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Managing Human Based Resources

Managing Human Based Resources

Managing an organization on its way to success has its own challenges, like dealing with economic factors that may or may not stand as obstacles. Ordinarily, one will claim that this is a Human Resource affair. However, some successful organizations have employed more workable techniques to succeed. This is the human resources of today.

The Traditional Role of Human Resources

Most people in an organization will identify the Human Resources Department to anything systematic, policy-related or administrative. Some automatically think that a Human Resources Program will proceed with psychology or endeavor to inculcate any of the three mentioned above.

This traditional method puts emphasis on leadership, cohesiveness and loyalty in an organization. It emphasized on collectivism.

There is nothing completely bad in such traditional view. However, it was criticized for focusing too much on the economic factors of an organization.

This had been confronted further by different aspects and needs. Thus, the field of human resources was also shaped as it adapted to the social or political environment.

Transitional Phase

Times are changing now. The traditional perception must be taken out of the picture. The modern trend now in Human Resources Management is to be more strategic, consultative and interactive.

Human Resources of the 21st Century

It is definitely a desirable change. However, this may not come easily to those who have gotten used to the ‘old school.’

The social climate of the organization is now addressed, rather than being limited to the economic factors. This time the behavior of the individual is given as much importance as the economic structures.

This time around, Human Resources Department pushes even more the firm into performance as each member now is driven by the attention given.

What Should One Expect in the Human Resources Department Now?

1. The department must show that it contributes to fulfilling all the goals of the whole organization. It is not anymore limited to the department.

2. It should provide also bases and dimensions to measure the success of the human resources initiative and the processes applied.

3. All the members of the organization are to be treated and recognized as clients.

4. Finally, it will not hurt to also change the perception of the people with regard to the role of the Human Resources Department.

It is undeniable. It is necessary to further educate people and provide support to this practice.

What Are the Current Initiatives to Fulfill the Goal?

• Human Resources Outsourcing

Normally, people approach the Human Resources Department to consult on matters to regulate relations among members. However, this consultation could also be utilized to break away from the old shell.

Providing services to the other departments of an organization will make the HR Department a more dynamic entity. It could help in determining some processes to realize the vision of a particular department.

• Human Resources Education

The academe can make a big difference in changing the perception.

Improving and developing the literature and the present theories will be helpful in addressing the concerns and the needs of any organization. This is in light of the constantly changing society that concerns the human resources experts and people.

Further studies in the Human Resources can help shape and improve the theories. However, pursuing a career in the Human Resources is expected to contribute to the developments in practice and implementation.

There are initiatives also to spread the knowledge within the organization, down to the most ordinary members. The best way to empower them is to give out Human Resources software that provides an orientation and comprehensive discussion of organizational policies.

• Human Resources and the Law

There are Human Resources laws provided nowadays. This fact is beneficial to most people in the workplace. It establishes the foundations that must be present in any firm or organization. It also sets limits the extent of what human resources will cover, so as not to deprive any person of any basic right or privilege.

There are even some who now implement a Human Resources Program that allows active participation of the employees. They are made part of decision making and the HR Department is tasked to come up with methods and venues to make this endeavor feasible.

Leadership is undeniably important in any organization. It grounds the responsibility and accountability on a single source. However, for any whole to work, its parts must be recognized. That is why the developments in the field of Human Resources are very much welcomed. Human Resources Management must focus on its real strength, on its real resources, the human resources.

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Workflows exist in some form at every company, in every industry. Traditionally, the term has been used to describe transactional processes.  Credit card information, for example, is submitted on a website.  The information is then sent to banks for approval and to a billing system for invoicing, which results in a message being sent to the shipping system for delivery. These types of transaction workflows, primarily relaying data between systems based on a static set of rules, require very little human intervention. They are typically automated using business process management (BPM) software or custom coded applications.

Human-based workflows on the other hand are usually manually managed and tracked. Meetings, phone calls, paper trails, spreadsheets, emails and desktop applications are typically utilized by business professionals as a means to keep the flow of information orderly. In most cases, a lack of efficiency is unavoidable.  Using many different tools and methods to track workflows simultaneously leads to chaos.  Visibility of a project’s status, and more importantly, what is causing its hindrance becomes increasingly ambiguous.

Many human-based business workflows involve intellectual property or process innovations that give companies an edge over competitors. In a small vertical industry successfully managing workflows can make or break a company. Because of the diversity of workflows and the ways in which they are managed, it is difficult to find off-the-shelf project management software that is flexible enough to adapt to any company’s set of unique workflows and management style.  For this reason, many companies feel trapped, worried that the only option is to develop a custom solution.  Developing custom project management software, however, is a costly and lengthy process.

Only Interneer Intellect solves this problem, through catering to the human-based business workflow market. It enables the business user to capture workflows using simple drag-and-drop capabilities. It also incorporates many features that automate and streamline the business process: it is web-based, facilitating real-time collaboration; automatically creates databases; automates workflows; and allows easy reporting, document management and project tracking with multi-user support.

