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To Dress Up or Not to Dress Up – Halloween Costume Office Tips

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Dressing up for Halloween can be a lot of fun, especially when you work in an office that\’s cool enough to celebrate the annual festivities. And while we don’t have an office to parade our costumes around in, enjoying the fun is certainly on the agenda in each of our respective home offices!

If you work outside the home, however, it’s a fine line between a fun costume that shows off your personality, and wearing a costume that makes everyone you work with feel extremely uncomfortable.

Here are five rules for celebrating Halloween at work that will ensure you have a good time – without becoming the office fright show or clown:

The boss sets the tone. If you ask the boss and the boss says no, then the answer is no. If the boss says, \”Hey everyone, let\’s have a costume contest!\” then it\’s probably in your best interest to put on a wig, or witches hat, and go for it. If Halloween is your thing, but Suzy in Accounting despises it, don\’t harass or tease her until she agrees to play along.

Keep your costume politically neutral. Even if you have strong political views, keep them out of the office – trust me – it’s just not going to end well.

Keep it classy. Although the typical office dress code might be taking a vacation day, it’s still a good rule of thumb to stay mostly within the guidelines – leave the Daisy Dukes and Richard Simmons outfits at home, and opt for something that’s more office appropriate.

Keep it functional. Don’t wear something that prevents you from being able to do your job. Wearing vampire teeth all day might be amusing to you, but if your co-workers and customers can’t understand you, then it’s time to ditch them.

Don’t be disruptive. Having a parade around the office at lunch time is perfectly acceptable, how else are people supposed to judge your costumes? But avoid creating your own haunted house in your office or cubicle. It can get distracting to those trying to work around you, and even hinder your concentration.

One last tip, if you work with someone who has a deathly fear of spiders, clowns, or snakes, don\’t be a jerk and show up to work in a Halloween costume that will cause a panic attack. Some people do have very real phobias that they can\’t contain.

Celebrating the spooky season at work should be fun and light-hearted, not the cause of a heart attack! Have fun and make sure to send us some pics!

So, tell us, what’s your Halloween tradition at the office? Yea or Nay?

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Q4 is here – and this what your competitors are doing!

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Like a ninja in the dead of night, Q4 has crept up on us, again – regardless of the fact that it comes this same time every year! Yes, it’s Q4 and I’m in shock. Wasn’t it just New Years? How have 9 months gone by in the blink of an eye? As the shock slowly wears off, here are a few things that you should be doing for your business: (btw – your competitors are probably already doing them!)

Talk to your team – No, I don’t mean saying Hi on your way to the coffee maker, but check in with them, conduct Annual Performance Reviews, see if they have any feedback on how things are going and what can be done better.

Improve brand recognition and reputation – If your website is from 1999 and you have no presence on social media – it’s time for a rebrand. Make sure your mobile friendly on the social sites that your clients visit. If you have negative reviews, don’t ignore them, address them, and find out how you can fix the problems. If your competitors are ranking higher on Google than you, then you’ve got some work to do!

Set sales goals – Even if you won’t reach your sales goals for 2017 – make sure you set goals for 2018. If 2017 was too much of a stretch, make sure your 2018 goals are a little more reserved. If you blew 2017 out of the water, then it’s time to get realistic and set more challenge goals. You aren’t doing yourself any favors by setting goals that aren’t somewhat of a stretch.

Clean up your contact list – That customer who won’t return your call – probably is not going to buy from you. Clean up your list and weed out any prospects who aren’t interested. It’s just a waste of your time to chase them, and probably frustrating on their end to keep dodging your calls or emails.

Plan for Q1 – It’s all about preparation! If you want to start Q1 off with a bang, you have to be ready. You should always be planning at least a quarter ahead if not more. What’s in the sales pipeline? What’s your marketing & sales strategy? Cash flow analysis and updated business planning – all need to happen now for next year.

Even with the best laid plans and intentions, Q4 can be a very hectic time. As you close out the year, and prepare for a new one, don’t forget to appreciate your staff and all their hard work. After all, you couldn’t have done it without them!

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The kind of workplace culture employees want

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One aspect of my job I particularly love is how much I get to interact with our customers. Obviously we talk about their marketing, but the conversations roam in many directions, which for me is part of the charm of working for Red Barn Consulting.

Our clients range from more corporate institutions like banks, insurance companies, and healthcare facilities, but also entrepreneurs and small businesses.

