Learn how to align the internal and external elements of your business and organization to effectively achieve strategic alignment. Best practices, tips, and templates.
A matrix organization lies between a functional organizational structure and a project-based one; it involves the features of both types. Initially developed in the 1970s to address the complexities of large-scale projects, this structure has since become a popular framework in various industries, particularly in the technology, engineering, and healthcare sectors.
Unlike traditional hierarchical structures where employees report to a single manager, the matrix structure introduces multiple reporting lines, creating a networked environment where individuals collaborate across functional boundaries to achieve organizational goals.
The benefits of a matrix organization structure are manifold. Facilitating collaborations among departments helps spark new ideas and share knowledge. Moreover, it allows resource optimization as employees could be moved dynamically to tasks where they could apply their skills and expertise. Furthermore, the team structure facilitates a more wholesome approach to the organization’s goals because employees work together to achieve common objectives. Let’s learn more about matrix organicational structure in this blog post.
A matrix organization is a management method that integrates both functional and project-oriented approaches. The matrix structure involves dual reporting lines, where the staff members usually report to both a functional manager, who supervises their skills development in a specific department or discipline, and a project manager, who directs them to realize the project’s goals and deadlines. This twin reporting system provides for greater flexibility, intradepartmental collaboration, and swift management of ad hoc tasks.
In a matrix structure, the reporting relationships are formed in a grid or matrix-like pattern. Employees are simultaneously part of a function department (e.g., marketing, finance, engineering) and a project team. This mode makes it easy to identify the resources needed for each project to ensure compliance with project objectives. 84% of American workers are employed within organizations that utilize a “matrixed” work arrangement to varying degrees.
The matrix structure originated in the mid-20th century primarily because of escalating organizational complexity and the need to adapt to unpredictable market conditions. It was popular in the aerospace, defense, and construction industries, where projects often require different skill sets and multidisciplinary collaboration.
Let’s learn about the types of matrix organizational structures.
Weak Matrix
In a weak matrix structure, functional managers hold more power and authority over employees than project managers. Employees are primarily responsible to their functional managers, and they are temporarily assigned to projects while reporting to their functional department. This structure is suitable when projects are small or short-term and the functional departments need to maintain a high degree of control over resources.
Tech giant IBM employs a weak matrix structure, where functional managers have more authority over employees than project managers. Employees are primarily aligned with their functional departments (e.g., software development, hardware engineering, sales) and are assigned to projects as needed.
Balanced Matrix
In a balanced matrix structure, functional and project managers share equal power and authority over employees. Employees report to both their functional managers for functional guidance and their project managers for project-specific tasks and responsibilities. This structure is suitable when projects are equally important to the functional departments and a balance of power is necessary for effective coordination.
Procter & Gamble (P&G) uses a balanced matrix structure, where functional managers (e.g., marketing, research and development, operations) and project managers (for specific product lines or initiatives) share equal control over employees.
In a strong matrix structure, project managers hold more power and authority over employees than functional managers. Employees are primarily responsible to their project managers, and functional managers play a supporting role in providing specialized expertise and resources. This structure is suitable when projects are large, complex, long-term, and bring huge revenues for the organization.
Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor, utilizes a strong matrix structure, particularly for large-scale projects like developing new fighter jets or space systems. Project managers have significant authority over resources, while functional managers provide support and expertise.
Increased flexibility and adaptability to changing market conditions: The matrix structure allows for dynamic allocation of resources and personnel, enabling organizations to respond to shifts in market demands or project priorities swiftly.
Improved project efficiency and faster decision-making: Dual reporting lines streamline decision-making, and projects benefit from the expertise of both functional and project managers. This leads to quicker resolutions and smoother project workflows.
Enhanced communication and collaboration across departments: Matrix structures promote cross-functional collaboration as team members from different departments work together on projects. This leads to better communication and a deeper understanding of organizational objectives.
Fosters innovation and knowledge sharing: By bringing together individuals with diverse skills and perspectives, matrix structures encourage innovation and creativity. The exchange of ideas across functional boundaries fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
Better utilization of employee skills and expertise: Employees in a matrix structure have the opportunity to contribute their skills to various projects, maximizing their potential and ensuring that their expertise is utilized effectively across different areas of the organization.
Despite the many benefits a matrix organization brings, challenges are present in every organizational framework. To combat these challenges, organizations must first identify them. Let’s delve into each one:
Role Ambiguity and Confusion Due to Dual Reporting Lines
In a matrix structure, employees report to both functional managers (e.g., department heads) and project managers simultaneously. This can lead to confusion about roles, responsibilities, and priorities. Employees may find it challenging to understand to whom they should be primarily accountable, which can result in inefficiencies and conflicts.
Potential for Power Struggles Between Functional and Project Managers
Matrix structures can create power struggles between functional managers who focus on long-term departmental goals and project managers who prioritize short-term project objectives. Conflicting priorities and decision-making authority can lead to tension and competition for resources, potentially hindering project execution.
Increased Complexity in Communication and Decision-Making
With multiple reporting lines and stakeholders involved, communication channels become complex in a matrix structure. Decision-making processes may also become slow and cumbersome as various stakeholders need to be consulted or aligned, leading to delays in project execution and potentially impacting overall productivity.
Risk of Employee Burnout Due to Competing Priorities
Employees in a matrix structure often juggle multiple projects or tasks simultaneously, leading to increased workload and pressure. The constant balancing act between fulfilling functional responsibilities and meeting project requirements can contribute to employee burnout, negatively impacting morale, productivity, and retention rates.
To address these challenges, organizations implementing matrix structures should focus on establishing clear communication channels, defining roles and responsibilities, providing adequate training and support for employees, fostering collaboration and teamwork across departments and projects, and implementing effective conflict resolution mechanisms. Additionally, regular performance evaluations and feedback sessions can help managers and employees more effectively navigate the complexities of a matrix structure.
In conclusion, the matrix organization offers a dynamic framework that blends functional and project-based hierarchies, allowing for increased flexibility and collaboration within organizations. Its various types cater to different needs, whether they are strong or weak matrix setups. This structure’s benefits include enhanced communication, specialized skill utilization, and efficient resource allocation. By leveraging the strengths of functional and project-based approaches, businesses can more readily adapt to complex challenges and capitalize on opportunities in today’s fast-paced environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What role does leadership play in a matrix organization?
Leadership’s role in a matrix organization involves facilitating collaboration, resolving conflicts, and providing clear direction and priorities. It ensures that both project and functional objectives are met.
Can a matrix structure work for all types of organizations?
While matrix structures can be effective in many situations, they may not be suitable for every organization. Small organizations with simple structures or those with highly specialized functions may find them too complex. Before implementing a matrix structure, it’s essential to assess the organization’s needs and capabilities.
How can an organization transition to a matrix structure successfully?
A successful transition to a matrix structure requires careful planning, clear communication, and support from leadership. Key steps may include defining roles and responsibilities, establishing communication channels, providing training on matrix working principles, and addressing any cultural or organizational barriers to collaboration.
A recent survey with 4,744 respondents revealed that 28 percent of employees in the United States believe working with employees of different ages is highly significant to them. In contrast, the percentage of employees who perceive workplace age diversity as insignificant is nine points higher.
These figures may indicate that those who believe in the importance of workplace age diversity value the benefits of dynamic experiences and versatile perspectives. Meanwhile, those who don’t may prefer uniformity and worry about potential conflicts due to generational differences.
Although employees have varied beliefs, the inevitable is here: workplaces are now multi-generational. If you have employees who think age diversity is unimportant, how do you bridge the gaps to help them welcome its opportunities?
Understanding the Current Generations of the Workforce
Different generations grew up in different time frames, cultures, and environments, influencing their attitudes and characteristics. Understanding these characteristics is essential in helping mitigate your multi-generational team’s challenges.
Traditionalists and Baby Boomers
Traditionalists, called The Silent Generation, are in their seventies to nineties. Most have retired, but some still work as partners, board members, or advisors. Being the oldest of the workforce, they value tradition and hard work.
In their late fifties to seventies, active Baby Boomers are self-assured and goal-oriented while working.
Both generations struggle with digital technologies due to old age, but Boomers can adapt when needed. However, contemporary workplace practices often view them as resistant or slow to adapt.
Generation X
Gen Xers are currently in their forties and early fifties. They were the first generation to grow up with personal computers. They are characterized as adaptable, independent, and resourceful. Although more tech-savvy than their predecessors, they are less dependent on technology, unlike Millennials and Gen Z.
The most common stereotype for Gen Xers is their cynicism, making them prefer solo working rather than in teams. Moreover, they value work-life balance.
Millennials
Millennials, or Generation Y, are in their late twenties to early forties. They were the first generation to live with the Internet—they either grew up with it or were born into it. While they carry their predecessors’ values, they are more tech-savvy and independent.
Since Millennials were born before and after the advent of the Internet, they are considered the most adaptable generation. They’re more likely to pursue new opportunities to advance their careers.
However, people often perceive this generation as frequently changing jobs, self-absorbed, or entitled.
Generation Z
Gen Zers are in their early teens to mid-twenties, making them the workforce’s youngest generation. They are called digital natives, making them the most tech-savvy generation—they were exposed to digital technologies and social media for nearly half their lives.
Gen Zers are considered the most inclusive, open-minded, and diverse generation. Besides improving themselves, they find socially actionable ways to unlearn and correct the previous generations’ mistakes.
The most common stereotypes among Gen Zers include:
Common Challenges of Managing a Multi-Generational Team
The most common challenges of multi-generational teams include:
Different Priorities: You may find it challenging to satisfy the needs of each age group. For example, Millennials focus on career advancement, while Boomers prioritize job security
Communication Style: Older generations prefer face-to-face interactions, while younger employees may prefer digital messaging
Stereotypes: Older employees may perceive younger colleagues as inexperienced, while younger employees may mock older colleagues for lacking technological skills
How To Bridge Generational Gaps in Your Team
Here’s how to bridge the gaps in your multi-generational team to mitigate and prevent workplace issues:
Talk to your team to understand their unique experiences
Successful multi-generational teams understand, respect, and accept each other. Fostering this culture involves talking to your team to understand their unique experiences.
These discussions help you understand your team’s motivations, work styles, and priorities. This way, you can establish policies that meet everyone’s needs. At the same time, you should include everyone to create fruitful conversations that cultivate respect and appreciation of each other’s differences.
Promote the beauty of age diversity
Age discrimination, or ageism, is the unfavorable treatment of a colleague based on age. Although everyone can experience it, older adults are often the targets of this prejudice.
As such, combat workplace ageism by including age in your definitions of diversity. This inclusion helps promote the beauty of age diversity, focusing on intersectionality instead of single topics like gender or race.
Intersectionality helps your employees acknowledge the connection between social categorizations of discrimination. For instance, a colleague may experience discrimination because of age, race, and gender. It helps the team recognize that prejudice isn’t limited to one social category.
Foster psychological safety
Psychological safety refers to your team’s comfort in taking risks, asking questions, acknowledging mistakes, and expressing concerns and ideas. When members lack a sense of psychological safety, they fear the negative consequences of speaking up.
To foster psychological safety, promote open and honest communication by ensuring everyone is comfortable speaking up, whether face-to-face or digitally. Here’s how to do it:
Encourage direct reports to communicate their preferred interactions
Show your commitment to meeting the team’s preferences halfway so they can do the same for their colleagues
Help your team understand that they shouldn’t expect their colleagues to understand their work styles
If you have feedback loops for customer management, create a similar system for employees to encourage feedback and workplace environment assessments
Encourage your team to set boundaries
Contemporary professional settings now tackle topics that were once considered taboo. Younger generations are more comfortable discussing issues like race, gender, and inclusivity, helping eradicate stigma in the workplace.
However, disagreements about such topics with older employees are inevitable. Still, you must help them understand why the organization values discussing these social issues.
To minimize miscommunication:
Encourage everyone to set boundaries
Don’t force everyone to accept perspectives, as learning takes time
Let your team prepare for sensitive discussions by informing them to prevent unnecessary arguments
Debunk the negative stereotypes
As the executive or team leader, be the first to debunk negative generational stereotypes. Educate yourself about each generation’s realities and experiences and discuss your learnings with the team.
Debunking stereotypes helps employees understand they can only know their colleagues through interactions, not hasty generational beliefs. This way, they won’t make age-based assumptions that can fuel workplace issues.
Group employees with complementary skills in projects
Team management thrives on collective effort. While the staff learns from the team leaders and vice versa, you learn from them, too. Leverage this mutual mentorship by grouping employees with complementary skills in projects.
Suppose you’re running a marketing campaign. You should combine older employees who are experts in copywriting and market research with younger employees skilled in data analysis and graphic design.
Some team leaders and executives tend to favor older employees due to experience. However, this favoritism can bring more harm than good, making younger employees feel they are boastful when speaking up.
As such, avoid favoritism by ensuring everyone is heard in meetings. Give your younger members the space to be outspoken, ask questions, give feedback, and respectfully showcase their skills.
Moreover, remind your older employees that less experience doesn’t mean they should dismiss their younger colleagues’ insights. At the same time, encourage your younger staff to learn from their older colleagues’ seasoned perspectives.
Facilitate diversity and inclusion training programs
Another way to bridge multi-generational gaps is by facilitating diversity and inclusion training programs. For example, conduct a workshop about diversity barriers. Invite expert guest speakers who will discuss ageism or the contemporary workplace.