As project management technology evolves, the benefits of automating workflows to gain efficiency, visibility and cut costs becomes increasingly apparent. With the advent of tools like Interneer Intellect this can be accomplished rapidly, easily and inexpensively.

March 22, 2014 Today's Business, , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Read more >

Tracking Your Small Business Success

Tracking Your Small Business Success
I often wonder how people without a plan know where they’re going. Or, how they know when they’ve arrived at their destination.

Think about it.

If you never specify what your goal is, how do you go about achieving it?  And how do you know when to celebrate?

Step One

Having a clearly defined, and written goal is the first step in creating a successful business.

How Will You Measure Your Success?

Whether you choose to measure your success in number of clients or revenue per month or year, or in any other terms, is up to you. The point is to establish a measurable goal.

Step Two

The second step to creating a successful business is creating a plan to achieve your goal.  This is your marketing plan and it ensures all your time, energy and money are focused on achieving whatever it is YOU want to achieve.

But it doesn’t stop there.

A Goal And A Plan Are NOT Enough

Just having a goal and a plan are not enough. You must track your progress so you can determine if it will require more or different effort to achieve your goal.

So how do you track your progress?

You Need Two More Things … One

First, you track your progress toward your overall goal.  I recommend you evaluate this at least every couple of months.

But why not just make a habit of doing it once a month?

Make it a practice to review your marketing plan and how well it is moving you toward your goal, at the end of every month.  A good day to do this is the day you take care of your end-of-month administrative tasks (things like paying bills and running sales and financial reports).

If you break your goal down into twelfths, you can easily tell each month if you’re on track.  And, if you’re not, you can easily make adjustments, like increasing your level of marketing if necessary, to get back on track.

By keeping close tabs on your progress toward your goals, you greatly increase your odds of achieving them.  Partly because you give yourself time to make adjustments and take a different route if necessary.

And, partly because you are constantly reminding yourself of your intentions.

And … Two

The second way to stay on track is to track each of your individual marketing activities.  This is how you’ll know if each activity is moving you toward your goal.

For Example … Tracking Your Web Site Stats

If you’re generating your prospects or clients via your web site, do you know how many visitors you need to generate the number of clients you’re shooting for?

It’s pretty easy to determine if you utilize web site tracking reports.  Your web host should provide tracking reports to let you know how many visitors your site is getting, and ideally you can track this for each page of your site.

WebStat is a great tool that provides detailed reports on web site traffic.  I use it as a supplement to the reports provided by my web host, and I love it.  You can try it out at no cost, plus there’s a free version, or you can subscribe for a very low monthly fee. Learn more about WebStat here.

If you have a newsletter or special report that web site visitors can subscribe to you can then determine what your conversion rate is:  Total Subscribers divided by Total Visitors equals your Conversion Rate.

Do You Know What Your Conversion Rates Are?

You can then take this one step further by determining what your conversion rate is, from subscribers to clients. Or, to measure what your sales conversion rate is if you are selling products or services on your web site.

Once you know your sales conversion rate, you should be able to calculate how many web site visitors you need to generate to achieve your sales or “number of clients” goal.

This will tell you pretty quickly if you’re on track to achieve your goal, or if you need to generate a lot more web site traffic to do so.

A Little Bit Of Math Upfront Will Guarantee Your Success

While at first it may be disheartening, especially if you’re way off the mark, at least you have a clear picture of what it will take to reach your goal. Then it’s simply a matter of finding ways to generate the traffic.  And then it’s only a matter of time until you achieve your goal.

Track Your Speaking Engagements or Teleseminars

You can track other marketing activities in a similar way. For example, with speaking engagements or teleseminars, what percentage of your attendees typically subscribe, and then what percentage of those typically become clients or buy?

You can determine how big of an audience or how many speaking engagements or teleseminars you need to do to reach your goals.

Track Your Public Relations Efforts

For public relations, how many people do you need to reach, or impressions do you need to achieve to generate the return necessary to meet your goals?  You can then send your releases out more frequently (just make sure they’re newsworthy) or to media with a larger audience.

Again, if you monitor your results every month, you’ll have a very good idea if you’re on track to meet your goals.  And, you’ll have plenty of time to make adjustments to your plan if necessary.

So, What’s Your Goal For This Year?

And do you know if you’re on track to achieve it? If you haven’t committed your goal to writing, I encourage you to do so today.

If you’re not sure what you can achieve, then take your best guess and work towards that.

You Can Track Your Way To The Top!

Put some tracking practices into place and stay on top of them every month.  If you do this, I guarantee you’ll achieve a lot more than if you just “wing it!”

If you’d like some help creating your goals and developing a marketing plan to help you achieve them, check out The 10stepmarketing™ System. It walks you through the process in a simple, step-by-step manner, making it easy.  To learn more, visit www.10stepmarketing.com

March 9, 2014 Today's Business, , , 0 Read more >

The Importance of A Phone Number

The Importance of A Phone Number
There is probably a major problem lurking on your sales page right now. And it could be hurting your profits.