What strikes me is that no matter the business, and whether it’s based in Connecticut, the other side of the country, the need to “get it right” when it comes to workplace culture is crucial to retaining key employees, the ones you really can’t afford to lose.

As a whole, the job market is really tight. Employers are struggling to fill positions and hang on to good employees. Salary, benefits, and growth opportunity are obviously a huge part of the draw, but “culture,” often intangible, plays just as key a role.

When it comes to that je n\’ais se quoi of workplace culture, what are your potential employees looking for?

A seat at the table — Even junior level staffers want to know their contributions are valued. This doesn’t mean the CEO has to carefully consider every idea the greenest guy in the building has, but it does mean providing opportunities for employees at all levels to have their voices heard. Millennials especially do not want to just show up, keep their noses down, and go home. Being able to contribute is a strong motivator for quality employees.

A good mission — Whether your organization sells widgets or helps the homeless, it should have a strong mission that serves as a rallying point for your troops. More than just words, the mission needs to be reflected in your company’s ethos. Feeling good about what the company does and how it does it means quality employees will give 110%, with pleasure.

A comfortable environment — Starched shirts and rigorous enforcement of policy “just because” it is the policy are out. Good employees are looking for a workplace that feels positive and comfortable. When you’re spending 8+ hours a day there, it just makes sense!

A flex policy — Good employees are happy to give it their all, and not just 9 to 5. They are willing and eager to stay late when needed, to handle something off hours, to contribute when helpful to projects far outside their functional area. At the same time, good organizations provide flexibility in return. Need to leave early to catch a daughter’s softball game? Need to work remotely while the plumber fixes a leak? No problem.

A team worth supporting — “I want my employees to work collaboratively, to help each other.” The good news is, your employees want this as well! The key though, is building a team worthy of helping. It’s vital to pay attention to culture and overall “fit” when hiring. One bad apple can indeed spoil the whole bunch. You are building an army of sorts, and you need every member to feel invested in the success of everyone else.

What are some important elements in your workplace culture? I’d love to continue the dialogue.

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How to Attract Top Talent for Your Business

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When your company is expanding, hiring the right people becomes more important than ever. In order to keep up momentum and reach the next level, every seat has to be filled with just the right individual for the job. If you’ve been recruiting for a while, sometimes it feels like there are slim pickings out there. Finding candidates that match EVERY requirement are hard to come by. And to make matters worse, sometimes the people you do hire prove to be not a great fit for your company culture in the long-run. So how can you leverage your current resources to find the right player for the team? Consider these tips!

Turn Mixers into Interviews
Use every networking event as an opportunity for recruiting. Tradeshows, mixers, and marketing events are common places to find professionals you want to partner with. As a hiring manager, go in with an eye-open for your next recruit. Having this intention in the back of your mind will encourage you to listen a little harder when the people around you talk about their experience. Find ways to plug their expertise into your business. In many cases, the people you meet may even know someone who could possibly be a good fit for your vacancy.

Create an internal referral program
If your employees know that you are hiring, they may be open to sending you recommendations for the gig. Who better to choose a good fit for the company than an individual who is actually involved in the day-to-day. By setting up a generous sign-on incentive you will increase your chances of finding a recruit via your current staff. To attract the best talent, add a clause to this program that says new hire must last 30-60 days in order to receive full incentives. This will ensure your employees remain selective.

Write a detailed job description
In many cases, we will still have to use online job boards to generate a nice pool of applicants to choose from. Make sure your job description is detailed and accurately reflects the culture of the company. Those small details will attract candidates who align with your values and discourage those that don’t. Take some time to craft a meaningful job description that gives applicants a precise view of what their duties will be. Spell out the requirements clearly differentiating between mandatory qualities and qualities that re just pluses.

Make the job worth it
The small pool of top talent has top notch requirements to match. Make sure the position has perks and a salary that is competitive and worth their time. Things like flexible work schedules, lenient dress codes and work from home hours excite applicants looking to feel empowered. The best of the best is not likely to settle for or even apply to a job that doesn’t make them happy. They’ve earned their right to be selective.

Last but not least, congratulate yourself on your business growth! By following these simple steps you’ll be one interview closer to building your dream team. Good Luck!

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Calling in Sick – When is enough, enough?

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You get the flu, sprain an ankle, or have a sick child – these all fall under reasons you’d probably call out of work and take a sick day, right? But what happens when Susan calls out of work every other week because she has a hang nail, she has a flat tire – AGAIN, or she has a sniffle? According to CareerBuilder, about 38% of employees have called in sick when they felt perfectly fine. So, what can you do to curb employee sick day abuse? We’ve got a few suggestions.

