpot can help save your employees money and drive positive culture in your organization!

4 Budget-Friendly Gift Giving Techniques For Employees

Courtney Shipshock December 8, 2022

Finding the right way to say “thank you” to your employees during the holiday season can be stressful. But believe it or not, it doesn’t have to be. Not only will your employees feel appreciated, but gift giving is a great way to recognize their hard work and accomplishments over the past year.

We’ve laid out four tips and tricks to conquer this holiday season with gift giving techniques that don’t break the bank. Your wallet will thank you and your team will feel valued!

1. Keep In Mind That A Homemade Gift Is Just As Special

Sometimes when we think about gift giving it’s easy to fall into the trap of buying the next best thing or associating the amount of money spent with your gift’s value. In reality, there’s plenty of ways to show your team you care with homemade cards, blankets, cookie mix, ornaments, mittens, and so much more. It’s the thought that counts!

2. Remember The Importance Of Quality Over Quantity

Sometimes the best gift is the gift of quality time. Instead of unwrapping presents, plan to spend time together as a team. You could plan an event you’ll all attend, schedule a virtual happy hour with festive beverages, or even volunteer for a good cause with one another. Sometimes the best gift is the one filled with laughter and catching up.

3. Did Someone Say Company Swag?

One of the easiest ways to thank your employees is to set them up with some new company swag. There’s plenty of options including mugs, sweatshirts, phone cases, slippers, and so much more. Not only is company swag a great investment that promotes your company, but it also boosts company culture and brand recognition in the long-run.

4. Don’t Forget To Make It Personal When Gift Giving

A simple and effective way to give a gift that goes the extra mile is to incorporate personalization. Is there a coffee shop your team loves? Does your team enjoy grabbing lunch at a nearby restaurant? No matter what you decide, be sure to include a personal message reiterating your gratitude. It’s safe to say that a handwritten card will go a long way with your employees.

There’s plenty of ways you can recognize the hard work of your employees this holiday season.Thanking your team and showing appreciation will not only make their holiday more jolly, but it will pay off long term. In fact, a recent survey found that engagement, productivity, and performance are 14% higher than in those companies without recognition.

We’re here to help this holiday season. An employee discount program can make your gift-giving easier and less expensive, so you can focus on building a better business while keeping employees happy and engaged. Schedule a demo today to discover great deals on family fun time, new gadgets, last minute gifts, and more.

From all of us here at PerkSpot, happy holidays!

Offering Sustainable Advancement Opportunities

Max Goldenberg December 1, 2022

A recent study by the Society for Human Resources Management found that providing opportunities for career advancement was a key consideration for employees – ranking right behind compensation as a driver of turnover. So, if modern employees are concerned about career development, what can you do to help ensure that workers in your organization have access to the career advancing tools they’re looking for?

Consider Professional Development, Not Just Advancement

Believe it or not, development is just as important as actual promotions! If someone isn’t ready for a promotion immediately, but you want to maintain them as talent – ensure that you’re helping them further their skills and development to prepare them for eventual advancement. The most common form of professional development is offering credits for further education and upskilling. This can take the form of an employee interested in the management track getting their MBA, an engineer looking to learn a new programming language, or many other avenues. Putting some money aside for development credits of these kinds is a reliable way to reduce turnover and encourage long-term loyalty of highly skilled employees. Strong development programs send a message that you’re not just interested in extracting value from individual employees, but instead in being a partner on their complete career journey.

Offer Clear Paths to Success in One on Ones or Development Meetings

Communication is critical at all levels of business, and nowhere is this more apparent than employee retention. If you want to retain promising employees within your organization, managers, executives, or HR professionals should be having open conversations about where they see their career going. More importantly, you should discuss how the organization can help them to get where they want to be. These development meetings not only give you an essential pulse-check on employee ambitions, they can also give you a heads-up if someone feels they don’t have the upwards trajectory they’re looking for. By helping address their developmental needs, you’re more than likely to save your organization from some costly turnover.

Everyone’s Path is Different

Some employees may be interested in the ‘traditional’ route of eventually managing a team. Others may wish to cultivate other specialized skill sets, or branch out into something new entirely. Allowing these diverse paths of development through personal plans and conversations is important – as is continuing to mentor and develop veteran workers, even after they become managers or specialists. Learning is a lifelong experience, and you should strive to build a forward-pushing culture that encourages it!