Experts agree that one of the most important factors in a successful website is credibility. This frequently translates into the credibility of the site owner. People are more likely to buy from somebody they believe in.

Is your website as credible as it could be?

People judge credibility by many subtle factors. Does the design of the site look professional? Is the site well written? Are there typos and grammar errors strewn throughout the site? Is the author believable? Does the author have experience in this market or with this product? These are all important factors.

We also know that a strong guarantee is a key part of a successful sales page. Taken one step further, the reader needs to believe he will actually get a refund if requested. And herein often lies a major inconsistency.

Look at your sales page and ask yourself: Who is standing behind the product? What do you provide for contact information?

If there is only an e-mail address, or worse yet, no contact information at all, then you do not have a believable guarantee.

If you want someone to believe that you stand behind your product you need to be reachable. Put your complete contact information on your web site. I’m not just talking about an e-mail address. Consider adding your snail mail address and even, dare I say, your phone number.

At first, I worried about using this approach. I feared getting calls at all hours of the night. I worried about getting overwhelmed. But, I reasoned, I could always remove the phone number if it became a problem.

Turns out, having my phone number on the site is a blessing. I have made dozens of sales because I have been available to answer one or two simple questions from a prospect. I now look at each telephone call as an opportunity to help someone solve their problem and, frequently, earn their business.

I have received numerous comments from customers saying that one of the reasons they purchased is because they can tell there is a “real person” standing behind this business. The fact it is, I only get about one or two phone calls a day. And my sites have thousands of visitors every day.

In summary, take a look at your own sales page or contact page with a critical eye. Do you look like just another anonymous web site? Or is there a person there; ready, willing and able to help. The answer to these questions may have a lot to do with your conversion rates.

At the very least, test putting your phone number on your web site. Even if your web business is part time, with a good voice mail system you will sound professional and you can return phone calls when you are able. Try this credibility improvement. And see if it doesn’t improve your sales.

January 30, 2014 Today's Business, , , , 0 Read more >

5 Successful Tips in SEO

5 Successful Tips in SEO

5 Successful Tips in SEO. There are literally thousands of different tips you can find by going to forums, blogs, etc. Things to do with SEO, PPC, Usability, Code Optimization, the list goes on. I consistently find myself telling people the same 4 things. Here they are, free of charge:

  1. SEO – Title Tags and Description tags – Yes, I know, these are “Rookie” items but they are still so important. Title tags help you get rankings. Description tags help get people to click on your listing. Although your site may be ranked well, it is still up to someone to click on it. Create a compelling call to action to give people a reason to click. Often times I see SEO-only optimized title and description tags that make no sense. I once changed the title tag on this blog. When I added “Free eBook Download” my click through on that ranking rose 280% overnight. 5 Successful Tips in SEO.
  2. PPC – This is an easy one. The most common mistake I see when logging into an existing PPC campaign for a client is that they often confuse traffic and ads with search and the content network. The strategies are much different for these two types of mediums. Just because they are under the Google umbrella, doesn’t mean they should have the same strategy. Separate these out, and you will often increase your quality score and lower your click cost, while getting the same or more traffic.5 Successful Tips in SEO.
  3. Usability– So many times I see pages without a call to action, and I see a lot of calls to action that are mediocre at best. “Add To Cart” and “Fill out this form” are not sufficient. Here are two great ones to use:
    1. eCommerce – Free Shipping is hands down the highest-boosting conversion call-to-action there is. Some studies I have seen (and have personally witnessed) show that it increases conversion by 40%. That number is ridiculous….but true. People do not want to worry about calculating shipping costs — make it easy for them. Give it to them. Raise your pricing if you need to.  You are better off having a slightly higher price with free shipping.
    2. Lead Gen – On your lead form, give them a compelling reason to fill out the form. A free book, free download, 5 minute consultation, anything. Eight out of ten forms I see simply say “Give me your information so I can call you.”  That does not work any more. 5 Successful Tips in SEO.
  4. Tracking – One of the primary advantages of having an internet business is that you can get almost any data point that helps your business. Many people have Google Analytics installed, which is a great start, but just looking at visitor count is not enough. Visitor count is important, but that is the tip of the iceberg. If you are an eCommerce site, you need to have eCommerce tracking installed (which half the time is not done correctly). If you are a lead generation site, have your goals setup correctly. And since in many cases half of your conversions will typically occur via the phone, you need to have a proper phone tracking system (like IfByPhone.com) installed. It is cheap and it will tell you where each call originated from (even down to the keyword level). Do not half-ass your tracking. You need to know what is working and what is not so you can refine and have an intelligent basis to increase your marketing budget over time. 5 Successful Tips in SEO.
  5.  Interacting – Interacting with your with Your Followers is key.

 

November 8, 2012 Today's Business, , , , , 0 Read more >