Diversity and inclusion training programs show that you understand your team’s multi-generational challenges and are actively developing ways to address the gaps. These programs help make your team feel heard and show you value creating a safe workplace for everyone.
Organize team-building activities
Lastly, organize team-building activities to nurture mutual understanding among employees.
Team-building activities often require communication and collaboration, encouraging your team to leverage and appreciate each other’s strengths in casual settings. By working towards a common goal, your staff can find common ground and learn from each other.
This shared experience helps enhance teamwork and fosters an environment where everyone is valued and heard.
Listen to Your Employees Attentively
Multi-generational team management isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. However, it can be as simple as attentive listening. After all, most employees prefer management that listens and is open to feedback. The more you listen, the more you can bridge generational gaps by making everyone feel heard and included.
Did you know that only20% of people feel that they have their workload under control daily?
Let’s begin by imagining A Day in the Life of a busy professional.
Wake up in the morning and check the day’s to-do list, only to realize that there is a lot more to do than there are hours in a day.
Sounds relatable? That’s where effective time management comes into play!
Gone are the days when multitasking used to be one of the highly desirable employee skills. Today, multitasking is viewed as prioritizing quantity over quality. And that doesn’t work in the professional world.
To avoid delivering substandard results, there is a need to learn to utilize the time you have to its maximum potential. That is why time management has emerged as a critical life skill to have.
By managing your time instead of letting it manage you, you can ensure higher productivity and quality, impacting your professional reputation. And who knows, you might even reclaim those lost hours for some well-deserved ‘me time.’
Here, we will discuss the top seven time management hacks that will enable you to efficiently use the time you have and boost productivity.
1. Prioritization and Goal Setting
It is easy to feel stressed in a demanding world where to-do lists seem to only get longer and juggling tasks feel like an uncalled-for adventure. The good thing is that not all tasks are created equal. Some are always more important than others. Prioritizing those high-importance tasks is a vital strategy that boosts productivity.
Once you have established your daily work goals, you must categorize them, ranking them in order of priority. Start the morning by working on the most important task before getting derailed by emails and other menial tasks.
You can leverage the project matrix tool created by Steven Covey to identify the tasks you can delegate. The method helps to determine what’s urgent, important, neither, or both (as shown in the image below).
2. Time Blocking and Scheduling
Another effective time management strategy is time blocking, i.e. planning out every part of your day in advance. Essentially, it involves breaking your entire work week into small, bite-sized time slots where you work on projects, check your emails, and even take a break.
To most, this technique may sound like turning your calendar into a completely frenzied mess. However, it can have the opposite effect. The technique not only provides a better sense of where your time is going, but also promotes focus.
It enables professionals to focus all their energies on a single task at a time, which can boostproductivity by up to 80%. Brilliant, isn’t it?
3. Delegation and Outsourcing
Despite wanting to do it all, understand that this is impossible. So don’t be apprehensive about distributing tasks among your team members to ease your workload and boost overall efficiency.
Start by evaluating your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on the tasks that align with your expertise and consider delegating those that fall outside your core competencies.
For instance, say you are working on a marketing campaign for a mattress company like Each night. If the intricacies of video marketing strategies aren’t your forte, take the opportunity to delegate or outsource this aspect. This strategic move allows you to concentrate on your strengths, such as crafting compelling content tailored to the brand.
4. Minimizing Distractions
Browsing through social media, chatting with co-workers, text messages, instant messaging–distractions at work are endless. And these distractions significantly reduce productivity. A survey results onStatista reveal that 80% of workers agree that chatting with colleagues is the leading cause of procrastination at work.
Shut your doors to distractions by being more proactive. This involves taking steps like–closing all tabs except the ones you are currently working on, turning off notifications, leaving your calls for lunchtime, etc. One of the best ways to go about this is to identify your top two distractions and focus on eliminating those for two weeks.
5. Technology Tools and Apps
Enlist technology assistance wherever possible. There is a plethora of useful apps out there that can help you take charge of your day, week, and month. These apps, when used appropriately, can help you stay on top of your progress and maximize efficiency.
For instance, there are time-tracking tools that give you an accurate idea of how you are spending your time. Additionally, some text-to-speech readers enable users to save valuable time by swiftly converting text files into spoken words. Once you know your requirements, you can easily choose from the many tools available online.
Let’s look at some of the most notable tools/apps you can consider using:
Notion: Notion offers a comprehensive platform that combines several productivity apps. You can use the app to streamline various tasks, such as project management, note-taking, to-do lists, and more.
Serene: Distractions are one of the biggest time wasters. Serene drastically boosts productivity by blocking all distractions and improving focus through regular timers and breaks.
Focus@Will: This is another incredible app that combines music and neuroscience to boost focus and subsequent productivity. It also helps to manage your ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).
6. Batching and Time Efficiency
Batching is a highly effective time management technique that lets you get more things done in less time. The technique involves grouping similar tasks so you can work on them at the same time rather than approaching them sporadically throughout the day.
For instance, responding to your emails, replying to social media messages, editing a work, video, etc. These are all menial tasks that you can do in a single sitting. Complete them all together so you can eliminate them from the rest of your day.
Creating small batches of work helps, as it makes it easier to focus and manage your goals. You don’t have to constantly switch gears. Science has shown that every time an individual shifts to a new task, there is a ‘retooling’ process that occurs. And this takes a lot more time than one anticipates.
7. Taking Regular Breaks
This may sound counterintuitive, but taking regular breaks in between tasks is crucial for better time management.
A report by Michigan State University stresses the unparalleled importance of taking regular breaks to boost productivity, mental well-being, and decision-making. It also claims that skipping breaks can result in more stress and faster burnout.
High levels of stress impact energy, cognition, and engagement at work. Therefore, by working fewer (by taking more breaks), you can achieve more in less time.
Make small breaks a part of your schedule. Ensure these breaks are spread throughout your day, giving you enough time to relax and rejuvenate.
Conclusion
Mastering the skill of time management stands as a cornerstone of success. Luckily, there is always room for improvement for effective time management.
Follow the aforementioned tips to get the maximum things done in the shortest possible time frame. Also, make sure to include certain time management or productivity apps in your routine for the best outcome.
Remember, the journey to effective time management is a continuous evolution, and each refined step brings you closer to achieving your goals efficiently.
In 2024, having the right strategies to improve sales performance is crucial for driving business success, revenue growth, and profitability. In a competitive business environment, maintaining a high level of sales success is strategically imperative, as it determines your ability to attract new customers and retain current ones.
This blog provides sales managers with a comprehensive guide to enhancing sales representative performance in 2024. It covers effective strategies, proven best practices, and actionable steps to achieve outstanding results, with a focus on understanding, building, and managing high-performing sales teams.
Unlocking Sales Success Through Performance Management
Before diving into sales strategies, it is important to understand the role of performance management in achieving organizational success. A comprehensive understanding of performance measurement is crucial for thriving in the dynamic world of sales. Sales leaders can leverage this valuable tool to drive their teams toward exceeding sales goals.
Performance measurement equips sales professionals with the ability to set SMART sales objectives, which serve as a guide, ensuring that every effort aligns with broader business goals. These benchmarks allow sales managers to monitor progress, make data-driven decisions, and motivate their teams through performance-based rewards and incentives.
In today’s highly competitive landscape, attaining sales success requires a steadfast commitment to performance measurement, fostering a culture of excellence, and fueling revenue growth.
Sales Performance Metrics and KPIs
KPIs and sales metrics are two different ways to evaluate sales performance. KPIs are used to measure goals, while sales metrics are used to measure sales-related activities. KPIs and sales performance metrics can help you assess how to increase sales andanalyze sales team performance. Here are a few examples:
Sales Growth Rate calculates the percentage increase in revenue from sales over a given period.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) calculates how much money a customer will bring into your company throughout the customer relationship.
Win Rate, expressed as a percentage, measures the number of deals your sales team closes in relation to deals created.
Average Deal Size measures the average value and revenue of each deal closed by your sales team.
Sales Cycle Length measures the duration a sales lead takes to become a customer.
Tracking metrics enables the identification of the team’s strengths and weaknesses, facilitating data-driven decisions to optimize sales processes.
Most Effective Strategies to Improve Sales Performance in 2024
Assessing Your Current State
The first step toward determining how to improve your sales performance is to assess your current situation.
You can gain insights into your sales processes’ strengths and weaknesses by evaluating them, allowing you to identify what’s working and what isn’t.
Analyzing your sales strategy is equally crucial, ensuring it remains aligned with ever-changing market dynamics.
Finally, reviewingsales activities and their effectiveness through a data-driven assessment of your team’s activities is vital.
This analysis helps you modify sales performance management decisions and drives better results.
Building an Effective Sales Team
The cornerstone of sales success lies in building effective, high-performing sales teams.
It is essential to recruit and hire top talent who can bring in the required skills to enhance your team’s performance. Retaining these professionals is equally vital.
Investing in continuous training to improve sales performance, sharpen their skills, and expand their capabilities is crucial to developing a high-performing sales team.
Structured guidance and mentorship through sales coaching and training programs are significant in ensuring your team is well-equipped to excel in sales.
Crafting a Winning Sales Strategy
Three critical things must be targeted to create an effective sales strategy:
Prioritize the essential elements of a good sales strategy first. This entails creating a detailed plan comprising positioning, segmentation, and targeting. This will help align your efforts with your target audience’s unique needs.
Remain adaptable by consistently adjusting your strategy to market changes. It demonstrates agility in response to evolving market dynamics and emerging trends.
Align your strategy with sales goals. By doing so, you will optimize overall performance and achieve the desired results.
Empowering Individual and Team Performance
When considering improving sales performance, managers must empower individuals and teams to pursue excellence.
Utilize the potential of data and analytics in monitoring and measuring sales performance, offering real-time insights and metrics to assess individual and team achievements.
Implement effective strategies like regular performance evaluations and coaching for setting and achieving sales goals. Also, managers must ensure that goals are aligned with specific methodologies for tracking and attaining them, thereby fostering success.
Remember that motivated and engaged team members are the foundation of a high-performing sales team. Concentrate on motivating and engaging team members, cultivating a dynamic work environment that fosters enthusiasm and dedication, resulting in exceptional sales performance.
Discovering Effective Sales Activities and Techniques
To achieve exceptional outcomes, managers must discover effective sales activities and techniques.
Some tactics that can guarantee success include determining and focusing on the right clientele, creating compelling sales proposals, utilizing effective closing techniques, and leveraging technology to optimize sales operations.
Further emphasis should be laid on reducing the sales cycle length to promptly convert leads into customers and ensure a smooth customer journey.
Mastering the skill of successfully closing deals is vital, as it not only finalizes the sale but also significantly enhances revenue, making it a critical component of top strategies to improve sales performance.
Assessing and refining sales plans regularly based on client feedback and market trends can assist in discovering avenues for improvement and boost total sales growth.
Tips and Tricks to Close Sales Deals Easily
Enhancing sales performance is a multifaceted challenge that demands a strategic approach for success. To elevate your sales outcomes, consider implementing the following tips:
Strategic Goal Setting:
Prioritize annual goals and formulate a comprehensive plan to achieve them.
Establish short-term priorities and develop actionable plans to drive success incrementally.
Optimized Timing:
Analyze sales data to pinpoint the optimal moments for marketing your products or services.
Identify weaknesses and create a targeted strategy to fortify those areas.
Proactive Follow-Up:
Increase the likelihood of closing deals by adopting a proactive follow-up procedure with leads and prospects.
Seek out high-potential customers in your existing database and present them with personalized offers.
Pipeline Management:
Ensure a robust sales pipeline by effectively managing leads, nurturing potential customers, and guiding them through the sales process.
Improve conversion rates through efficient lead management and nurturing strategies.
Continuous Training:
Uphold sales excellence with an ongoing training program tailored to the team’s needs, fostering professional growth, and addressing challenges.
Encourage continuous learning and development to enhance individual performance and nurture an innovative sales culture.
Stay Informed:
Managers should stay abreast of the latest sales updates and incorporate both fundamental and advanced sales strategies into their approach.
Team Collaboration:
Foster effective communication and teamwork within the sales team through regular meetings, shared dashboards, and the implementation of sales enablement tools.
Utilize Advanced Analytics:
Leverage advanced tools and analytics to gather crucial data, track progress, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions for better outcomes.
Customer-Centric Approach:
Understand and address the distinctive needs and pain points of your target audience to stay ahead of the competition.
Summing Up
In the dynamic sales industry, excellence is an ongoing journey. The strategies presented in this blog necessitate continuous adaptation, enhancement, and innovation. By 2024, businesses should embrace flexibility, data-driven approaches, and customer-centricity. Sales managers must implement effective strategies to boost sales performance and empower their teams to excel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What trends may have an impact on their sales strategies in 2024?
Sustainability, digital transformation, and remote work will likely impact organizations’ sales strategies in the coming year.
How can businesses ensure their salespeople have a work-life balance while still performing well?
Businesses can ensure salespeople have work-life balance by offering flexible schedules, realistic targets, encouraging breaks, providing support and training, utilizing remote work options, fostering a positive culture, and maintaining open communication. Prioritizing employee well-being contributes to sustained high performance.