Think About Advancement Before Your Employees Are Perfectly “Ready”

It can be easy to fall into the trap of waiting for “that perfect moment” to advance an employee, or until they’re absolutely, 100% confident in their abilities to tackle a higher position. But the truth is that people are rarely, if ever totally confident in their abilities to handle something new before they’ve actually got hands-on experience doing it, whether it’s working with a new piece of software or managing a team. If you’re confident in an employee’s experiences, and more importantly their ability to learn and grow, you should consider advancing their position before they’re perfectly ‘ready’, since they’ll be able to grow into the role and discover hands-on if it’s really right for them. These moves are also a sign of trust in an employee’s competence and long-term prospects with the company. Those are essential qualities for long-term retention!

Cultivating sustainable advancement can often be boiled down to providing the opportunities in both time and credit for professional and skill development, combined with the trust to let employees realize those skills in a hands-on setting. As always, it comes down to some of the fundamentals of good business practice; Open, active communication, and trust within teams. Applying these principles to any aspect of your business will bring back positive results – in this case, in the form of a more qualified, high-skill, and loyal employee base that has your organization to thank for not only cultivating its professional development, but also in providing the opportunity to put it to good use.

Check out PerkSpot’s Blog for more advice on building workplaces that are great to work at, or schedule a demo if you’d like to hear more about how PerkSpot can help reduce costs and drive positive culture in your organization!

How to Handle Workplace Bullying

Max Goldenberg November 17, 2022

Today’s modern, dynamic, rapidly-moving workplace comes with many advantages. We benefit from agile organizational structures with an atmosphere where anyone can shine. Or, at least, that’s what we like to say. And while these benefits make a big difference in employee’s lives, the changing modern workplace has also changed what bullying looks like, transforming it from open abuse of power into something that tends to be quieter, manipulative, and more insidious.

With open-faced bullying seen as totally unacceptable, workplace bullying often instead takes the form of competitive employees defaming others, attempting to manufacture situations where they’ll look like the hero. For example, a common tactic employed by this kind of toxic personality is to claim credit for co-worker’s key deliverables. Then, they’ll use those same deliverables as evidence of why they’re a better performer than their ‘target’. When conflicts invariably spring up from these lies, if management isn’t careful, workplace bullies will tend to have the edge in the ‘he-said, she-said’ conflict due to focusing more on telling executives about the work ‘they’ did rather than actually doing the work.

Handling Office Conflict Responsibly

Needless to say, workplace bullies can destroy a team’s cohesion and productivity, and it’s essential for leadership to detect and remove these kinds of people ASAP before they can gain power in the office. That being said, rushing to fire someone who exhibits bullying behavior is not always the correct move! There are a range of reasons why an employee might engage in bullying; including personal insecurities or even mental illness.

While stopping bullying is critical, it’s also important to understand motivation for an effective response. That might include sensitivity training sessions, a recommendation to see a therapist, or simply termination from the company. As a leader, it will ultimately fall on you to decide which approach is right for your situation.

Common Patterns of Workplace Bullies

It’s also important not to misconstrue or hastily judge the situation. Behaviors that appear to be rooted in bullying may in fact stem from deeper, institutional issues within the organization, such as cruel or over-competitive traditions. To help distinguish, here are some common patterns of legitimate bullies in the workplace:

Consistently redirecting conversations about team efforts to focus exclusively on their personal contribution
Displaying a lack of empathy or care for the feelings or workload of others
Highly judgemental, and willing to delay or jeopardize projects over minor personal issues
Takes poorly to any kind of criticism, even constructive criticism, often viewing it as insulting

How To Document and Report Conflict

These traits all but guarantee someone is a bad fit for any workplace. If you start to notice them, there’s a real chance that you have a workplace bully on your hands! And if you’re an employee stuck in a situation with a bullying co-worker or even boss, make sure to document a pattern of behavior before presenting to Human Resources. Not only will it help you construct a case, but also allow you to examine your relationship with your co-worker. A detached perspective will help you understand if it’s actually a case of workplace bullying or something else entirely. No matter the case, your office will feel the positive impact of removing toxic influences. And you might be surprised how fast things change when you take action!