  •  Create a combined PTO policy. Merging sick and vacation time under one Paid Time Off (PTO) umbrella may not seem like it will make a difference, but when constant sick time abusers realize that their excessive call outs may affect their actual vacation days – they may think twice about blowing through all their time by March.
  • Track the abuse. Is the employee calling out the same day of the week each time, or the same days of the month? If you notice a pattern, it could be traced to a sport schedule or perhaps their child’s school schedule.
  • Is it a medical or disability issue? An employee may have an issue at home that they don’t want to disclose, or an illness that requires a lot of doctor appointments or days when they aren’t capable of working. You’ll want to investigate whether it may be an American with Disabilities Act issue or an FMLA issue and you just aren’t aware.
  • Create a call out policy that requires speaking to someone. Employees are much less likely to call out if they must speak to their boss on the phone vs. leaving a voicemail, email, or text.
  • Talk to the employee! This ones seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how nonconfrontational some managers may be. Open the lines of communication and see if you can find out the root cause behind the behavior[/cs_text][cs_text]This next part may seem counterintuitive, BUT we think it’s pretty darn important at the Red Barn. Don’t discourage employees from taking mental health days if they really need them. Many employees struggle with work life balance and that stress can get overwhelming at times. If employees are starting to get burnt out – encourage them to take a day mental health day. Trust me – everyone will benefit from it, AND it will help prevent employee turnover. I’m not saying it’s OK to take one every week, but if they are working on a particularly tough project or account, taking one day a month won’t kill any.
    Curious what some of the most popular and ridiculous reasons people call out of work? Check out this list – there are a few good ones! CLICK HERE

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The Employment Offer Letter – When to Send it, and Why You Need it!

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It’s been a long and grueling search to find the perfect candidate who’s not only qualified for the job opening, but also fits your company culture, embodies your Core Values, is within your salary range, and is ready to hit the ground running. So, what’s next? Making them an offer of course!

Most people will call a candidate on the phone and share the good news with them. It’s the perfect time to lay out what the initial offer will be and allow them to ask any immediate questions. Since you already know the candidate’s salary requirements, and most companies address the benefits of the job beforehand – there really should be any sticker shock on either end.

A simple, and easy way to follow up the conversation is to then let the candidate know that you will be sending a formal offer letter via email. This allows the candidate time to process all the information, review it with a spouse or trusted friend, and not be pressured to make an immediate decision.
While a handshake may have been the preferred method of acceptance in the past, you should require your new hire, upon final negotiations, to sign and return the offer letter back to you. Here’s a few items that we suggest you include in any offer letter:

  • Congratulatory/celebratory comments. Express your excitement about them joining the team.
  • The company/organization. Include the specific company name or department that the new hire will be working for along with their official title.
  • The job requirements. Briefly touch on the key requirements again for the position.
  • The supervisor. Who will the person report to, and what is their title.
  • Conditions of employment. If your company performs any drug or background checks be sure to indicate that employment is contingent upon the results of these checks.
  • The pay and benefits available. Is the position full time or part time, temporary or regular, and exempt or non-exempt? Make sure to clearly list these along with the hourly or weekly pay. Also include any guaranteed bonuses, overtime eligibility, and what benefits the employee may qualify for.
  • Hours and where to report. Clearly lay out the expected working hours and where the employee should report to for their first day of work.
  • At Will Employment. Probably the most important thing to include in your letter is a statement of “At Will”. You do not want the employee to believe that your offer letter is a contract for employment.
  • Conclusion: Let the candidate know what to do next. List the start date of employment and when you require the candidate to accept the offer by. Also provide them with instructions on where to return the signed letter and any next steps.

A job offer letter allows you to itemize the facts about the offer, outline the job’s responsibilities and highlight relevant details about the company. Candidates may be uneasy without an offer letter and might wonder about the organization’s commitment to them in the long run if they are not even willing to commit at the beginning.

Creating an offer letter doesn’t need to be a daunting task. Simply create a template so that each time you want to make an offer of employment you can easily fill in the specific/unique pieces for the candidate. By using an offer letter, you can convey to your new employee that they are joining a professional organization.

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The Digital Insurance Agent – yes, we are still talking about this

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The Independent Insurance Agency world is still behind the 8-Ball when it comes to digital marketing. I’m not here to tell you that you should do it – because hopefully by now you know that. What I do want to share is what I’m seeing out there in the real world, and if you are truly vested in growing your agency, take the time to read the rest of this article!