What are the key characteristics of effective sales managers?
Effective sales managers exhibit strong leadership, communication, and motivational skills. They possess strategic thinking abilities to navigate dynamic market conditions and adapt sales strategies accordingly. These managers prioritize coaching and development, analyze sales data for informed decision-making, and maintain a results-oriented focus, consistently exceeding targets.
Globally, businesses are facing significant challenges in recruiting and retaining talent. The unprecedented shifts in the business landscape, the changing needs of the modern workforce, and financial uncertainty have left organizations in a difficult position.
Traditional organizational cultures are struggling to provide an environment where employees can truly thrive and engage.
In today’s evolving work environment, company culture serves as the cornerstone of an organization, with the power to either stabilize or disrupt the entire setup. HR leaders must grasp the complexities of a progressive, high-performance culture and apply them wisely.
A genuine, supportive, trustworthy, reliable, and performance-oriented company culture is essential to addressing the demands of the contemporary workforce. Such a culture fosters effective team collaboration, reduces employee turnover, builds strong relationships, delivers higher returns on investment, and boosts productivity.
A report by Raj Shivagopal, a professor at Columbia Business School, found that company culture is essential for organizations to excel, with 90% of respondents saying that culture is important for their firms as it leads to higher productivity, performance, and ROI.
Even with all the research and data corroborating the impact of company culture on growth and profitability, it hasn’t received much attention from global leaders. While many organizations are looking for quick fixes, questions like, “Who is responsible for changing the culture?” and “How do you create a high-performance culture in an unpredictable business environment?” remain unanswered.
In this article, we will discuss the intricacies of high-performance culture and help you create a framework to cultivate it in your organization.
To set the high-performance culture definition straight, let’s break it down into two parts: organizational culture and high performance.
Company culture or organizational culture is the set of values, beliefs, attitudes, philosophies, and practices followed by organizations that guide the actions and behaviors of employees to execute their activities. A strong and positive culture has the potential to enhance the performance of employees by acting as the fabric that weaves everything together.
High performance refers to individuals, teams, or organizations as a whole that are highly focused on their goals and can achieve better results through a common vision, collaboration, skills, and resilience.
A high-performance culture empowers employees to excel beyond their roles, guided by shared values, beliefs, and philosophy. This culture promotes accountability, and ownership, and allocates resources for continuous improvement and goal achievement, ensuring both professional success and business growth.
“The traditional employer-centric world of work is fading. If the companies do not step up to provide a better employee experience now, their future is also bound to fade with time. Today’s organizations need to bolster forward and maintain a highly generous and driven work culture for their employees if they wish to become and remain industry leaders.” Aishwarya Khan, Content Head, Engagedly
Characteristics of a High-Performance Culture
There are multiple elements to organizational culture, and leaders define these elements based on the core values of their organizations.
But how do you identify the cultural values and elements that reciprocate the most with employees and lead them down the path of high performance?
Knowledge of high-performance culture values and characteristics is a must for building high-performing teams—teams that go beyond and above their job responsibilities to add value to the tasks they perform and ensure organizational success.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach that organizations can use to build a strong culture, but the hallmarks of a high-performance corporate culture include the following:
1. Supportive, Inclusive, and Empathetic Leadership
Employees look up to leaders as role models. Their ideologies and principles, the way they behave, execute tasks, reciprocate to challenges, and connect with employees, have a profound impact on the productivity, engagement, and performance of the workforce.
Empathy in organizations goes a long way in the workplace. Empathetic leaders can cultivate an environment of diversity, innovation, problem-solving, adaptability, and inclusiveness, thereby creating a high-performance culture in the organization.
Organizations with empathetic and inclusive leadership reap higher dividends. As per EY’s Empathy in Business Survey report 2021, empathetic leadership has the following effects on the organization:
Loyalty: 88% of employees feel loyal to their empathetic leaders
Job Satisfaction: 90% of employees believe empathetic leadership leads to higher job satisfaction
Trust: 87% of employees believe empathy is the foundation of trust between employees and leaders
2. Respect for Employees
Respect is the predominant factor responsible for building a high-performance culture. Employees who feel respected at the workplace are more productive, efficient, and loyal towards their employers.
“Your employees are individuals with hopes, fears, and ambitions. Respect their individuality, differences, contributions, personal goals, and ambitions, and be considerate toward their problems. Genuine and authentic respect propels your workforce towards higher levels of commitment towards the organization.” Srikant Chellappa, President, Engagedly
In any industry, employees expect the culture to be respectful and considerate of their feelings.
The research by Christine Porath, in her book Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace, highlights how incivility in the workplace can have serious ramifications on businesses.
The research found that the lack of respect led to the following among employees:
48% intentionally reduced their work effort
47% spent less time at work
66% saw their performance decline after being treated disrespectfully
80% of employees found themselves thinking about projects that caused disrespect
However recent research shows that learning programs focused on both the personal and professional development of employees are much more effective. It helps create a culture of high performance by making employees accountable and aware of their training needs and by aligning personal goals with organizational objectives.
The decreasing shelf life of skills has made continuous learning and skill development the fuel for business sustainability and growth. Employers who understand and invest in their talent needs reap multiple benefits from a high-performance learning culture.
Focus on creating structured and customized employee development programs rather than offering occasional training sessions that do not focus on the actual training needs of employees.
4. Workplace Transparency
One of the most important characteristics of a high-performance culture is workplace transparency.
An environment that provides comfort for employees to freely share their thoughts and ideas helps harbinger transparency, builds trust between employees and managers, and encourages employees to innovate and use their creativity in the workplace.
Transparency in the workplace has become a gold standard for both employees and customers.
As per Jayashankar Balaraman, Founder & CEO of Engagedly, “Transparency in the workplace reflects vulnerability, but without it, there’ll be insecurities that will rule out the possibility of a positive workplace culture. That’s a hard pass. This kind of bargain will cost organizations more than what they can think of.”
The Future of Work study conducted by Slack found that 87% of employees want their next employers to be more transparent with them. Another report by Sprout Social highlighted that 73% of consumers are willing to pay for transparent brands.
These startling statistics show the importance of transparency in an organizational culture for both employee performance and business sustainability.
5. Employee Empowerment
Employee empowerment happens when leadership provides their employees with the autonomy, resources, and support required to make decisions and execute their tasks with confidence.
Accountability is the key to driving a high-performance culture. When employees have the freedom to make their own choices, they see a boost in their confidence, motivation, and productivity. It further leads to more participation, collaboration, and happiness in the workplace.
What are the Benefits of a High-Performance Culture?
So far, we have understood the different characteristics of a high-performance culture and how they impact the organization. Before we discuss the steps to building a high-performance framework, let us dive into the different aspects of businesses that organizational culture touches upon and what benefits can be derived from them.
The following are some of the upsides of a high-performance culture:
Benefits to Employees
Recent events in the global business space have catapulted the expectations of employees. They now want to work in a culture that helps them thrive, understands and recognizes their contributions, supports them to achieve more, and makes them feel like part of the organizational journey.
A high-performance work culture benefits employees in the following ways:
Increases innovation, creativity, and problem-solving skills of employees
Improves relationship between employees and managers
Improves intra-organizational communication
Enhances employee productivity and performance
Creates a positive, healthy, and vibrant environment
Keeps employees motivated and focussed on the tasks
Increases happiness quotient in the workplace
Benefits to Employers
Per the PwC Global Survey, organizational culture has become a priority for business leaders.
In the last decade, the importance of culture has risen tremendously, and it has become an important agenda item for senior management.
High-performance culture companies have swung the pendulum in their favor by leveraging their culture as a competitive advantage, resulting in success across multiple domains.
Employers can get the following benefits from a high-performance work culture:
Improved customer satisfaction
Reduced employee turnover
Higher revenue streams
Organizational adaptability to unprecedented changes
A healthier and happier workforce
Enhanced employee brand image
How to Create a High-Performance Culture? (High-Performance Culture Framework)
Creating a high-performance culture takes time, ownership, and resources. Leaders need to first gauge the current state of the organizational culture before they jump into making changes.
The following process highlights the high-performance framework required to create a performance-driven culture:
1. Monitor Culture from Employees’ Perspective
The first step to building a high-performance culture requires understanding it from the employees’ perspectives. The following questions will help you comprehend that.
What do employees feel about the current state of the culture?
What elements do employees think are important to drive positive change?
How do employees define a high-performance culture?
What changes would employees like to see in the company culture?
What role do employees feel that leadership has to play in organizational culture?
A thorough diagnosis of organizational culture from the employees’ perspective will provide the action points needed to start building the foundation of a high-performance culture model.
2. Leadership Communication
Leaders need to walk the talk. They must communicate frequently with employees to:
Exhibit values and behaviors they want to instill in the company culture
Communicate goals and shared values to get employees onboarded
Answer questions to instill confidence and resilience in employees
Gain trust and support, inspire change, and align the workforce with the leadership strategy
Gather feedback from employees and act on it with intent
Without effective communication from leaders, a cultural shift becomes ineffective and loses its value.
3. Set Shared Values
What does the organization stand for? What policies and practices make it unique? What is the mission and vision of the organization? And how can employees embody these organizational principles and values in their day-to-day tasks?
Answering the foregoing questions is important to building trust, engagement, and unanimity in the organization. Only when employees embrace organizational values and align their goals with them can the organization build a high-performance culture.
Refer to the below high-performance culture values when designing yours:
Respect for everyone
Empowering employees
Transparent and open workplace
Inclusive, supportive, and employee-centric leadership
Building a growth mindset through continuous learning and development
4. Define Behaviors That Drive High Performance
Once you have defined the shared values with employees, it is now time to articulate them into behaviors that employees can execute in their daily tasks. As every employee is responsible for creating a high-performing culture, it is important to involve the whole workforce in this process.
5. Measure Your Company Culture
Even though company culture is not directly measurable, connecting it to some tangible metric like employee engagement and performance can help measure the impact of the high-performance culture model.
It is important to understand how the process is working out. Moreover, it helps in removing inconsistencies and taking employee feedback to alter the processes.
Leveraging engagement surveys, real-time feedback, pulse surveys, and exit interviews can help understand the real impact of the activities undertaken in the whole culture change process.
How Does Technology Support a High-Performance Culture?
Technology has transformed the way companies do business. In an increasingly complex and dynamic business environment, technology has enabled organizations to refine and recreate their strategies to provide more value to their stakeholders.
Even in HR tech, technologies like performance management tools have helped streamline processes and systems to create a tech-enabled, data-powered, and performance-driven workplace.
High-performance culture companies leverage technology to improve their internal processes, thereby enhancing the overall experience of their employees. They can find future trends, monitor the engagement level of their workforce, and use people analytics to create HR strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is a high-performance culture?
Ans. A high-performance culture means an organizational culture whose values, beliefs, and philosophy guide the employees to go above and beyond their roles to achieve business goals and personal success. It leads to better idea generation and encourages employees to take more ownership of their work.
Q. How to create a high-performance culture?
Ans. Creating a high-performance culture takes time and resources. The following process will guide you to cultivate a high-performance culture in your organization:
Understand culture from your employees’ perspectives
Focus on effective and frequent leadership communication
Set shared values in the workplace
Define behaviors that drive high-performance
Measure your company culture through different tools
Q. Why is a high-performance culture important?
Ans. In a high-performance culture, employees trust their leadership, are loyal to the organization, and work hard to achieve the organization’s goals. Moreover, such a culture leads to higher engagement and motivation among employees.
Every business faces the challenge of crafting an effective business development strategy. But what exactly is strategic business development? In simple terms, it’s a vital tool that ensures long-term success by aligning everyone in your organization towards a common objective.
A well-defined strategy outlines what your organization aims to achieve and the necessary steps to get there. It provides a clear roadmap, guiding your transition from broad directions to specific initiatives and ongoing operations. A strategic business development plan plays a crucial role in driving growth and ensuring sustainable success.
Now, let’s explore the strategic plan further, understand its significance, and dive into the art of crafting a winning business development plan.
Strategic Business Development Plan – What Is It?
A business development strategy is crucial for achieving organizational objectives and driving growth. It involves finding and implementing effective business growth strategies. With a well-defined growth strategy, teams can better understand their goals and contribute to organizational objectives. Business development focuses on attracting and retaining new customers to enhance revenue and expand your organization. By developing a clear plan, your business can plan to achieve these goals.
According to a poll conducted by Bridges Business Consultancy, a staggering 48% of organizations and 85% of businesses fail to achieve even half of their strategic goals. This highlights the importance of creating a strategic business development plan.
Importance of Strategic Business Development Plan
A well-crafted strategic business development plan is the key to unlock long-term success and growth for your organization. By defining clear goals and actionable plans, businesses can thrive and achieve greatness. But why exactly is a strategic business development plan crucial? Let’s dive into a few compelling reasons.
Improves transparency
Transparency has become recognized as a critical business trait for both customers and employees. By cultivating transparency, you can enhance your company’s success and reputation. From strengthening your sales team to improving employee retention, transparency has the power to make a significant impact. Implementing a strategic growth strategy ensures that everyone in your organization is aware of the goals and their role in achieving them, thus promoting transparency.