Check out PerkSpot’s Five Focus Areas for Building a Better Workplace for more advice on building healthy, sustainable long-term culture at your organization.

4 Key Strategies to Boost Your Employee Experience

Contributing Author November 9, 2022

Businesses in the United States lose productivity worth about $300 billion a year due to disengaged workers.

But the good news is that you can increase employee engagement by boosting employee experience. Employees who have a positive experience are likely to be more engaged than those with a negative experience. And creating a positive experience is simple. Let’s take a look at how you can do it.

1. Improve Internal Communication

Ask any HR expert- strong internal communication in the workplace is a huge factor in the employee experience.

Effective communication leads to better collaboration which helps develop employee relationships. It boosts the morale, engagement, satisfaction, and productivity of your employees. Plus, increased communication in the workplace promotes a sense of community and creates cohesion in the organization. This is especially important in a remote or hybrid work environment.

Start by making your workplace a safe space where employees can share accomplishments in their personal and professional lives.

Here are a few other tips to open communication lines:

Schedule regular 1:1 sessions. Use this time to learn about any concerns they may have before they turn into bigger problems. It’s also a great time to address their happiness at work.
Schedule weekly team meetings as well. It helps members know what others in the team are working on and find opportunities to collaborate. Members can share any setbacks they may be experiencing and get help from teammates.
Always give the ‘why’ behind every action you take. It helps create a more transparent atmosphere.
Give constructive feedback. Instead of criticizing, help them learn from their mistakes. This can boost the morale of your employees, which would otherwise drop if you keep criticizing them.
Use communication channels to openly recognize employees’ contributions. It’s a great way to motivate them as they’ll see their work being recognized.

2. Act on Feedback

Collecting feedback to understand your employees’ job satisfaction and assess the dynamics of the workplace is great.

But do you act on this feedback? If not, you’re losing out, and this inaction can make employees lose trust in you. They are likely to stop giving feedback if they feel unheard. To build employee confidence, first ensure your feedback surveys are anonymous.

This will empower employees to be candid about the issues affecting them in the workplace, and help you implement the changes they want to see.

Once you collect the feedback, communicate your action plan in relation to the issues they raise. If, for instance, your sales and marketing team raised an issue on inefficiency in lead generation, highlight the growth software you’ve adopted in response to this feedback. It’ll go a long way in improving employee experience.

3. Create Growth Opportunities

About 22% of employees cited ‘career issues’ as the number one reason they left their jobs in 2021, largely seeking opportunities for growth and promotion. This concern even comes ahead of other major issues like work-life balance.

Image via Work Institute

This means having opportunities for growth in the workplace can keep your employees happy and content. It’s one of the main ways to boost employee experience in your company.

Good growth opportunities should:

Be accessible to all employees
Cater to the different experience levels and needs of your employees
Center around short-term and long-term objectives

Instead of hiring externally for leadership positions, promote your employees. Empower them to qualify for these promotions by helping them expand their skills. You can:

Use the online course creation platforms to create job-specific training. This Thinkific review can get you started
Create mentorship programs
Help employees expand their skills through cross-training and stretch assignments
Create leadership development programs
Set up a tuition reimbursement program. Or if you’re looking to control business spending, encourage them to take up massive open online courses (MOOCs)

Discuss long-term career goals with each employee and create a development plan that gets them there.

4. Create a Strong Company Culture

Company culture encompasses what’s acceptable and applauded in your organization. It’s what the company stands for and the key values that define the organization.

Positive work culture creates an environment where employees are happy to be with each other, committed to the company goals, and engaged in their work.

Create policies that curb barriers to positive company culture, such as:

Uniform framework for annual reviews
Diversity and inclusion policies
Adopting remote and hybrid communication tools and policies
Flexible working hours and leave policies to improve work-life balance
Placing a cap on the number of work hours to ensure workload management

You can make a video collage that demonstrates the mission, goals, and values your company holds dear. Using this or a similar tool in your onboarding process can help get new employees accustomed to the tone of your work environment from the get-go.

What Next?

It’s time to put these strategies into action to boost your employee experience.