  1. Not understanding their Customer – Their Target Client Profile. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat with an agent and asked them to tell me about their book of business. What’s it made up of? Tell me about your customers. RADIO SILENCE. As in they don’t know. This is SO important. You can’t create any marketing strategy unless you know who you are marketing to. More importantly you need to be able to look at your book of business and find your best clients. The one’s you like, you have the most experience, the best markets and are of course the most profitable.
  2. Not mapping the Customer Journey. You need to understand HOW your clients find you and HOW they like to be communicated with. After #1 this is perhaps the most important part of the Pre-Game. It’s the before they buy, after they buy, during the policy period, during the renewal, after the renewal and GASP after they leave. And yes – drawing an actual map is part of it. Plus – I’m a visual person and I like post it notes.
  3. Not having a Narrative Statement. You have to be able to communicate who the hell you are and what you are delivering to your clients. What is your unique value prop? Why should anyone buy from you?
  4. Not having a Content Strategy. This is different than an overall Marketing Strategy – that’s #5. I call them Content Buckets – what will your content derive from? What are the most important conversations you want to have with your prospects?
  5. Not having an overall Marketing Strategy. This includes your digital channel plan – where you will share your content, get your message out AND your traditional marketing such as print, radio etc. It should also have a month by month breakdown of what you are going to do and an overarching Editorial Calendar showing blog topics, email topics, hashtags etc.

Once you do 1-5 – now you are ready to take action. Please don’t go down the route of hiring someone who gives you canned content for your website, or canned email content. You will be lost in a sea of blue insurance logos looking like everyone else. People are buying from YOU. Share your story, show some personality.

Final tip – get your team involved. Your front-line folks are the ones who are interacting with your clients day after day. If you are looking for content – ask them WHAT your customers are asking about? Maybe it’s auto rates rising, or cyber liability or AirBnB or UBER questions.

I would have to say the majority of agents I work with haven’t done the Pre-Game. They dive right in and have miserable results. No super bowl was won without a lot of planning up front.

Just my $.02

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OMG – yes you have to track it.

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I can always tell a good salesperson and yes, the ones that just are going to drive their managers bat s**t crazy and then some.

Rainmakers, top dogs – you know the superstars all have this one thing in common: They are a slave to their data.

They know:

  • Their sales goals, and how close or far off they are at any moment in time.
  • They know their stretch goals, bonus tipping points and anyway they can make extra on their book of business.
  • They are data monsters – they eat it up. They know everything about their top prospects.
  • They know who their Target Client Profile is – they aren’t wasting a lick of time on someone who isn’t going to buy from them. EVER.

Here’s a big one – they have an organized trackable process. Yes, I said process. They know exactly what to do NEXT when they get a lead, they make a pitch, they close a deal. Rarely do they waiver.

Oh Shocker – they track it all in a CRM. Now for some that are old school that may mean a spreadsheet or God Help me paper files – but however you want to track your pipeline is fine, just do it.

If you are a salesperson that doesn’t fit into what I just described you might want to search out another career. Sure, you may sell some stuff, but you won’t be the top dog. Can you change? You betcha!

Managers – if you have someone who isn’t in the “KNOW” – we need to get to the bottom of WHY they aren’t quickly. Trust me, the frustration will only get worse…and worse…until you become a passive aggressive evil boss. Yea – it will happen. Seen it more than once.

Here’s the good news – there are so many training support systems out there. (Like Red Barn – sorry – had to plug us)

If you want to win the coveted Top Sales Dog award at the annual business meeting – then trust me, you need a sales coach. A mentor – or hell, someone to get you organized!

Call us – we rock at the whole sales organization and getting act together stuff.

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Social Media and Health Care: Improving the patient experience – digitally!

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Let’s face it, we live in a digital social world. Brands of all types have made their mark on Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram – but where are the health care providers?