Increases sales
At the heart of business development lies growth. Increasing sales is the ultimate goal, and businesses need a plan to make it happen. A strategic business development plan allows you to identify markets and products with high-profit potential, enabling you to prioritize partnerships and make informed decisions. It also helps you reduce expenses, uncover untapped growth opportunities, and allocate resources efficiently. With a solid business development strategy, your bottom line will thrive.
Growth
In today’s competitive landscape, businesses must actively seek growth opportunities. A thoughtfully designed business development strategy enables you to expand your clientele, explore new markets, and offer innovative products or services. By identifying your differentiators and value propositions, you’ll set your organization apart from competitors and take a lead in the market.
How to Create a Strategic Business Development Plan?
Effective strategic management involves identifying an organization’s strengths and acknowledging its weaknesses. It goes beyond mere recognition and outlines a robust business strategy that maximizes the benefits and mitigates the drawbacks. A comprehensive corporate development plan comprises various components, each strategically aligned with distinct goals and objectives. Now, let’s delve into a detailed possess to create a business plan:
Define your purpose
A strategic plan serves as the overarching mission or vision statement for a company. When embarking on the creation of a corporate plan, it proves advantageous to initiate the process by clearly defining the goal of your organization. This entails a meticulous identification of the needs, preferences, and pain points of your ideal customers. By gaining a profound understanding of these factors, your plan can be more effectively tailored to cater to their specific requirements. Initiating the strategic planning process with a well-defined purpose sets the foundation for your company to deliver enhanced value over time.
Perform market research
After identifying your target market, it’s time to delve into comprehending their needs. To effectively persuade them to collaborate with you, you need to address the following inquiries:
What are the major challenges they currently face?
What specific services pique their interest?
How do they approach problem-solving at present?
How can your products or services uplift their current situation?
Once you have solid answers to these questions, it’s crucial to thoroughly research your competitors. Identify what makes you stand out from the crowd and emphasize this unique value proposition to potential clients, leveraging it as your competitive advantage.
Consider SWOT analysis
To gain a profound understanding of your company’s current standing, conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is a paramount strategy. Each element of the SWOT matrix plays a crucial role in shaping and executing an organization’s strategy. Some factors fall under internal control, while others are significantly influenced by external forces. A SWOT analysis provides a comprehensive view of your business from various perspectives. It not only sheds light on internal aspects for improvement and areas of success but also necessitates an evaluation of the external environment. This evaluation helps identify potential threats and business opportunities that can be either mitigated or seized in the future.”
Provide value to stakeholders
Investing in lasting connections with your clients is a worthwhile expense. Repeat customers not only contribute significantly to your business’s revenue but also come at a lower conversion cost. Moreover, returning customers are more open to your sales pitches, providing valuable insights for your company’s growth. However, remember that your suppliers deserve value too – it’s crucial to prioritize delivering value to them alongside your customers. And let’s not forget about the importance of prioritizing employee satisfaction in your business plan. By doing so, you’ll not only enhance employee morale but also improve customer satisfaction in the process.
Identify ways to monitor progress
Effectively monitoring the progress of your business development strategy is crucial for achieving your goals. One key approach is the utilization of key performance indicators (KPIs) tailored to your strategic objectives. Regularly tracking these KPIs provides real-time insights into the performance of various initiatives, allowing for timely adjustments and improvements. Data analytics tools play a vital role in quantifying metrics such as customer acquisition costs, conversion rates, and website traffic. Additionally, seeking feedback from customers, conducting market research, and implementing surveys can offer qualitative insights that complement quantitative data.
Make use of technology
Embrace tools and platforms designed to enhance the efficiency of your business development activities. Utilize advanced solutions to manage leads, keep track of interactions, and engage with prospects seamlessly. Leverage social networking sites, implement marketing automation software, and integrate CRM systems to streamline your processes. Maintain flexibility and readiness to adapt to evolving consumer demands and market conditions. Regularly assess and enhance your business development approach to stay ahead and remain competitive in a dynamic business landscape.
Monitor and alter your approach
Regularly monitoring the effectiveness of your business development strategy enables you to make necessary adjustments based on valuable information and insights. Keep a close eye on the progress of your objectives and assess the efficiency of your strategy using key performance indicators (KPIs). Stay proactive by consistently evaluating market developments, gathering customer input, and monitoring competitor activities.
A comprehensive understanding of your target market, specific objectives, and a clearly articulated value proposition are essential for crafting a successful business growth strategy.
Every successful business has its own unique qualities. That’s why it is crucial to tailor these tactics to align with your specific goals, industry, and target audience. Continuously evaluate your business development efforts and make the necessary adjustments to foster growth and triumph.
With a well-structured strategic management approach, you can not only enjoy this process but also proudly propel your company forward. Remember, implementing a company plan requires dedication, but it is just the beginning of an exciting journey. By embracing the right planning and utilizing the appropriate resources, your organization stands a fair chance of achieving remarkable success.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the primary purpose of a strategic business development plan?
A strategic business development plan serves as a roadmap for guiding your company’s growth and success. It outlines goals, identifies opportunities, and sets a clear path for achieving sustainable development. By aligning your business activities with a well-thought-out plan, you can enhance decision-making and improve overall efficiency.
2. How often should I update my strategic business development plan?
Regular updates are crucial for keeping your strategic business development plan relevant and effective. Aim to review and, if necessary, revise the plan at least annually. However, more frequent assessments may be required if there are significant changes in your industry, market conditions, or internal factors. Flexibility and adaptability are key in ensuring your plan remains a dynamic tool for success.
3. What are the key components of a successful strategic business development plan?
A comprehensive strategic business development plan typically includes key components such as a clear mission statement, a thorough analysis of the current business environment, defined short-term and long-term goals, identification of target markets, competitive analysis, and a detailed implementation strategy. It should also outline how progress will be measured and what mechanisms are in place for regular evaluation and adjustments.
The number of remote employees is increasing, posing a threat to IT organizations, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic. Employees are now moonlighting as a result of this. The work-from-home concept helps employees practice more moonlighting. It is a popular practice to work for one organization while taking on extra job responsibilities without the employer’s knowledge, and both are performed simultaneously, termed moonlighting.
What is Moonlighting?
“Moonlighting Meaning,” according to US Legal, refers to the practice of working multiple jobs simultaneously, usually incorporating a second job outside of regular working hours. Someone who works a 9-to-5 job and takes on an evening job to supplement their income is considered moonlighting.
Based on a survey by Kotak Institutional Equities, 65% of employees are into moonlighting or looking for part-time job options while having a full-time job. Experts often believe that moonlighting should be accepted as long as employees deliver productivity and have a high commitment to the signed-up work.
As long as the purpose of moonlighting is positive and can set an hourly wage, an employee shouldn’t be restricted from practicing the trend.
Reports show this ongoing work trend is sparkling among the remote working modes. IT giants like Wipro terminated 300 workers as their competitors employed them, which fueled the situation. This is how it poses a challenge to the IT sector. As people get the option of working from home, they have free time and a chance to make the best use of it and earn money.
Delving Deeper into the Concept of Moonlighting
Moonlighting is a source of extra income besides main employment. An employee hired for a company works for another organization, working on the same project. The moonlighting employees can do app development, content writing, running a campaign, and others based on employee skills and knowledge. Moonlighting employees are free to pursue the additional task on their own, provided it doesn’t interfere with their regular schedule and offers some additional benefits.
The moonlighters may face time constraints and often feel detached from their official company. This happens when folks spend only half their efficiency on their company work and try to focus simultaneously on the extra work. It can often lead to less productivity and dedication. Juggling and balancing the two become tricky here.
The ongoing practice of moonlighting has posed a threat to IT giants, making them come up with steps to deal with it. Reports show that 64% feel that moonlighting is ethical and has nothing to do with the loyalty of an employee. Furthermore, recent surveys show how moonlighting changes the mode of remote jobs.
Recently, Infosys warned employees about moonlighting, saying it can lead to termination. The new company assures that employees shouldn’t engage in moonlighting outside their employment, duly signed by the staff. Otherwise, the situation will lead to a violation of the employee’s code of conduct. Besides, the staff confirmed to put in their effort during their tenure for their present employer only.
IBM clearly states that double employment isn’t ethically correct, and the company won’t tolerate such practices from employees.
But, the COO of TCS, N Ganapathy Subramaniam, is of the view that if employees meet productivity and efficiency and aren’t into any illegal activities violating the company values and ethics, they don’t have any problem if they are willing to make extra bucks.
Moonlighting Is Rising – Let’s Find Out How and Why
Moonlighting is here to stay, as employees are operating more from home than from the office. It helps enhance earnings; thus, the trend is becoming a new normal.
Need for a backup plan
Having a plan B is one of the primary reasons to practice moonlighting. It grows from job insecurity and works as a backup. As an aftermath of the pandemic, unemployment has become a common concern; people are in search of additional income.
There is no need to hold on to steady jobs
People have realized that work is more than just 9-to-5 jobs. An individual has to work depending on a professional, and projects can be high-paying and other. So, working per need and including some extra work and pay can be beneficial.
Chance of change in career
Job switching may not be that easy at times, and moonlighting is a good option to try a second job while continuing with a regular job. Therefore, moonlighting gives a chance to gather experience in a skill that later yields lucrative employment.
Ethical moonlighting
Ethical moonlighting is a situation in organizations that creates multiple job opportunities and encourages them to try it. However, organizations must safeguard their company interests with written policies that clearly define the required criteria. Here, companies should prepare for the following:
Intellectual property
Financial interest
Competitive advantage
Resources like software and laptops
How to Deal with Moonlighting Employees?
Is firing the right move to deal with moonlighting employees? Though every employee needs to abide by employment contracts, the option of firing the employee is too early to decide. Let us shed some light on ways to deal with it.
Share the Consequences with Employees
If employees know that they are doing something wrong or employers don’t know of employees’ moonlighting practices, employers should convey that they trust the team. Try to share that the company is concerned about employees’ well-being and values trust. Besides, remind them of the consequences of moonlighting without knowledge of the company, and authorities can take serious action against them as required.
Before such a situation arises, communicate with employees openly and honestly. Also, share that other companies may not offer benefits, including vacation, healthcare, and other amenities. By doing so, the employees recognize that the company is highly concerned about its work culture and will discourage moonlighting practices against company policies.
A non-compete agreement is essential to have before hiring a candidate. These can protect the company’s intellectual property, reduce competition, and prevent workers from engaging with other projects or working for competitors. This agreement should mention a prohibition when looking for employment elsewhere while employed in a company. If employees are found to be working on two company projects, strict action will be taken against disclosing any confidential data or even more.
Employers can use the agreement against employees engaged in moonlighting. In addition, the contract can limit an employee’s ability to work for another company outside of their official work. This is how the company can minimize risk and avoid unethical workplace policies.
Employees Should Understand Company Moonlighting Policy
Employees should be aware of the policies and limits set by the company. To make sure that every employee is aware of it, mention the brief in the company’s overview section with other policies. Besides, mention how the company will handle employee moonlighting cases per the policy.
Industry experts suggest IT giants look at their active policies and develop an approach to deal with moonlighting. They can do this by setting performance expectations, protecting confidential company details, and others.
Use Employee Engagement Software
The employee engagement software can track an employee’s performance, productivity, and engagement levels. It helps managers track the work activity of employees and identify any signs of moonlighting.
Employers can get information on whether some employee works for another company or pass on sensitive information outside of working hours.
Ask Questions Regarding Moonlighting
If you already know what your employees are doing or what to find out, ask them directly about it:
Are you into some new projects outside our team?
Are you engaged in other work outside normal office hours?
Can we help you balance work here?
Ask them questions and make them comfortable so that they feel free to discuss why they are into moonlighting. The more they are comfortable expressing actual reasons for moonlighting, the better you know what makes them happy. Based on this, you can take action to alleviate their concern that their full-time job will be sufficient financially.
Final Thoughts
While an employer needs to respect employees’ need to engage with more than one job, there are situations in which moonlighting can have negative effects on the company.
Beyond company policies, HR should ensure that employees are aware of their limitations outside their employment in the office. So, when it comes to addressing moonlighting workers, focus on what is legitimate and the employment-relating concerns. If a company is experiencing moonlighting problems and doesn’t know how to deal with them, it should frame a legal structure, defining norms and rules before things go out of control.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is the meaning of moonlighting?
Ans. Moonlighting refers to the practice of working more than one job at the same time, typically involving a second job outside of one’s regular working hours. It allows individuals to supplement their primary income and earn extra money.
Q2. Is moonlighting legal?
Ans. The legality of moonlighting depends on various factors, including employment contracts, company policies, and local labor laws. Some employers may prohibit moonlighting due to potential conflicts of interest or concerns about employee productivity. Employees need to review their employment agreements and seek clarity from their employers to ensure compliance with any restrictions.
Q3. How should employers address moonlighting concerns?
Ans. Addressing moonlighting concerns requires open communication and clear company policies. If prohibiting moonlighting, employers should explain the reasons while considering individual circumstances. Promoting work-life balance and addressing productivity concerns are essential for the effective management of moonlighting employees.
Are you interested in scaling up your small business in 2024? If the answer is “yes,” then investing in the right software is your only route to success.
The right business tools can empower your employees to provide effective solutions to your customers. Moreover, using the right tools can also provide fast and accurate information to enhance the entire customer experience. Much like accounting software can give you accurate financial information, other software such as CRM, performance management, and payroll can also give you data and therefore insights instantaneously.
