POST CATEGORY : Human Resources

How to Leverage High Tech Employee Training Programs

Over time, software has experienced so many upgrades that unless you have been using the software for some time and have been adapting to each new version, you will find the subtle distinctions to have added up to quite a bit of complexity.

Employee training programs

In a designer’s office, for example, the latest version of Photoshop may not be too intimidating at first glance as the layout resembles many office apps with a familiar toolbars, ribbons, and icons, but you need to know how to access the different functions based on your knowledge of what each icon can do. Since there are numerous icons, as well as layers within each, formal training is necessary to learn something as simple as cropping an image or increasing image size without distorting the pixels.…

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What’s The ROI of your MBA Study? (Infographic)

Statistics show that the average person who has a master’s degree earns about $17,000 more per year than people who hold a bachelor’s degree. Not surprisingly, the prospect of making an extra $170,000 over the next decade convinces a lot of people to enroll in graduate school.

MBA student

Before you go back to school, though, you should think about the return on your investment. After all, you’ll have to spend money on tuition, books, and other materials. A lot of master of business administration (MBA) students find that they don’t have enough time to continue working full-time jobs while they’re enrolled in a graduate program.…

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Should Small Business Owners Test Their Employees for Drugs and Alcohol?

In the corporate world, a drug test is essentially a cornerstone to the hiring process. Anyone beginning a job at a large corporation knows that they will invariably be drug tested before their hiring is official. It makes sense, if you think about it. Corporations can have hundreds of employees working for them. Drug testing ensures that no one with problematic habits will slip through the cracks and cause issues within the organization.

Doctor examining test tube

While it might be customary and make sense at a large corporation, things get a bit more nuanced when we’re discussing drug and alcohol testing for small businesses.…

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4 Fun Office Activities to Help Bring Your Team Together

Team building activities are extremely rare in businesses outside corporations. It seems like the rich corporate giants of the world, like Walmart for instance, are more successful than small businesses for a reason.

The main reason is that despite the fact that many don’t pay their lower-level employees really well; they do know how to increase employee’s sense of morale and togetherness rather effectively.

In the context of an office environment, it’s evermore important to make sure your employees are working together cohesively, that they’re at least content working next to one another.

The following 4 team building activities are great for a spur-of-the-moment morale boost for your entire staff:

1.

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Using Recognition Items To Improve Your Work Environment

In ever-larger workplaces, it can be very easy for employees to feel lost in the shuffle and unappreciated for their contributions to the organization’s goals. Managers first realized long ago that people want to be treated as more than just a number when they are at work. Employees like to be recognized for their hard work and publicly praised for their dedication.

While there’s never a line item on a profit/loss statement that shows income directly attributed to providing recognition to employees, it is nevertheless an effective investment in employee morale. There are good reasons why these expenditures will pay dividends for years to come as you work to build an exceptional workplace.…

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3 Tips for Transitioning to Overtime Compensation Compliance

By now you’ve heard the news: The Department of Labor issued revised overtime compensation guidelines earlier this summer. The decision will impact an estimated four million Americans and increase the salary threshold for overtime exemption from $23,660 to $47,476 annually.

As small business owners look ahead to December 1, the overtime compliance deadline, many know that they will have to make changes. The larger question facing small business owners, however, is how to implement necessary reforms. I’ve outlined a few tips below.

Tip #1: Take a lesson from millennials

Millennials are much decried by Gen Xers and Baby Boomers for their dependence on technology.…

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When Outsourcing Goes Wrong: What Not To Do

Outsourcing is undeniably a useful option for small and growing businesses. As the main operator at your business, you can’t possibly handle every task and role. You might be a one-man or one-woman show, but quickly you’ll realize that certain tasks are taking too much of your time without delivering the needed ROI. Enter outsourcing to solve all your business challenges.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing can be the best business decision you’ve ever made, or it can be the worst. The provider you choose and the way you implement their services will be the deciding factor in how effective outsourcing is for your business.…

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6 Elements of a Perfect Work Environment

Happy people are better workers.

According to one study, happy people are 12% more productive at work. Happiness is a key to your well-being at work as it affects your working performance, and you start working better not harder.

Clean workspace makes employee happy

Here’s the kicker:

It is more important for people to work in a good work environment than love what they do.

A perfect work environment is not just about getting salary on time. It’s also about feeling good about coming to work as you get the recognition, support, understanding, and motivation from your boss and colleagues.
All in all, it’s the best way for employees to set business goals and move toward achieving them with great ambitious.…

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How to Attract Talented Bilingual Employees in Your Business

The workforce market is changing. With the accelerated globalization and less restriction at the borders, there is an increasing need of bilingual people in large and small companies. For example, according to statistics, there are over 55 million Hispanic people in the US (data valid for 2014) and the numbers are growing. So if you own a small business in the US, you may have to deal with Hispanic customers at some point.

But they are not the only ones and the US is not the only country that deals with this issue. People are traveling for work or for pleasure creating a mixture of languages and cultural traditions.…

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5 Ways to Show Your Employees that Your Small Business Cares

As a small business, you know it’s very important that you do what you can to keep your employees happy. After all, turnover costs your company money, and in a small business, money may not be something you have much of. As an employee of a small business, it’s very important to know that your employer cares about you. If an employer shows you that you’re appreciated, it encourages you to stay there for a long period of time.

It’s known in the business world that employees need to feel appreciated. As a small business, you need to find creative and useful ways to do this in order to keep your employees happy.…

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