  1. Oh, there are a few out there, but many are adverse to jumping on the social media wagon and here’s why avoidance is a mistake.
    Your patients are there and they WANT to engage. Using platforms such as Twitter or Facebook to brand your practice is a given, but are you posting content that is ABOUT them vs. about you? 80% of your content should have nothing to do with the services you offer. How much can you really write about Breast Exams or Colonoscopies or wait times in the ER? Ask questions! Ask for Feedback! Talk about preventative care, families and lifestyle. Patients also want to see the team from the doctors to the intake folks and everyone in between. Who are they? Why would I as a patient want to engage with them? Trust them with my care – my life? It’s all part of the customer experience.
  2. Improve Patient Communication. We all know that social media is not the place to talk about personal health care issues, but it is the PERFECT place to address broad questions. The key is to have a Social Media Manager and/or Patient Advocate managing social feeds. If indeed a personal health question arises, the Manager can direct the patient to a secure portal or have a health care provider call him/her to discuss concerns. As with any business, there will be Frequently Asked Questions that appear and best practice is to create an FAQ page on your website to direct patients or prospective patients to.
  3. More Satisfied Patients. It really all goes back to communication and transparency. Patients want to feel they are involved in their health care decisions AND they want providers who are willing to help them along the way. There is also the connectivity factor – connecting patients with other patients who share the same illnesses – almost like support groups but online. It’s perfectly OK to have a private MONITORED Facebook page for a variety of topics/groups such as Cancer Survivors, Sports Injuries, Heart Attack Survivors or those currently going through some life changing issue or chronic condition. When the Health Care Provider CARES and is involved, patient satisfaction will naturally rise. You are developing a community that your patients can be a part of.
  4. Education – Teach and Learn. It’s a given that social media is a great venue to educate your patients, and video is by far the #1 channel to do it. Not only is video engaging but it shows the true personalities of the presenters – doctors, PAs, NPs and other providers. Offering educational videos on everything from pre-op to post-op procedures to stretching exercises and healthy menu planning – the sky is the limit! Every physician is an “expert” and has a point of view. Social media allows physicians to easily share that expertise with the world and further engage current patients as well as attract new ones.

In the end, it’s all about putting you and your practice/group/hospital out there and allowing your patients to learn, teach, and engage.

Your patients are begging for this – where are you on the social spectrum?

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It’s all about the Ops…the Ops

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“Help – I’m getting eaten alive by my competitors. I need a marketing intervention ASAP.” I’ve gotten this call, chatted with this person – more than once. When I first started out in the entrepreneurial world – I only offered marketing. Strategy, Traditional print support, that transformed into more digital work – but you know – Marketing “Stuff”. I quickly learned that if Sales and Marketing aren’t communicating or playing nicely in the sandbox together that my marketing will be less effective. So, we added in Sales training and support into the mix. We look at sales goals and capacity to ensure that our marketing endeavors are a cohesive match made in heaven.

But THEN…. I learned. I can have a kick ass marketing strategy and a rock star sales team BUT if there is no process to get the stuff out the door, or the supply chain is running a muck OR the servicing of the client is God awful – then Houston, we have a problem. You got it, all my fabulous marketing and sales guru stuff doesn’t matter because we have unhappy clients. Unhappy clients tell a whole lot of people how they feel.

So – we now start from the beginning. We focus on the operations, the leadership and the culture. Who are the people, what is the process and what is the capacity for growth and scale?

You see it really is about the ops – the operations of the business. The times my Spidey Senses said – “Cindy, this is an ops issue not a marketing/sales issue” yet the client was hell bent on the fact that they had rock solid ops, employees, blah blah blah – it failed. Every Single Time – my marketing and sales strategy failed. Why – because of everything I said above.

You must have a strong foundation before you can grow – or you will topple over. What if the pyramids were upside down? That’s a Jenga nightmare waiting to happen.

Here is how we do it – and you can surely do this yourself, but my guess is adult supervision is needed. (another thing I learned – business owners need to bring in experts to get S**t done sometimes)

1. SWOT of your business. What’s working, what isn’t.
2. Leadership – Do you even have good leadership?
3. Team – are they happy? Are they productive? Are they efficient?
4. Customer Journey and Experience – do you have happy customers? How do you “touch them” along the way?
5. Marketing – what is your “Why” – who the hell are you in the world? What is your story?
6. How will you tell your story – and how much money do you have to do it?
7. Who the heck is selling – every company has to sell something, I don’t care who you are.
8. Who is pulling it all together – who is running the ship, managing the process? PS – often the dude or dudette at the top isn’t the one. They are visionaries, not project managers.
9. How are you tracking successes and failures?

9 Steps – and trust me – you don’t want to skip any of them. Not my first rodeo, I’ve fallen off that bull just a few times and I’ve learned a few things along the way!

If you need that adult supervision –send us an email, send up a smoke signal or hey – pick up the phone and call us.

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