Thus, having the data to hand is crucial in delivering overall performance improvements. For example, according to a report from Microsoft, 72% of customers say when they contact customer service, they expect an agent to know—
Who are they?
What have they bought?
How have they previously engaged with them?
This is only possible to deliver accurately when your team has powerful business tools at their disposal. Luckily, there are several tools that small businesses can use to provide better services to their clients and gain a competitive edge in 2024. These include a Sales CRM, employee monitoring, performance development, payment tracking, and others.
However, given the plethora of tools in the market, you may be wondering how can you afford so many different software packages and still stay within a limited budget? With this in mind, we have narrowed down the top 15 essential tools that should be affordable for most small business owners.
Top 15 Small Business Tools for 2024
Do you want to build a high performing team but don’t you have a big budget to hire top talent? If the answer is yes, then the next best thing you can do is get the most out of your existing team members. For example, by using performance management tools, you can monitor your team and provide them with real-time feedback to boost their performance.
That’s just one example of how software can improve overall performance—below we have a curated list of simple and affordable tools every small business should have in 2024:
1. Engagedly
Best For: Talent & Performance Management Platform
Engagedly is a new generation, cloud-based solution that focuses on employee engagement and development, performance, and communication in your organization. It encompasses features such as 360-degree feedback, real-time performance management, check-ins, performance appraisals, and an LMS that supports overall organizational development.
The software has built-in gamification and social collaboration tools to better manage your people. In addition, the program lets you interact with employees using employee engagement surveys and directories.
ClickUp is a top-rated project management tool for remote and hybrid teams. It is an all-purpose business management platform with chat, scheduling, custom views, and more.
It is one of the best tools to deploy advanced marketing or sales strategies like account-based marketing or customer segmentation. In fact, many prominent organizations, like Airbnb, Google, and Uber, are using this tool.
Top Features
Document collaboration
Real-time chat
Whiteboards
Two-factor authentication
Agile reporting
Resource management
Timelines and mind maps
Pricing Structure:
Forever free, up to 100MB storage
Unlimited plan for $5 per user/month
Business plan for $12 per user/month
Business Plus for $19 per user/month
Customizable enterprise plan
3. Zonka Feedback
Best For: Feedback Surveys and Experience Management
Source: Zonka
Zonka Feedback is an easy-to-use customer feedback software and experience management platform that businesses of all sizes use to create intuitive and customized surveys to collect feedback through various channels and work on it to improve customer experience, enhance satisfaction, and prevent churn.
The best thing about the tool is that it empowers you with features like real-time feedback alerts and reports so that you can take appropriate action on feedback at the right time and close the feedback loop to prevent churn before it’s too late.
Top Features
40+ Ready-to-use Templates
Customization of Surveys
Multichannel Software
Measuring metrics like NPS, CSAT, and CES
Advanced Reporting and Dashboard
Real-time Feedback notifications and custom alerts
Skip Logic, Hide Logic and Survey Redirection
Pricing Structure:
A 15-day Free Trial available
Paid plans start at $29/month
Professional plan for $79/month
Growth plan for $169/month
Enterprise plan for $429/month
4. TimeCamp
Best For: Time tracking and project profitability measurement
Source: TimeCamp
TimeCamp is a free and powerful HR technology tool for small teams. Using this software, you will get accurate timesheets to integrate with your accounting software to generate timely payslips. In addition, you can also track your employee performance and project profitability in real-time.
TimeCamp has a centralized dashboard that allows you to collaborate with your remote, in-house, and freelance employees. In addition, you can integrate TimeCamp with 30+ other apps like Asana, Airtable, ClickUp, GitLab, Google Calendar, Google Docs, etc.
Top Features
Customizable invoicing
Record billable and non-billable hours
Calendar management
Expenses tracking
Payroll management
Time tracking
Tax calculation
Pricing Structure:
Forever free
Basic plan for $6.3 per user/month
Pro plan for $9 per user/month
Customizable enterprise plan
5. Social Status
Best for: Social Media Analytics
Source: SocialStatus
Social Status is a social media analytics and reporting tool. It is perfect for agencies that need a multi-channel analytics dashboard for all their clients. It supports Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Agencies can easily group client profiles and pages, including Facebook ad accounts, plus they can also do competitor analysis and track influencer marketing campaigns too.
Reports can be white-labeled and completely customized to suit different reporting needs. Boardroom-ready reports can be exported to a range of formats, including CSV, PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Slides.
Top Features:
Facebook Analytics
Instagram Stories Analytics
YouTube Analytics
Twitter Analytics
LinkedIn Analytics
Ads Analytics
Competitor Analytics
Pricing Structure:
Forever free
Starter plan for $29 per month
Pro plan for $199 per month
Business plan for $399 per month
Corporate plan for $599 per month
Enterprise plan for $1,499 per month
6. HubSpot CRM
Best For: Lead management
Source: HubSpot
HubSpot CRM is a customer relationship management tool suitable for both small and large businesses. It is particularly useful for businesses that want to spend less time on data entry tasks. It helps keep all your contacts, business leads, and database in one place, which allows you to have a deeper understanding of your business.
HubSpot is a cloud-based system that can help align remote and in-house teams. It can streamline sales and marketing operations to boost ROI and optimize inbound marketing strategies to generate high-value leads.
Best For: Creating landing pages, quizzes, and contests
Source: WordPress
Woorise is the best tool for small businesses to collect leads and close them. It is a perfect solution for digital businesses and e-commerce brands that want to capture audience interest and boost sales.
You can integrate Woorise with multiple other business automation solutions such as AWeber, HubSpot, Zapier, Google Analytics, Bitly, PayPal, Stripe, and more. The tool is quite useful for marketing agencies and social media managers.
Top Features
Awards management
Organize skill contests like photography, essay writing, design, etc.
Fraud detection
Form management
Judging management
Entry management
Multiple language support
Pricing Structure:
Free forever up to 500 entries
Basic plan for $23 per user/month up to 2,000 entries
Grow plan for $39 per user/month up to 5,000 entries
Pro plan for $79 per user/month up to 20,000 entries
8. Saleshandy
Best For: Cold email and email tracking
Source: Saleshandy
Saleshandy is a cold-emailing platform that helps companies increase their email outreach without compromising on quality. The program has the potential to set up hundreds or even thousands of campaigns with multi-stage automated follow-up emails to generate at once.
You can also merge tags to customize your email campaigns. In addition, you can trigger follow-ups based on the previous email actions like opens or clicks. It is a potential tool for businesses that are looking forward to creating multilayered email marketing campaigns.
Top Features
Stunning email templates
Email campaign management
Content Delivery
Drip campaigns
Campaign analytics
Event-triggered actions
Lead capturing and nurturing
Performance management
Pricing Structure:
A 14-day free trial
Cold emailing packages for $25 and $60 per user/month
Email tracking is free forever. Paid plans start at $9, $22 and $59 per user/month
9. SocialPilot
Best For: Social media marketing
Source: Social Pilot
SocialPilot has everything that you need to run result-driven social media marketing campaigns in one place. It can manage all your social media accounts and help you automate social media operations, including post scheduling, insight reports, and monitoring engagement.
SocialPilot is designed to bring all social media activities under one roof, from replying to Instagram stories to responding to Facebook page comments. You can also easily collaborate with your team members or coordinate with your clients using the software.
Another great feature is that you can customize SocialPilot to match your brand identity. You can also generate branded analytics reports and provide a seamless branded experience to your clients from a centralized dashboard. When you plan to grow your small business on social media, SocialPilot is a great place to start.
Top Features
Automatic post publishing
Content management
Conversion tracking
Engagement tracking
Influencer tracking
Lead management
Multi-account management
Multiple campaign management
Pricing Structure:
Agency plan for $127.5 per month
Studio plan for $85 per month
Small team plan for $42.5 per month
Enterprise plan is fully customizable
10. GrowSurf
Best For: Customer acquisition and cost management
Source: GrowSurf
GrowSurf can help you to automate customer acquisition at the lowest possible cost. It helps both B2B and B2C tech companies to create referral programs to get new customers on autopilot mode. You can also create customer-to-customer referral programs to spread word of mouth about your brand.
GrowSurf offers a 312% return on investment, 30% new referral leads and 15% of ARR from referrals. It comes with an automatic link generator that creates unique links for each user, so they don’t have to sign up to promote your products.
Top Features
Affiliate management
Communication management
Contact management
Fraud detection
Referral templates
Referral tracking
Rewards management
Social engagement
Pricing Structure:
A 14-day free trial
100% customizable plans
11. InvoiceBerry
Best For: Online invoicing software
Source: InfoBerry
InvoiceBerry is an online invoicing solution for small businesses and freelancers. It is designed to make invoice and expense tracking processes quick and easy.
The software has a vast array of professional invoice templates that you can customize with your logo, customer information, and other details. Additionally, you can send invoices via email within the software in PDF format.
ProProfs Chat is a simple online live chat platform to engage with your website visitors. The software helps you resolve customers’ issues in real-time.
You can improve your overall customer experience with this instant support system. ProProfs Chat can also help you reduce tickets, improve customer response times, and increase sales and ROI.
You can create proactive live chat pop-ups or customize greetings to boost engagement. Also, it lets you add announcements to notify website visitors about new service updates and products.
Top Features
Canned responses
Customizable branding
Proactive chat
Screen sharing
50+ integrations
Routing
Lead capturing
Chat transcripts
Pricing Structure:
Free forever with basic features
Essential plan for $15 per user/month
Premium plan for $25 per user/month
13. Google Workspace
Best For: Business collaboration
Source: Google Blog
Google Workspace is an intuitive collaboration platform designed for all-size businesses to manage multiple operations. It helps businesses to record team meetings, send emails, and reserve conference rooms.
The best thing about the tool is that it has a noise-cancellation feature, which makes it a perfect contact center solution for sales teams.
In addition, it offers features like attendance tracking, team messaging, compliance management, shared calendars, and more. You can edit and share documents, slides, and spreadsheets among your team members in real-time.
FreshBooks is powerful and intuitive accounting software that makes it easy for small businesses to keep track of their finances. With its user-friendly interface, streamlined workflows, and advanced features like automated invoicing, expense tracking, and time-saving reporting tools, Freshbooks allows you to easily manage your books while saving more time to focus on growing your business.
Whether you’re just starting out or are an established small business, Freshbooks has the features and flexibility you need to take your finances to the next level.
You can also download free accounting templates, invoicing templates, and balance sheets to easily manage your finances.
Top features:
User-friendly interface
Streamlined workflows
Automated invoicing
Expense tracking
Time-saving reporting tools
Flexible and scalable plans
FreshBooks Pricing plans:
Free Trial-Available
Basic-$15/month
Plus-$25/month
Premium-$50/month
15. CloudTalk
Best for: Customer support
Source: CloudTalk
CloudTalk is a powerful VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) platform that businesses can use to expand, scale, and improve their customer support. Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar contact centers, CloudTalk allows agents to work whenever, wherever, and from whatever device they like – as long as it has a microphone and an internet connection.
The cloud-based contact center software offers a wide selection of time-saving and experience-enhancing features, including click-to-call, call forwarding, and analytics. In total, there are over 70 features from which users can pick and choose to create a contact center experience that fits both their business needs and customer requirements.
TopFeatures:
Click-to-call
Call queueing
Call recording
CRM integration
Skill-based routing
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
International and toll-free numbers
CloudTalk Pricing Plans:
14-day free trial
Starter-$25 per user/month
Essential-$30 per user/month
Pro-$50 per user/month
Let’s Get the Best Small Business Tools To Scale Up!
There you go- you have just learned about all the awesome tools that can help you scale up your operations in 2024.
This list contains the perfect small business tools to manage finances, marketing, lead generation, and other operations.
You can use the trial versions of the tools listed above before making longer-term commitments. That way, you can better understand the individual features and whether they are suitable and beneficial for your business.
Looking forward to enhancing employee engagement, productivity, and development of your workforce? Talk to our experts for free consultation.
Your sales reps are struggling to close deals, and the revenue graph looks underwhelming. You can’t help but wonder, what went wrong?
The often overlooked culprit: poor sales productivity.
Maintaining good sales productivity is essential for hitting your revenue targets every quarter. Without it, your sales team is losing hours in tasks that don’t contribute to your bottom line.
You can set them up for success and increase your revenue by tracking sales productivity and proactively improving it. In this guide, you’ll uncover ten different ways to increase the productivity of your sales team.
What is sales productivity?
Sales productivity is a performance metric to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of your sales team. Tracking sales productivity will help you boost your bottom line, reduce investment in the sales ecosystem, and maximize the ROI of your sales efforts.
If your sales reps are struggling to meet their targets, your sales productivity is low. It can be because of:
You’d be surprised to know that salespeople spend less than a third of their time selling, as non-sales tasks reduce their productivity. Instead, they spend more time in data management, tracking and entry, unnecessary team meetings, and creating workflow documents.
That’s exactly why you need an airtight strategy to maximize sales productivity and avoid draining your sales team’s efforts. Before we get to our practical tips, let’s first look at the steps for measuring sales productivity.
How to measure sales productivity
Here’s a step-by-step formula to track this metric:
Collect sales output metrics like revenue, deals closed, customer retention, and satisfaction.
Collect sales input metrics like expense on sales stack, working hours, number of emails sent and calls made, and cost of onboarding per salesperson.
