RBC

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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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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Is Google Plus Dead?

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Originally launched in 2011 Google Plus (Google +) was set to be the next big thing in social media with the expectation of overshadowing Facebook. We’d seen it happen before when Facebook overtook MySpace in the social media popularity contest so it was possible it could happen again.

My first introduction to social media was MySpace. Whoa…I think I just aged myself a little bit there but I digress. Anyway, MySpace was the place where you could change your background settings and songs and make your page uniquely you anytime you felt like it. You could shuffle around your top 8 friends daily depending on your mood! How could it get any better? Introduce, Facebook.

Since the inception of Facebook in 2004 the platform has undergone huge changes. While some have been skeptical we all know the only thing constant in life is change and Facebook has never shied away from making changes good, bad or otherwise. So how did Facebook overtake MySpace in social media popularity? I’m glad you asked. According to former MySpace CEO Mike Jones, MySpace was just the introduction to social media while Facebook works to perfect the social media world. One of the biggest differences noted was that MySpace didn’t allow users to use their real name but rather a pseudonym while Facebook encouraged users to post their real names to better to connect with others.

When Google Plus was launched, Facebook had already been active for 6 years with millions of users worldwide making them a formidable social media opponent. There were now personal and business pages, sponsored ads and groups to join. So where would Google Plus fall into the mix? Initially Google Plus was designed to integrate all Google services to allow the users to be more transparent with the people they communicated with the most through a variety of ways including Hangouts and Circles which are currently still active. The idea was that you could arrange your circles to communicate with certain people through posts, videos or blogs etc.

Similar to Facebook, with Google Plus you can check into a location and let your followers know where you have been or what you have been up to. One of the most popular uses was Google photo’s which has since been separated from Google Plus and is its own program. So, in a nutshell, why is Google Plus still active and is it worth it to spend time and energy on?

In a word, yes. While Google Plus may not be the most active social media site the hidden perk is SEO. Search Engine Optimization. When you post on Google Plus you increase your SEO on Google and increased SEO is always a good idea. Key words, photos and tags will help direct traffic to your posts which if linked, will direct back to your website or whatever you are posting about. Talk about a win-win. Facebook may be the leader in being social, but Google Plus is the winner for SEO. According to a Stone Temple Consulting study, 90% of users with a Google+ profile have never posted to the network. So you may wonder, how can it work, how is it beneficial if people don’t post to it? From a study conducted by Statistic Brain 70% of brands have a presence on Google Plus proving that for business purposes it is a useful tool.

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Building the Bike while Riding it

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While in a meeting with one of my favorite clients working on several big projects – all of which have multiple moving parts – my client exclaimed “I feel like I’m building the bike and riding it at the same time!”.

Translation: He felt as if he was figuring out the project while actually doing the project. He was a tad overwhelmed but had a sense of calm that he was made the right decision.

Life isn’t always perfect. We don’t always have the time to plot and plan every detail before we start a business, take on a new client or begin a project. Sometimes life hands you an amazing opportunity and you just have to say, “I’m in – and I’ll figure it out as I go along”.

So how do you know when to risk it and when to back away? Well, there isn’t an easy answer and I am the queen of the risk takers – but here is how I do it:

1. Do I actually have the skill set to do this job/project/business and can it be successful?
2. Do I have the time? What are my personal resources that I can commit?
3. Do I have good resources? Who can help me – where can I pull in the troops?
4. Can I make money?
5. Have I done ENOUGH due diligence and market research that tells me this could work if the stars align?
6. Am I emotionally ready for the challenge of the unknown? This kind of goes back to #2

In the end – it really comes down to you and what you are willing to commit and what are you willing to outsource. You know the saying “You will miss 100% of the shots you do not take” – so sometimes you do need to build the bike while riding it.

What’s the worst thing that could happen if you say “Yes”. If the answer to that is within your comfort zone and the answers to the 6 questions above are “Yes” – build and ride. If not – take a pass, you won’t enjoy the process and in the end the money won’t be worth it. You won’t have the emotional fortitude to survive the ups and downs.

The next time your organizational OCD kicks in and you have the urge to say not in my lifetime to an opportunity – step back for a second. You wouldn’t want to pass up the gig of a lifetime!

Do you have a great bicycle story? We would love to hear it!

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Do Adults Need Recess?

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Recess – (noun) temporary withdrawal or cessation from the usual work or activity.

Some adults are five-year-olds in disguise and they absolutely need recess, but do the rest of us fairly normal middle agers need a break? YES.

Baby boomers are born workaholics. (I’m dating myself now – don’t tell) We were taught early on the no pain no gain thing, and that you don’t get anywhere in life unless you put the time in, push through the pain to achieve the goal. I’m not poo pooing hard work at all, I am saying that at some point your brain, and you become grossly inefficient after only a couple hours.

Take my world. I do a lot of writing, thinking about strategies, meeting with clients and my brain has a hard time “shutting off”. I am far more efficient if I take a break every hour or so and do something “else”. In the warmer months, I go play in the dirt – I weed flowers, plant flowers – harvest some veggies. Being outside in the sunshine clears my brain. I also go for runs in the nicer weather – I’m not into bundling up and running in 4 degree CT winter weather.

When the weather isn’t so promising, I’ll take a break and cook or my delve into my latest hobby- painting. I’m no Monet but it sooths my soul and I really enjoy it. The point is I’m doing something that isn’t work related – I’m taking a Cindy recess from my crazy work schedule. You know what – it works. Now that I stopped feeling guilty about taking a break, I am far more efficient.

I used to sit and stare at my laptop screen waiting for the words to come. Eventually I would “take a break” on Facebook or Twitter only to feel not satisfied because it was just wasted time that I wasn’t really enjoying, then I felt guilty AND I still didn’t get my work done. Now I do something that brings me joy and I look forward to it. I tell myself I’ll write for an hour –then I get a 15 or 20-minute break. If I’m going for a run – I allow myself an hour.

Life is so much better with recesses. I know every company can’t afford to give their team recess –especially manufacturing type settings or call centers. But you can get creative – have something fun in break rooms, put in a gym or a reading room. Someplace where employees can get away for a bit during their scheduled break time. Trust me, the results will be Amazing!

For all you crazy entrepreneurs who like me, tend to always be “working” – find your inner Monet, put on your running shoes or go play in the dirt. Give your brain a break – it will thank you over and over again.

Here’s to being a 5 year old in an adult body!

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