Start by leveling up communication in your organization. It’ll make it easy for employees to build workplace relationships.

Additionally, implement the right changes by paying attention to employee feedback.

Finally, create an environment your employees want to stay and work in by opening up growth opportunities and building a positive company culture.

Once you put these into practice, you’re sure to experience higher employee productivity and retention rates!

Contributor Profile:

Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. He regularly contributes to top publications such as HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch, and more. Connect on Socials: Twitter, LinkedIn

4 Reasons Behind High Turnover Rates (And How to Solve Them)

Contributing Author September 21, 2022

What does a business need to be successful? Some would say producing best in class, appealing products; others would say top quality customer service. Both factors are undeniably necessary, but for bigger businesses, there’s one metric of success that’s even more important: your employees. And just anyone’s butt in the chair won’t cut it. At the top levels, you need hard-working, committed staff that will help you advance your goals. Feel like you’ve got a fantastic team? Great – but there is another challenge that you’ll need to overcome. If you’ve got the best staff, you want to ensure they stick around, which means keeping turnover down.

If your voluntary turnover is high, it shows that staff aren’t happy with their working situation. There are lots of reasons why you’d want to keep voluntary turnover on the decline – for one, the cost of replacing an employee ranges from one-half to two times the employee’s salary. But how can you keep turnover levels low? The following four steps will help you keep your workers happy and content.

Image sourced from Quantumworkplace.com

1. Poor Management

Looking for one of the top causes of workers leaving their jobs? You’d be hard pushed to beat poor management. The best team leaders can inspire their teams to work harder while utilizing the unique skills of different members. The worst leaders do the opposite.

You might want to consider new leadership if you’re encountering the following issues:

Unmotivated employees
Lack of cohesion between teams
Burnt out employees.
Leaders setting poor standards

These are just a few examples of bad management. These practices will only cause you harm and do little to help you retain employees. Don’t underestimate the importance of leadership in the workplace. If your current leaders aren’t up to scratch, find new ones.

2. Not Enough Opportunities for Progression

Most people don’t take on a job to stay in the same position forever. Employees want to advance and grow in their careers. If workers feel they aren’t getting enough opportunities to progress, they’ll turn over to go elsewhere. Instead, you’ll want staff to feel they have a clear path to climbing the career ladder. You could consider a talent management strategy.

It means creating a culture of development. In other words, the idea of development and progression should be an intrinsic part of your organization. Try to offer continuous education throughout every layer of your business. Even those at the top still have room to learn more. Those at the bottom will be keen to grow their skill sets and advance. So for their sakes, it’s best to make learning materials easy to access, mobile or otherwise!

3. Hiring Externally

Image sourced from Unsplash

One pitfall a lot of businesses fall into is only offering high-level roles externally. There’s a clear logic to hiring externally; you can choose from a larger pool of candidates. But reliance on external recruitment can have a major impact on employee morale, especially for critical mid-level managerial and executive positions; morale impacts that translate directly into higher turnover.

Put yourselves in the shoes of an employee for a moment. You’ve devoted long hours and shown commitment to your organization. But when the opportunity for a promotion crops up, you’re overlooked in favor of an external hire. In this instance, you probably won’t want to stick around much longer.

Ultimately, if employees are putting in the effort, they should have the opportunity for a promotion.

4. Recognize Your Employees

A little recognition goes a long way. A contributing factor to high turnover rates is a failure to show appreciation for the efforts of your workers. Obviously, you don’t want to be gushing praise constantly. But when teams or individual workers do well, you should let them know.

Recognition can take many forms. It could mean setting up an employee of the month scheme. Using a conference calling system, you can announce each month’s winner in front of the team. This is a great way of showing recognition while building a healthy sense of rivalry between teams.

If you want to go the extra step, you could set up a discount program for the highest performers. The more recognition and feedback you offer to your employees, the more valued they will feel.

Employee Satisfaction Is Key

Image sourced from Unsplash

There are some areas in business that are just common sense – like retaining good employees.

Some employee turnover is natural. People don’t stay in the same position forever; they eventually move on to new opportunities. But if voluntary turnover levels are high, you should be more worried. If your organization isn’t providing a positive environment for your workers, it reflects badly on you.