Calculate the ratio of sales output over input.
Compare your sales productivity with your competitors.
Your calculation should be directed more toward revenue and ROI. Maintaining a balance between efficiency and effectiveness is the key to measuring accurate sales productivity.
10 Best Practices to Increase Sales Productivity
Sales productivity can impact your entire business. Tracking this metric will help you hit revenue targets—and exceed them. Here are 10 best ways to enhance sales productivity:
Prioritize onboarding and continuous sales training
Sales representatives with scattered efforts, a lack of skill and direction, and a disconnect with your company’s goals are a nightmare—both for you and your customers.
To maximize your sales productivity, begin with a clear, detailed, and focused onboarding process. Inform new reps about key sales goals and offer product knowledge from the outset. You should also create workflows for continuous sales training to ensure the existing reps are equipped to meet their targets and increase conversion rates.
A robust sales onboarding and training setup will also help you set best sales practices, expectations, and accurate reporting. It’ll help you mentor all representatives more effectively.
Develop scalable sales workflows
If your sales team is working to the bone and yet not seeing significant returns, you need to set up better sales workflows.
A sales workflow guides sales representatives, helps measure the team’s performance, and naturally enhances sales productivity. It also helps you focus more on selling by cutting down admin time spent on repetitive tasks.
Focus on creating a scalable sales workflow for repeatable success. Here are seven things you need to do to create a perfect sales workflow process:
Nail down your ideal customer profile (ICP) and target market
Map out the buyer journey of your ICP
Establish a sales methodology that aligns with your needs
Without a sales tech stack, every single sale feels like you’re moving mountains. It also leads to a less productive and underperforming sales team and an unsustainable sales workflow.
A good sales tech stack can save time, resources, and bandwidth while maximizing conversions. To set up a robust SaaS sales tech stack, you need:
Customer relationship management (CRM): to collect and track all leads
Sales intelligence tool: to get granular details about prospects
To maximize the time and efforts of your sales team, consider setting up automated workflows. Most of the overperforming sales teams have adopted automation and AI-powered systems.
You can use AI tools to add virtual sales reps to your website, build ICPs, and predict buyer journeys and behaviors. What’s more, you can create automated workflows to maintain an efficient CRM system, generate and nurture leads, and maintain coordination internally. And this will give your team the time they need to sell.
Centralize sales content and documentation
If you’re leading sales, you know the importance of organized sales content and systematic documentation. Ask any salesperson, and they’ll tell you how much they dread an unorganized pile of documents to find the right ones in time.
You can centralize your sales content and documentation in a sales content management system. It will help your team members access the right content at the right time.
Organized documentation in place shrinks down the conversion time, helping reps focus on customers rather than mundane tasks.
Maintain open communication with reps
An obvious yet often overlooked technique to boost sales team productivity is open communication.
Things begin to go off track with misleading commitments, fake reports, and wrong sales practices. It builds up into a massive disaster that you dig up after it has done considerable damage to your sales pipeline and management.
Here are four ways to maintain open communication with your sales team:
Inculcating transparency in day-to-day interactions
Informing important pieces of information via email
Setting clear and attainable expectations beforehand
Before your sales reps hit the ground, they’ll need a live example of all your sales practices, processes, and negotiations. Throwing them on a sales expedition with no maps and sense of direction will instill fear in them and will result in underperforming sales teams.
To prepare your sales reps for sales shadowing, begin with:
Proper onboarding and training
Setting sales workflow and sales enablement
Familiarizing with sales tech, sales content, and documentation
After you’ve warmed up your reps with all the important details, it’s time for them to observe an experienced sales rep. Allow them to take notes of the observation and trace the use of all the tools you’ve trained them with.
Follow up a sales shadowing program with a debrief with the reps on their observations and add insights to it.
Offer performance-based incentives
Research suggests that incentives—like performance-based bonuses, promotions, and recognition—can significantly influence the productivity of employees in commercial organizations. These incentives can also increase employee engagement, job satisfaction, and morale.
There are multiple ways to incentivize your sales reps. Keeping a mix of monetary and non-monetary incentives is the best way to go about it.
Reduce unnecessary meetings
If you are holding meetings after meetings with your sales team to discuss goals, plans, and processes, it’s time for you to stop and reflect.
A Harvard Business Review report points out that 70% of the meetings create resistance to employee productivity. Too many meetings may be a result of a lack of an organized workflow, an absence of a defined communication channel, or a skill gap in your team.
Dig up the reason behind unnecessary meetings to optimize time for your sales team. Helping reps focus on what they’re there for – to sell to the customer – will automatically boost your team’s sales productivity.
Celebrate team and individual achievements
Moving to the next task immediately after completing one is a counterproductive approach. The human mind is wired to respond positively to appreciation and rewards; a little celebration is a great way to nail that.
Research shows that celebrating individual and collective wins will give your team a confidence boost, a dopamine hit, and the motivation to get on the next sales goals.
So, the next time you hit or exceed your sales targets, take a moment to appreciate the achievements of individuals and the team.
Hit your sales targets every month with high productivity
Sales productivity is the key if you are looking to take your business to the next level. A strategic breakdown of the sales ecosystem will uncover the areas you need to overhaul to maximize its productivity. It’ll also establish better strategies, systems, and processes to ensure maximum ROI on your sales expenses.
Automation and generative AI tools are relatively newer additions to the sales ecosystem. However, they can help SaaS sales leaders significantly cut down mundane work and increase sales productivity. All of this is possible without compromising on the quality of customer experience. It’s time for you to level up your revenue by maximizing sales productivity!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What drives sales productivity?
Ans. Sales productivity is driven by various factors. Effective sales training, clear goal-setting, and the use of technology to streamline processes are essential. Motivated and well-compensated sales teams, along with a strong customer focus, also play a crucial role in boosting sales productivity.
Q2. What is an example of sales productivity?
Ans. Sales productivity can be exemplified by a salesperson closing a higher number of deals in less time, thanks to improved communication tools, efficient lead management, and refined sales strategies. For instance, if a sales representative increases their sales from $100,000 to $150,000 in a month through streamlined processes and effective client engagement, it demonstrates a tangible example of enhanced sales productivity.
Q3. Why is productivity important in sales?
Ans. Productivity is vital in sales for several reasons.
Efficient sales processes help maximize revenue, allowing a company to thrive. When sales teams work productively, they can reach more potential clients and close deals faster, resulting in increased profitability. Additionally, enhanced productivity contributes to improved customer satisfaction and can build a positive reputation in the market, fostering long-term success for the organization.
Sales jobs are quite rewarding since they offer plenty of room for growth. The job role is thrilling, especially because it comes with various challenges and continuous learning.
Centering your sales interactions around buyer needs is critical as it allows salespeople to close more high-value deals, thus building a strong base of loyal customers. The ability to connect with customers, anticipate their needs, and persuasively sell the product benefits are all crucial skills in the complex art of selling.
However, even the best sales teams need help when achieving optimal performance. More often than not, in their drive for conversions, they commit several communication blunders, thus impacting the OKRs they’ve set for themselves.
Let’s look at the common sales communication mistakes that can be avoided when dealing with customers.
Avoiding tough sales conversations
During sales interactions, salespeople often hesitate or postpone having challenging conversations, like unpaid invoices, handling objections, or informing them of an unmet deadline. However, avoiding such conversations can lead to misunderstandings and mistrust.
In such situations, it’s important to be transparent and offer complete clarity to customers. Most businesses invest in automation to share updates and not-so-welcome information with customers or rely on their customer service team for it.
For example, billing and accounting teams often resort to an automated dunning process that reminds customers of their unpaid invoices and other debts to collect, other things need open conversations. This hugely avoids delays in the cash flow.
Tough discussions can range from conveying disappointing news to discussing a controversial issue. This avoidance is a common error in sales communication that should be mitigated.
While such avoidance is understandable, given the inherent discomfort, it can severely compromise trust and transparency in the client relationship. This sales communication error should be conscientiously identified and curbed. Remember, open communication channels can help build a robust and lasting relationship with customers, fostering trust and mutual understanding, even for tough news or difficult conversations.
Failing to notice cultural differences in communication
Interacting across diverse cultures can be challenging. The same words can hold varied interpretations, and the nuances of nonverbal behavior can differ greatly. There’s always a risk of causing offense or misunderstanding when engaging with individuals from dissimilar cultural backgrounds.
Say, an American sales personnel is approaching a lead from Japan. Using first names when addressing leads is a common practice in the West but not in East Asian countries like Japan. However, this casual approach is considered rude and disrespectful in Japanese culture, where last names and honorifics are commonly used in a professional context.
These complexities serve as a chance for expansion and insight. Empathy and a willingness to understand can encourage shared comprehension.
Another key sales communication mistake is spotlighting product features rather than showcasing how a product can seamlessly fit into the lives of its customers, providing efficient solutions to their unique needs or problems. Prospective clients would invariably want products that offer practical benefits tailored to their specific requirements, and that’s where sales professionals can strike a chord.
Honing in on this can help sales professionals foster a deeper, more personal bond with the customer. Rather than viewing the interaction as a simple commercial transaction, they can transform it into an insightful solution for the customer’s situation. Therefore, sales personnel can demonstrate how a product or service can effortlessly blend into their daily routines or address a particular problem. This is one of the key methods to establish a relationship that transcends the boundaries of a single purchase.
Emphasizing the benefits over the features also cultivates a pool of satisfied customers, who revisit and become brand ambassadors, endorsing the product or service to others based on their affirmative experiences.
Repeating the same old sales pitch
Prospective buyers may get dissatisfied if they hear the same thing argued repeatedly. Despite repeated attempts, some salespeople must use more effective push tactics. Instead, you should make sales proposals more appealing by referencing relevant facts, figures, case studies, and new information.
Building trust is more than simply making a sale; it’s about establishing a rapport with your customer. Because making several sales with the same client is the core of good salesmanship, not simply making one sale. The real reward is not the initial sale but the relationship built, leading to repeated business and powerful word-of-mouth referrals. Investing time in understanding your customer’s perspective can create lifelong patrons.
Salespeople are notorious for their aggressive pitches. Customers are often wary of these pitches and take time to get convinced. Instead, it helps if the sales professional has a genuine conversation with the customer, listening to and understanding their issues and needs. This will make the customer more receptive to their narrative which can eventually turn into a convincing pitch.
At times, it can be tough to connect with a group of decision-makers. But it’s important to engage all of them.
In such a case, the salesperson should bounce back and forth between speakers, ensuring everyone feels included and valued in a sales conversation. Doing so can create a dynamic and interactive environment that keeps listeners attentive and interested. Research has shown that the frequency of switches per minute during a conversation can significantly impact the likelihood of a second meeting and the strength of the connection between individuals. This means salespersons can try more switches per minute to enhance the chances of building a strong and lasting relationship.
Using jargon and complex language
When interacting with clients, most sales teams may have to use technical terminology and complex jargon, especially when the product is super technical. This can sometimes create an unintentional barrier, causing potential customers to feel disconnected due to a lack of familiarity with such industry-specific terms.
Therefore, it’s important to find simpler ways to explain complex terms and features.
In today’s tech-driven era, misunderstandings are bound to occur. The absence of vocal cues and physical gestures can complicate understanding for sales personnel and clients. Therefore, using clear and concise punctuation is important. The salesperson should pose clarifying questions to understand the client’s message and customers frequently.
To ensure this, start employing a vigilant approach by listening attentively to the customer and repeating their statements in our own words. The aim should be to keep digital communication as effective as in-person interactions that set the stage for fruitful and long-lasting business relationships.
Interrupting the speaker
We’ve all cut someone off while they were talking. It may happen unintentionally, or you may feel compelled to speak out because you’re too thrilled about what to say and are afraid to forget your response or miss out on context. Interrupting a conversion is a common power tactic used by others.
Good listening skills by the sales team are a crucial component of having meaningful interactions with others in which everyone involved is treated with dignity and respect. Regardless of the intention behind the interruption, the speaker (for a salesperson, it is the client) may feel that their opinion needs to be changed. Therefore, show consideration for the other person by waiting for them to complete their talk before responding.
Here are some ways a sales team can drive productive conversations:
Active listening:
Focus on the other person’s words instead of preparing your response. This indicates respect for the speaker’s thoughts and encourages a more fruitful discussion.
Patience:
Wait for the person to complete their thought or idea. Don’t rush them or try to complete their sentences.
Seek permission:
If you strongly urge to interject, ask for permission. A simple, “May I interject?”, can demonstrate respect and prevent feelings of interruption.
Focus on non-verbal cues:
Use non-verbal cues to indicate that you have a point to add. This could include raising a hand or making a particular facial expression.
Effective sales communication is a robust base for unleashing success. Avoiding common communication mistakes can significantly enhance a sales team’s ability to connect with customers, build trust, and close deals. By addressing the aforementioned sales communication mistakes discussed in this article, sales professionals can enhance their communication skills and overall sales performance.
By implementing these strategies, sales teams can build stronger relationships, effectively address customer needs, and drive sales success. Continuous practice and refinement of communication skills are essential for sales professionals to excel amidst the competition.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Why is sales communication important?
Ans. Sales communication is crucial as it fosters customer relationships, boosts sales performance, and ensures effective conveying of product benefits and value propositions.
