Delaware Primary Agent – Social Media Insights 2018
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Holiday Vacation Requests – How to Handle PTO When Everyone Wants the Same Days Off
The holiday season is upon us, and in addition to all the food, celebrations, and holiday cheer comes the influx of vacation or PTO requests. Some people love working around the holidays – it’s quieter, less employees are in the building to distract them, and it’s a great time to catch up on some lingering projects. But let’s be honest, most of us LOVE taking a few extra days off around Thanksgiving and the week off in between Christmas and New Year’s. But as a manager, it can be difficult to juggle all those PTO requests and determine who should get the time off. After all, you do have a business to run!
I’ve worked for several companies who have tried different approaches to this conundrum and here’s some Pros and Cons for each.
Work from Home. This one is my favorite, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Pretty much everybody has a laptop, iPad or smartphone that enables them to work remotely. If your staff doesn’t have to be on site, letting them work at home during the holidays can be a productive way to get things done. Working at home is a viable option only if the business lends itself to it and there’s a way to ensure the employees are actually working.
Seniority Rules! For employees who are at the top of the totem pole this scenario seems like a great idea. After all, they’ve put in the years and years of hard work – shouldn’t they get an additional perk? In theory it sounds like it’s a fair solution – but if you have several employees who have been with you for a while and they always want the same holidays off as the rest of the department, it may cause frustration and friction.
First Come, First Served. Rewarding those who plan ahead can make creating your holiday schedule much easier. Determine the number of employees you can afford to do without, and once you have that number of employees put in requests – all other requests will be turned down. This puts the burden on the employee to submit PTO in a timely fashion. However, you should set a timeline for how early employees can put in a vacation request – you don’t want Susan requesting the last week of December off for the next 3 years now.
Do a Lottery. Doing a lottery system for the most coveted days off when all your employees want to take PTO time may be the fairest option. Have all your employees put their name on a slip of paper, toss them into a bag, and pick as many names as employees you can afford to be without.
Split the Days Up. There are a few ways to do this one. If your employees don’t care about having the whole day off – split the shifts into mornings and afternoon and everyone works a half day. If your employees prefer full days off – split up the week instead. Give Joe Monday and Tuesday off and give Jane Thursday and Friday off. Everybody wins!
Give a Holiday Differential. If it’s in your budget, offer a small hourly pay differential to those who choose to work the day before Thanksgiving or the days surrounding Christmas and New Year’s. It may solve your scheduling problem for you.
Create Black Out Days. This one is at the bottom for a reason – it’s probably the least favorable option and won’t win you any brownie points with your employees, but it is needed in some industries: retail, hospitality, and even healthcare. If an employee wants off during a blackout period he or she would need to ask well in advance, with a good reason, and it would be at the manager’s discretion. It’s a good idea to inform employees from the beginning of the blackout policy so they aren’t blindsided come holiday time.
Handling PTO request any other time of year is typically a breeze, but navigating the request during the peak of the holiday season should be handled with care. Not only can it upset employees, but it could also disrupt your company culture and your brand.
Becoming a better vacation manager is far more important than the challenges of enduring a temporary gap in staffing. Not only are employees entitled to the time off, but research shows that taking it is critical for both their engagement and to avoid long-term burnout. You can read my blog on that here: CLICK ME!
How does your company handle holiday PTO requests? I’d love to hear about it!
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Prospecting with Email Marketing
Email is 40 times more effective at getting new customers than Facebook and Twitter combined. — McKinsey. We do a ton of email marketing for clients and Red Barn – some of it is thought leadership focused like my Thursday morning Tribe Mail. (sign up here), but much of it is done primarily for prospecting.
So how do we get consistent above average open rates and click through rates AND conversion with our email marketing?Consistency, Great Content, and yep – a lot of trial and error with subject lines.
Consistency. They don’t call them “Drip Email Campaigns” because you just do it once. Effective email campaigns do just that – drip like a leaky faucet until someone takes notice and takes action. AHA moment – you immediately thought annoying leaky faucet. But think deeper – most sales people give up after 1 or 2 connections yet people don’t take action until after 10-12 touch points.
For thought leadership emails, I’m a fan of weekly. Same time, same place. No visuals – just great content that spurs thinking. It’s all about building your personal brand and connecting it with your company brand. Having people see you in a different light – you know, showing off your secret sauce.
For Drip Campaigns, you need multiple touches weekly and they run over several MONTHS. Visuals happen when they take action – so going to a landing page or your website, otherwise I keep them text only. WHY? One word: mobile.