Start by asking yourself, ‘why are people leaving?’. Is there a problem with management, or perhaps you’re failing to provide a route for your employees to progress? You can’t just click your fingers and make your workers happy. As shown here, retaining workers takes commitment.

But if you look to the roots of the problem and work to find a solution, you’ll foster a much happier workforce. So, make sure you’ve on top of your turnover rate!

This contributor post was written by Jenna Bunnell – Senior Content Marketing Manager at Dialpad.

Dialpad is an AI-incorporated cloud-hosted call center platforms that provides valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives. Jenna is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways. Jenna Bunnell also published articles for domains such as SME News and Together Platform.

Two Major Signs of Micromanagement

Max Goldenberg September 8, 2022

The dreaded micromanager is the bane of any productive workspace. We’ve all been there – the manager who needs to be CC’d on every email. The boss who demands reports so often that you can’t get any real work done. Even the coworker who nit-picks everything you do. It’s no secret that micromanagement in all its forms is one of the biggest contributors to employee disengagement and ‘quiet quitting’; a 2014 survey from Accountemps reported that 59% of employees have worked for or with a micromanager, and the percent of workers who reported micromanagement hurting their morale – 68% – has only gone up in recent years, with a recent survey from Trinity Solutions reporting a whopping 85% of respondents citing micromanagement as a personal morale-killer.

Micromanagement is both one of the most common and most bothersome of workplace ills because it is difficult to identify, and even more difficult to adequately address. But the first step of handling micromanagement is to recognize what’s going on, and to differentiate micromanagement from attentive management! Below are some common traits of micromanagement that can help you identify it at your workplace.

Excessive Amounts of Reporting

Reporting is a crucial part of understanding and improving campaigns. Still, a manager who requests excessive reports on projects can serve as more of a detriment than an incentive. Daily check-ins on the same task, for instance, tend to increase stress and decrease productivity. If a manager is hanging over their shoulder, it’ll leave employees thinking more about their check-in meeting than the project itself. An organized routine for project check-ins on a weekly or biweekly basis can go a long way in cutting down micromanagement.

Hyper-Focus on Details at the Wider Project’s Expense

Detail-oriented management is a great trait, especially for managers who need to oversee complex projects with many moving parts. But sometimes, a focus on detail can slip into minutia, where workers start spending unproductive time addressing minor details at the manager’s request. It can be tricky to differentiate between detail-oriented style and genuine micromanagement, so to tell the difference try asking yourself: “Is this feedback rooted in industry best practice, or is it a personal preference?” When small details are being changed, backed up by data that shows it’ll improve the project, then you have an attentive manager; but if small details are being regularly changed for no clear reason other than personal preferences, you may have a micromanager on your hands.

The best way to deal with micromanagement is to help your manager realize that they don’t need to. Every worker is an individual who handles tasks in a unique way. Encourage them to be open to employees trying tasks in new ways, rather than always having to get their way. Personal solutions founded on good, mutual communication are the best solution to micromanagement, as they are for a great number of major HR stressors – take it from the personalized benefits experts! Discount programs like PerkSpot only work due to providing meaningful, individual solutions – the kind that you should be encouraging micromanagers to take, rather than zooming in on the little things.

Scaling Your Culture While Keeping Employees Engaged

Max Goldenberg July 27, 2022

When your organization is growing fast, it’s an exciting thing! New clients, new opportunities, new employees – and often new culture brought with them as your organization adapts. But fast-paced growth also comes with its own set of unique challenges; as organizations become bigger and more difficult to manage, more apathetic employees can easily dilute an energetic company culture, tanking employee engagement – and morale with it. Keeping an increasingly large roster of unique employees actively engaged in company culture is a huge challenge. For a growing enterprise, strong, positive cultures are vital for productivity and retention; so you’ll have to tackle the daunting task of scaling culture.

Bring New Employees Into The Conversation

Organizations of any size, even those with codified values, are filled with unspoken norms. These small quirks and daily standards can’t be communicated in onboardings, but they form the most basic building-block of culture. It’s essential that new employees feel a part of these minor daily routines! An excellent way of achieving this is through a monthly meeting where newer employees can discuss the company’s culture. Alternatively, you can assign newer employees a veteran buddy to talk candidly about your ins and outs.