Q2. How to improve sales communication for SMEs?
Ans. To improve sales communication for SMEs, focus on active listening, personalized approach, product knowledge, clear messaging, and regular training to enhance sales effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
Q3. What are the benefits of improving sales communication?
Ans. Improving sales communication leads to increased sales, stronger customer relationships, better understanding of customer needs, and higher overall business profitability.
Author: Hazel Raoult Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about online business, employee productivity, HR tech tools, and entrepreneurship. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family. You can connect with her on Linkedin.
Strategic workforce planning is an essential component of managing human resources effectively. The workforce planning process involves aligning the organization’s workforce with its business goals. It helps businesses to ensure long-term sustainability and success. Organizations must be adaptive and agile in today’s dynamic business environment. Moreover, having the right people in the correct positions would be best.
It is primarily essential for attaining strategic objectives. This article will discuss strategic workforce planning. Plus, it will cover the importance of aligning human resources with business objectives.
What Is Strategic Workforce Planning?
First of all, you should know what strategic workforce planning is. It is the procedure of forecasting and analyzing a firm’s existing and future workforce needs. It ensures it has the right skills and talent at the right time and positions. Plus, it involves understanding different factors of an organization, including:
Business strategy
Identifying the skills
The competencies need to enforce that strategy
Formulating plans to meet, develop, and keep the necessary talent.
Alex Contes, co-founder & Saas Expert of Reviewgrower, said, “One of the significances of strategic workforce planning is to help firms foresee. Moreover, it assists in reacting to modifications in the business environment. When the firm aligns the workforce with its goals, it can ensure that they have the capabilities to adapt to:
growing trends
Technological advancements
Competitive pressures
When a firm has no proper workforce planning, organizations may face the following:
All of the above can hinder their proficiency in achieving strategic objectives. Besides, aligning human resources with business objectives increases organizational productivity and performance. Efficient workers performing efficiently are more likely to contribute to the organization’s success.
Strategic workforce planning results in the following:
Improved operational efficiency
Higher customer satisfaction
Increased profitability”
Furthermore, strategic workforce planning is important for retention and talent acquisition. It is a significant challenge to catch and keep top talent in today’s competitive job market. A firm can align human resources with business goals, producing targeted recruitment techniques. It plays a vital role in catching candidates with relevant skills and competencies. Organizations need these skills to move the organization forward.
Also, strategic workforce planning helps recognize high-potential employees within the organization. These employees play their role in succession planning. Moreover, it reduces the risk of crucial talent leaving the firm.
Follow a structured approach to strategic workforce planning to align human resources with business goals. Keep reading to know the process.
Understanding The Business Strategy
The initial phase in strategic workforce planning is understanding your firm’s business strategy. It involves determining the following:
Long-term goals
Objectives
Priorities of the organization
Key drivers of success.
Business strategy can help align your workforce planning with the complete planning of your organization.
Analyzing The Current Workforce
Joe Troyer, CEO & Head of Growth of DigitalTriggers, said, “An important stage is to examine the organization’s current workforce. It is significant to test the capabilities of your workforce. Plus, you should also determine any skill gaps or departments of improvement. This analysis may involve the following:
Evaluating the skills
Competencies
Experience
Performance of individual employees or groups of employees.
Understand the steps required to align workforce knowledge with the organization’s business objectives.”
Firms can efficiently address talent gaps by foreseeing future workforce requirements.
Developing Workforce Strategies
Prof. Dr. Te Wu, CEO of PMO Advisory, said, “After forecasting future workforce needs, you can formulate strategies. These strategies can fill the gap between the desired and current workforce. It may involve strategies like recruitment. Focus recruitment strategies on attracting candidates with the required skills and competencies.
This process may involve leveraging multiple recruitment channels, which include:
Job portals
Social media
Professional networks
Partnerships with educational institutions.
Ensuring that the recruitment procedure is fair, efficient, and transparent to entice top talent is crucial.”
Training And Development
Training and development strategies equip employees with the essential skills to perform their roles efficiently. It may involve:
Providing on-the-job training
Offering workshops and seminars
Supporting employees’ goal of professional certifications
Implementing, mentoring, or coaching programs.
When a firm invests in employee development, it improves its capabilities. Moreover, it also encourages a culture of continuous learning.
Henry Waddilove, Managing Director of Novus Business Connections, said, “Performance management strategy is crucial for aligning individual goals with the organization’s business goals. Employees understand how their contributions align with strategic goals with clear performance expectations and regular feedback. Also, it provides opportunities for recognizing and rewarding high performers. You can also identify the areas for improvement with performance management.”
Succession Planning
Abner Miller, Founder at Starlinkhow, said in an interview, “Succession planning strategies include recognizing and developing high-potential workers. It is to fill key leadership positions in the future. By creating a channel of talent, firms can make sure of a smooth shift when key positions become empty. Moreover, succession planning also includes:
Employee engagement strategies work for keeping a positive work environment. In such environments, employees are committed, motivated, and synced with the organization’s goals. A form can achieve this through initiatives such as:
Once the workforce strategies are formulated, they need to be executed effectively. It involves:
Executing the recruitment and selection procedures
Delivering training and development programs
Conducting performance evaluations
Implementing succession plans
Besides, for successful implementation, it is crucial to:
Specify clear timelines
Allocate essential resources
Engage relevant stakeholders
Additionally, make Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to calculate the workforce strategies’ success. These KPIs may contain metrics such as:
Employee turnover rates
Employee satisfaction scores
Training Effectiveness
Leadership bench strength
Why Strategic Workforce Planning Is Important
Keep reading to know the importance of strategic workforce planning in the organization.
Anticipating And Responding To Changes
Vicky Cano, Chef & Recipe Developer at Mealfan, said, “Forecasting future conditions of your firm ensures that the organization has the needed capabilities and capacities. These capabilities are crucial to adapt to:
Emerging trends
Technological advancements
Competitive pressures
When you’ve no proper workforce planning, organizations may undergo the following:
Skill gaps
Talent shortages
Misalignment between employee capabilities and business requirements
Enhancing Organizational Performance And Productivity
Josh Snow, CEO of Customerfeedback, said, “Employees with the necessary skills are more likely to contribute to the organization’s success. Strategic workforce planning makes sure that the organization has the right talent. Employees with the right skills contribute to overall good performance and productivity.”
Conclusion
Strategic workforce planning is essential for aligning human resources with business goals. Implementing strategic workforce planning can predict the future workforce needs of your firm.
Through these strategies, your firm can entice and retain the best employees. Eventually, it will benefit your organization in reaching its goals. These employees can eventually be the reason for your firm’s long-term success. Also, constantly monitoring and evaluating the workforce strategy helps organizations stay agile. Plus, it also assists firms in adjusting to changing business conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What Is Strategic Workforce Planning?
Ans. Strategic Workforce Planning is the process of aligning an organization’s workforce with its long-term business goals and objectives to ensure it has the right talent in the right place at the right time.
Q2. Why do businesses need Strategic Workforce Planning?
Ans. Businesses need Strategic Workforce Planning to anticipate future talent needs, address skill gaps, enhance agility, and optimize workforce efficiency, ensuring long-term success and competitiveness.
Q3. What are the benefits of Strategic Workforce Planning?
Ans. The benefits of Strategic Workforce Planning include better talent alignment, improved agility, increased productivity, reduced labor costs, and enhanced long-term organizational performance.
In today’s corporate landscape, organizations are continuously looking for ways to attract and retain top talent. One critical aspect of achieving this goal is through job leveling. Job leveling is a process used by companies to define and group roles based on their responsibilities, scope, and impact within the organization.
It helps create a clear career path for employees and enables them to understand how they can progress in their careers within the company. In this blog post, we will delve into what exactly job leveling entails, its benefits for both employees and organizations, and how you can effectively implement it in your own organization. So if you’re curious about job leveling or want to improve your current practices, read on!
What is Job Leveling?
Job leveling matrix is the process of assigning job roles and responsibilities into defined categories or levels with the aim of promoting efficiency, consistency, and fairness in the workplace while also providing clear pathways for career progression. The grading helps understand what the company expects from employees, depending on their role. It will help them get a promotion if they act according to their specific job role.
Why Develop Job Leveling Matrix in your Organization?
Consistency in HR programs
HRs can use a standard job evaluation system to discuss job structure with employees. If you are consistent with this program, it helps employees and managers understand the importance of job leveling matrix and job roles comprehensively. This systematic approach helps determine how one job role differs from the other. It should include factors like:
Interaction
Problem-solving
Knowledge and its application
Accountability
Impact of decision making
On evaluating the job roles, it becomes easy to assign jobs to people as per the hierarchy.
Provide opportunities for advancement in your career
Offering career opportunities with supporting infrastructure should be one of the priorities of an organization to boost employee engagement. It should pave the way for abundant career opportunities that employees search for in an organization. Therefore, the job leveling framework serves as the best framework for employees to see how their jobs can offer better growth opportunities. Career pathing is helpful for leadership, employees, and the organization as a whole to increase mobility. Therefore, with this framework, HR leaders can focus on effective planning.
Handling administration better
HR departments are continually trying to find effective ways to administer HR activities. The job-leveling structure can become the focal point for increasing efficiency and streamlining decision-making about employees and job roles. Some of the instances are:
a) Make job titles uniform
b) Talking about pay grade and salary
c) Eligibility and rewards in the short and long term
Get fair pay for equal work
Job leveling enables an organization to practice a meaningful pay scale for similar job responsibilities. Legal pay is necessary and is a fundamental right of every employee. People with similar work should get equal pay, be rated under similar job value, and given equal value for skills, effort, and decision-making.
Helps retain employees
Employees are offered new job roles depending on their performance and compensated for the same. How well the compensation is and how much better it is when compared to their peers is often compared. It often determines the paths to success and the scope of opportunity for an employee in any organization. As per studies, when employees see no progression to better and higher job roles in their organization, they look for an opportunity elsewhere. The job leveling should show the required expectations that the company has from each job role. Therefore, every manager can help an employee understand how to progress in the organization and achieve the next higher level.
Therefore, consistency, alignment, connection, and equity are the tools to be maintained in an organization. It offers short-term and long-term benefits to a company that gives value to each job role in the business and takes time to level it properly. It can also reduce the chance of employee turnover in an organization. When an organization follows job leveling thoroughly, it establishes a clear connection between one position to another.
Job function, also known as job family, is clubbing together jobs that include similar work and require adequate training, knowledge, skill, and expertise for the position. Depending on the organization, the job functions should map the roles from one department to another, such as marketing, engineering, sales, and others. When creating a framework, it is about assigning a job or title of your company into a job function or level, grouping similar jobs.
How Does Job Leveling Matrix Work?
Job leveling is a critical element used by employers to define corporate goals that include recruiting, engaging, and motivating employees. It helps the employees give their best, resulting in the company’s growth and better management of costs and risks. Benefits to the company include:
Setting a reward and career growth structure aligned with the company’s needs, strategy, and value of the team
Career goals, job requirements, and strategic performance goals should be clearly defined
It helps establish a connection between the organization and the skills required for a role
Assess external data and focus on job mapping in detail
It helps get a cost-effective design and handle talent management with compensation programs
Job leveling helps with internal equity
Customized Job Leveling Plan for Business
If you plan to deploy a job leveling mechanism, choose the structure that proves effective for your organization. Hiring managers should set the scorecard right to determine why they need to hire for a particular position and whether the hired person matches the desired expectations. Also, focus on desired outcomes, key competencies to look for in the person to be hired, and how successfully the hired person can contribute to the particular role in the business. Depending on this, you have to design an interview structure that reflects how the hiring scorecard is necessary.
Any job role has specific requirements for a company. Check out what qualities you should look for in an employee that make them a good fit for the company. Rather than focusing on a solution for every problem, focus on accomplishing it. When a team is clear on such goals, it helps the team work together in hiring employees and others.
Things to Consider for Job Leveling
When creating job leveling according to the requirements of an organization, try to make sure that the strategy is easy to understand and communicate to your managers. It helps everyone in the organization know the roles, their importance, and how they can directly impact the team and supervisors. To create a job-grading framework for your organization, try the following tips:
Slotting: It is a way of categorizing the job title, description, and salary range.
Market Comparison: Depending on the job title, it ranks against similar positions in an organization across the departments.
Job ranking: Compare the different job roles and their responsibilities and how one should develop oneself for a particular job role to stay ahead of the competition.
Comprehensive Guide on Job Leveling: Steps to Follow
The time taken to create the structure of job leveling will depend on the company’s size. This process is worthwhile as it will help the company run the leveling efficiently. Although there are no such guidelines for job leveling, following some steps can make the task easier:
Focus on team building
When focusing on a particular job level or role, try to have the right team. Involve your senior executives, HR, and managers to produce the required job roles and descriptions and plan how an employee can climb up to the upper hierarchy in the organization.
Consider the big picture of the organization
Look at the organization as a whole, and consider the number of levels required and already present in the firm for effective job level planning. If you have employees to work at every level, try to build a system where leaders and managers can communicate to make decisions on big projects.
Build up relationships
After you have decided on every job role in your company, consider the organization as a whole as it helps to understand the lack of job levels. It also helps to find out how one role is connected to other and helps in effective relationship building. Whether the relationships in the organization are synergistic or straightforward, each job role should be structured in such a way that it helps build relationships and contributes to the collaborative decision-making process of the business.