Content. Once someone clicks on your email – you need to give your prospect something valuable to read! Remember people buy from people they KNOW, LIKE and TRUST – in that order. So, if you are prospecting to a cold list – don’t go in for the kill immediately. Let them get to know you and like you first – this can happen all in one email or it can get built up over time. Why should someone take the time to know you or even like you?
I’m a fan of giving something to get something. Offer a free download, give them some “tool” for free or some free insight into what you offer. Again – you need to build up to the Trust phase before they will buy. Toss in some testimonials, send them back to read a blog you’ve written. Give them something valuable.
Subject lines. Depending on what stats you look at – up to 50% of people will decide to open or not open an email based on the subject line. More daunting, subject lines can also toss you in a SPAM folder depending on what you write and to whom you are sending it to! In the end – it takes some A/B testing depending on your Target Client Profile. Here are some quick stats from our friends at Hubspot:
- Emails that contain the word \”you\” in the subject line are opened 5% less often than those without.
- Emails that contain the word \”tomorrow\” in the subject line are opened 10% more often than those without.
- Emails with subject lines containing 30 or fewer characters have the best open rates.
- Emails with personalized subject lines are more than 20% more likely to get opened.
- Emails with the word “Meeting” in the subject line were opened 7% less than those without.
- Emails with the word “Newsletter” in the subject line had a 18.7% lower open rate than those with out
- Use the word “Alert” – and see 61.8% higher open rate
- The top 5 subject lines in recent studies all included “Re:”
Of course, these are some general observations – you need to try and see what works for you!
Email marketing works.
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Working from the Road – Remotely!
I’m penning this article while sitting riding in my RV through the hills of West Virginia enroute to Kentucky. I’ve created a work scenario for myself that allows for this type of flexibility. “Back in the day”, very few people could work remotely unless they were writers and had typewriters, a travel luxury. Today, more and more companies/organizations are allowing their team to work from virtually anywhere. Now, as Jenn at Red Barn would say, it’s not all roses and unicorns this remote world I live in – but, it’s pretty darn close. Why I LOVE IT
- I work on my time. In the end, as long as all the work gets done and clients are happy, does it really matter when the work gets completed or where? Absolutely not. In fact, I am far more creative when I’m not sitting in my office surrounded by stuff. Put me in my RV (I wrote 4 magazine articles this morning before 10 am), or outside in the woods and I’m creative as all get out!
- Change of pace. Going back to the creative piece, sometimes different scenery can inspire or the lack of the stifling office piles of papers (well in my office anyway) gives you some freedom to think better. For me, getting away always improves my work output.
- My team is huge, costs are low. I can have employees all over the world and I don’t have some massive brick and mortar to pay for. I can also give my clients a more competitive rate and pay my employees more and even offer them more perks.
- My employees are happy. Happy employees mean happy customers means happy business owner. If one of my team members wants to take their laptop and go sit at a park for the day, they go. The only “No” is if there are scheduled staff meetings or meetings with clients. Although we’ve been known to have more than one meeting outside or even via Skype.
The Challenges
- Sometimes you miss people. Now today, I’m in the RV with Dave – so I have people! But there are days when I don’t have any client appointments and I’m just tired of no human interaction. Same with my staff – good news is we are all conscious of that challenge and work with it. We may all get together at my house or all grab lunch – just for some humanizing!
- Staying Organized. Big challenge for me, not my forte but I force myself. Between project management tools, lists, and cloud based everything, I seem to keep it together. You must embrace technology if you want it to work though.
- Not everyone is a good remote worker. I learned this the hard way when hiring my team. I’ve learned that some people just love a cubicle (Gasp – not for me at all!).
- Discipline. You should be disciplined working remotely – especially for me in the RV! I set work time and stick to it. But once my work is done – I’m done, I don’t sit in front of my laptop from 9-5 because I’m supposed to.
- Getting away from work. When you don’t go to an office, your office follows you around. My discipline challenge is not working all the time vs. not working enough! At home, I leave my office and don’t go back in. The RV is a bit more challenging! I put away my laptop and papers into my bag and that’s me closing the door for the day.
- Security. Making sure our data is secure in multiple locations has its challenges, but we just have processes to ensure we are internally compliant! So far (fingers crossed) we’ve done very well!
Business owners who allow their team to try working remotely might be pleasantly surprised of the outcomes! Happier employees, better productivity and increased revenues!
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To Dress Up or Not to Dress Up – Halloween Costume Office Tips
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!
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
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
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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