Use Benefits Levers To Provide A Universally Attractive Foundation

Certain traditions, such as monthly gatherings of all staff, may become logistically unfeasible as your organization grows. To replace them, you can leverage digital tools to instead offer benefits with universal appeal. While attractive benefits are no replacement for bottom-up culture, using levers like PerkSpot’s discount program can help engage growing cultures by giving new employees attractive reasons to approach the office with the same enthusiasm of their veteran colleagues.

Be Flexible to New Quirks

With any influx of new employees, or even just a growing scope of your enterprise, it’s important to remember that the organization is never going to be exactly the same as it was – and that’s okay. Scaling your culture is the perfect time to codify your organization’s core values. You’ve got the unique chance now to really identify what makes your culture strong and successful. These core values should be your guiding torch to handling company-wide decisions and day-to-day interactions alike. With confidence in your example-setting, you can help maintain your organization’s positive cultural traits while also allowing new employees to add a piece of their own to the tapestry of your workspace.

Find Ways For Leadership To Engage Organically

It’s true that it’s a bit more difficult to do water-cooler talk over Zoom. Still, whether remote or in-person, it’s important that your organization’s leadership is accessible and engaged. Encouraging lower-pressure get-togethers, lunches, or similar events for teams or individual offices creates an environment where teams and leadership can come closer together. It’s also the perfect setting to reinforce a positive organizational culture!

Growing any organization is an exciting and fast-paced time to be involved, but it’s also a high-pressure environment. While one side of ensuring employee engagement is to provide enjoyable interaction opportunities, the other is to prevent burnout and disengagement through proper support and resources. As long as you can supply both sides of that equation to your employees, old and new, you’ll find any sort of cultural transition a breeze.

Five Tips for Onboarding Remote Employees

Max Goldenberg June 28, 2022

Remote work has rapidly transitioned over the last few years from a rare form of employment to the global norm for countless industries, and that’s caused big changes in onboarding. Remote employees are often looking for a completely different set of resources than their in-person counterparts; and since successful onboarding is a major factor in employee retention, it’s important to set up stable systems for onboarding remotely on a permanent basis.

The additional flexibility of remote work is great, but it also creates a need for managers to provide structure. Remote employees need strong online resources and clearly defined goals to make the best use of their digital schedules. Start off on the right foot when bringing in remote employees and retain your top digital talent with these tips!

1) Get Incoming Employees Looped In Right Away.

A remote employee’s toolkit, from company messaging apps to website logins, will functionally be the digital equivalent of their office. It’s important to make sure they have access to these tools and time to get comfortable with them right away. Ideally, you should aim to get everything set up with IT during their first-day orientation.

2) Give a Warm Welcome.

A simple welcome package can go a long way! Treating new employees to a virtual lunch with some time to socialize can help cultivate a sense of belonging. Orientation can often be daunting for employees not physically there, so a quality orientation is sure to leave a big impression.

3) Build Strong Online Resources.

Sourcing your relevant resources alone isn’t enough; you also have to make sure they’re easily accessible! An employee handbook and guide to company values are important for all employees. For more creative-oriented positions, you’ll want to consider having a formal brand guide and style guidelines as well. Most important is building best practice guidelines for the specific position that you’re onboarding; that way, new hires have easy access to clearly stated expectations and responsibilities for both the wider company and their specific position right from day one!

4) Provide Clearly Defined Goals and Regular Check-ins.

Flexible schedules can make it more easy to get distracted, so immediately provide remote employees with a sense of structure by setting up clear 30/60/90 day expectations. Regular one-on-one check-ins with HR and management can set remote employees up for success; ensuring they’re always on the right track!

5) Integrate Remote Workers into your Culture.

Many new remote workers can feel isolated from the wider company. Plan remote-focused events at least monthly, and make sure that new employees feel comfortable at them. If they aren’t, work with your remote employees to draft some events that sound fun to them. Bridging the gap between in-person and remote employees ensures a successful hybrid team.

Nearly half of all employees report feeling as though they’d messed something up on orientation day, whether it’s in meeting new co-workers or finding the right resources. The key is to be understanding, empathetic, and patient with your new employees, giving them the resources and direction they need to become remote rockstars!