Consider one role at a time
At the time of job leveling, you should focus on one role at a time for its correct evaluation based on its need in the business. Start with facts like the present title of the role, the rank, the work responsibilities, and where to begin. Therefore, a job title and its level should be aligned with the organization’s goals so that it becomes easy to achieve them.
Give importance to feedback
Ask for feedback on anything you deploy or implement in your organization aimed at your employees. You can accommodate their suggestion for a job title or role and understand the required changes in it. Once a job level structure is defined, distribute it among everyone in the organization and answer their queries. It will help assign the appropriate job role and its utility in an organization. Also, it will help in ensuring that the person assigned to a particular job role can carry out their responsibilities correctly.
Conclusion
HR plays a crucial role in mastering the art of job leveling. Through a meticulous evaluation of each job role, the HR department can seamlessly integrate it into the business. A poorly structured and vaguely defined job hierarchy can prove ineffective and costly for the organization. It’s essential to establish a well-executed procedure to enhance organizational efficiency and effectiveness while curbing expenses.
By implementing a correct job-leveling structure, organizations can cultivate an environment that nurtures employee success. This structured approach, crafted with insights from hiring managers, market comparisons, and employee feedback, ensures alignment with organizational needs and contributes to the establishment of a fair and equitable workplace.
Progressive sales teams around the world are harnessing the power of AI today. Statistics reveal that the use of AI sales tools increased to above 25% in 2021. Artificial intelligence in sales not only helps in growing business revenue but also enables sales reps to work more efficiently. They can streamline their most dreaded sales tasks besides fostering stronger relationships with the audience.
However, this does not mean that AI will replace humans in sales. Instead, they will only save your team’s valuable time so they can focus on the most important thing i.e., selling.
In today’s post, we will discuss the importance of AI sales management and the different ways in which you can leverage it.
The Need for AI in Sales
Sales is one of the most significant functions of any business. Your company’s sales team plays a pivotal role in finding prospects and then converting them into happy and paying customers.
Sales AI tools can simplify and optimize the sales process. These tools leverage trainable algorithms to process large datasets and predict user behavior, make accurate recommendations, and enhance decision-making.
Here are some of the sales functions that AI can assist with:
Identifying buyer needs: AI in sales can equip sales reps to closely track buyer journeys and understand their requirements.
Customer segmentation and personalization: AI can analyze customer data to segment customers based on their demographics, behavior, preferences, and other factors. This can help sales teams to personalize their communication and offers to better meet the needs of individual customers.
Sales process optimization: Sales AI tools can analyze sales processes to identify inefficiencies and recommend process improvements. This can help sales teams to streamline their workflows, reduce costs, and improve overall performance.
Collecting information from multiple platforms: In today’s time, sales outreach programs are expanded across several channels. With AI tools, the sales team can track all prospects’ information from a single dashboard and enhance productivity in their routine tasks.
The way the sales process is conducted has drastically changed over the years. Consequently, AI has become an indispensable tool for sales teams to accelerate their business growth.
Automation in sales has become increasingly important due to the following reasons:
Time-saving: Automation helps sales professionals to save a significant amount of time by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks. With automation, they can focus on more important tasks like customer interactions, building relationships, and closing deals.
Increased efficiency: Automation reduces the chances of errors in sales processes and ensures that tasks are completed on time. It also allows sales teams to manage and prioritize their workloads more effectively, leading to increased efficiency.
Consistency: Automation ensures that sales processes are standardized, which ensures consistency in communication, marketing campaigns, and customer experiences. This consistency builds trust with customers and helps in creating a positive brand image.
Improved customer experience: Automation enables sales teams to provide personalized experiences to customers. This leads to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and repeat business.
Data-driven insights: Automation provides data and insights on sales processes, customer behavior, and marketing campaigns. This information helps sales teams to make informed decisions and improve their sales strategies over time.
5 Ways Your Team Can Use AI in Sales
Artificial intelligence in sales can be used in many different ways to transform your sales processes and boost your revenue engine. Here, we will look at the five most notable applications of AI in sales.
Lead Scoring and Prioritization
It is seen that human salespeople approach the process of lead scoring in an unscientific way. Often, their decision-making is based on half-finished data and gut instinct. Consequently, most of their time is spent chasing poorly qualified leads.
Ai can drastically change this situation by bringing a level of logic and standardization to the process.
AI algorithms can compile all information about a client, including their history, social media postings, and interactions with the sales team. Based on this information, these algorithms can rank the leads in the pipeline according to their chances of closing successfully.
In other words, they can help to identify patterns and determine which leads are most likely to convert, thus promoting logical decision-making.
Sales Prediction and Forecasting
Sales forecasting is the process of anticipating sales revenue that a business may generate over a specific period. Accurate sales forecasts prepare a business for any unforeseen emergencies and maintain resilience.
Using AI is an incredible way to supercharge your sales forecasting capabilities. With AI, sales managers can identify the current trends and understand their path to meeting sales goals each quarter. They can prioritize prospects that have a greater tendency to convert with sales forecasting.
Sales teams no longer need to rely on their instinct to arrive at a number. Instead, they can leverage AI-powered sales forecasting tools for the following:
Determine which deals to prioritize on
Identify new leads that demonstrate a high probability of converting
Pinpoint new opportunities that might increase the sales revenue
Finally, predictive forecasting can also create value for sales teams internally. For instance, sales managers can use the same data analysis to forecast their team’s performance in advance. This way, they can take proactive steps to enhance their sales attribution based on factual figures.
This is one of the best examples of AI in sales that can streamline your sales processes and automate workflows.
AI tools can boost your sales team’s productivity in several ways. These tools augment the work and eliminate the drudgery that distracts the team members from focusing on higher-value tasks.
There are plenty of areas of the sales department where having an AI-powered tool can speed things up. For instance, there are predictive dialers that allow sales representatives to make outbound calls at scale. Similarly, there are AI tools that automate post-call reporting that liberates reps from manually typing everything after a sales call.
Apart from these, many more sales processes can be automated with AI, allowing your sales team to focus on actual selling.
Predict Cross-sells and Up-sells
As discussed above, AI is quite effective in identifying qualified leads. Now similarly, AI tools can also predict cross-selling and up-selling opportunities that a sales rep is most likely to be successful with for every individual customer.
Thanks to machine learning, these tools can analyze data from past interactions with a prospect and the previous sale history of each customer to predict the products/services that will appeal the most to every lead.
This boosts sales by eradicating the guesswork that the sales team has to do for cross-selling and up-selling. Additionally, it ensures that your sales team does not annoy the leads by recommending products they have no interest in.
Both cross-sells and up-sells are great strategies to boost overall sales. Statistics reveal that there is an approximately 70% chance of selling to an existing customer as compared to a 20% chance of finding a new prospect. And with AI, companies can make the most of this opportunity and enhance their bottom line.
Improve Customer Service with Chatbots
Often, leads want to talk to a human representative before making the final sales decision. Other times, they just want to feel like they are talking to a human sales rep. And this is where an AI-powered chatbot comes in handy.
AI chatbots are a brilliant substitute that offers round-the-clock customer service assistance. They are trained to address basic questions about a company’s products/services, make accurate recommendations, and even make up-sells and cross-sells.
This boosts the sales team’s productivity as it reduces their load of answering basic customer queries. Additionally, an instant response to the prospects makes them more inclined to make the final purchase.
Now let’s take a look at the three most popular AI sales tools along with their most noteworthy features. This will help you select the best tool for your team.
Cold outreach is a crucial aspect of every business’s sales process. However, discovering the right information about every prospect and creating a strong introductory email is often a challenge for sales teams.
Warmer.ai is an excellent AI tool that enables sales teams to personalize emails using accurate data about the prospect. This includes details such as their job title, interests, awards, etc.
Thus, sales teams can improve the email response rate while saving valuable time for other core activities.
Clari is among the best sales enablement platforms for modern sales teams. The tool allows sales representatives to convert more leads by arming them with data-driven insights and the best sales content.
The AI sales tool leverages actual deal data to automatically generate forecasts for every rep, region, channel, and product/service line. It also offers enhanced visibility into the sales team’s performance, prospect engagement, and deal status.
Drift is an AI-powered platform that enables small and medium-sized enterprises to speed up their sales cycle. The platform works to engage the visitors from the word go, instead of making them fill out long forms.
The sales assistant works in tandem with chatbots to address customer queries and even schedule demo sessions with the sales team. Thus, it automates lead capturing without increasing the company’s headcount.
To conclude, AI in sales has massive potential. That said, there is no one way of using this technology in your sales processes. It is good to begin evaluating the aspects of your sales process that you wish to simplify and streamline. This will also help you choose the right AI sales tool for your team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is an AI sales tool?
Ans. An AI sales tool is an advanced software solution empowered by artificial intelligence that optimizes sales processes by leveraging data-driven insights, automating tasks, and enhancing customer interactions to boost sales performance and revenue generation.
Q2. What are the benefits of using an AI sales tool?
Ans. Using an AI sales tool offers numerous benefits, including improved sales efficiency, enhanced lead generation and qualification, personalized customer experiences, predictive analytics for accurate forecasting, streamlined sales processes, increased productivity, and better decision-making based on data-driven insights.
Author: Charu
Charu is an outreach specialist with over 4 years of experience in digital marketing. Her expertise lies in developing and executing outreach campaigns that drive engagement and build brand awareness. When she’s not brainstorming outreach ideas, you can find Charu exploring the outdoors or practicing yoga.
Performance measurement is a crucial aspect of organizational success, with goals serving as essential benchmarks for monitoring and enhancing employee performance. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) stand out as a highly effective approach for goal-setting and achievement. This article focuses on the implementation of Engineering OKRs, providing insights into creating, tracking, and analyzing the performance of engineering teams.
Human resources, also known as people operations, plays a vital role in every organization’s success. This dynamic department encompasses a wide array of functions, ranging from formulating and implementing effective workplace policies and procedures to fostering a strong company culture. Additionally, they handle essential tasks such as performance management, compensation and benefits management, compliance, and training. By aligning with People Operations OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), this strategic team ensures the organization stays on track, driving growth and achieving its goals with efficiency and effectiveness.
Wondering what does people-centric workplace mean?
Everyone yearns for a place they can call “home,” and for many employees, the workplace is just an extension of their actual residence. In there, they get to meet, work with, and create bonds with different individuals who eventually become a big part of their lives even outside the scope of their work. But for many businesses, employees are merely resources to achieve an end. Such organizations prioritize the needs of customers at the expense of employee satisfaction.
A very defective business approach!
We simply can’t neglect the fact that employees are the thin line between an organization and their clientele, and having a team of highly motivated employees increases the efficiency of your workforce.
Hence, the saying “happy employees lead to happy customers.“
Adopting a human-centric culture allows you to empathize with your employees, treat them with respect, and prioritize their needs. Above all, you enhance the relationship with and within your employees and ultimately gain their loyalty.
The benefits of adopting a human-centered approach are vast, so in this article, you’ll gain deeper insights about the importance of a human-centric workplace.
How to humanize your workplace
The concept of a human-centric approach is built on empathy, creativity, and business needs, but in between these three elements lies the 360 feedback software, a product of technological advancement and a sophisticated HR software that allows you to keep track of
Employee progress
Employee performance metrics and
Learning simultaneously.
While the concept of human-centric work culture isn’t a new phenomenon, let’s catch a glimpse of what the three elements stand for.
Empathy: is that which showcases the amount of care we have for the people who will be using the workplace environment. It is the ability to fit yourself in the position of your employees while identifying their needs to create better working conditions.
Creativity: We can’t stop being creative since our world is constantly changing and new problems keep arising, so it’s left to us to become intentionally innovative in solving problems such as inferiority complex and lack of connection at work.
Business needs: If perfection is our goal, then we must be willing to extend a supportive hand to our employees especially when it comes to enabling collaboration and communication. Setting up a work environment that boosts employee efficiency starts with including them in the design process.
Benefits of Fostering a human-centric workplace
Committed and motivated individuals
A human-centric organization treats the employee experience as primary, and that increases the efficiency of the workforce. In fact, Gartner’s research shows that employees in human-centric organizations are 3.8 times more productive than when these practices aren’t implemented.
When employees are fed with the impression that an organization prioritizes its profit margins over their well-being, they lose the zeal and focus to perform their tasks efficiently.
It results in a decrease in overall productivity and affects the revenue generated.
Keep in mind that employees are the driving force of any organization and must be treated with care. When you cater to the needs of your employees, then it’s just natural that they go the extra mile to impress you.
Pro tips:
Focus on employee wellness and embrace the hybrid work model
Keep tab on employee progress through OKR meetings
Recognize accomplishments and introduce employee benefits packages
The role of a manager transcends the scope of work, and the quality of your leadership isn’t just measured by your ability to assign tasks and coordinate your employees but also by how well you can motivate and support them to become better at what they do.
No matter the type and size of the business, the manager’s top concern should be the welfare of the employees. Provided you are a retail manager and your employees work in shifts, then managing your employees effectively and improving communication with them, as well as creating flexible schedules can be done by using retail scheduling software.
This will enable you to develop a productive and encouraging work atmosphere, since employees have a life outside the scope of work, which directly impacts their productivity at the workplace.
Employees have a life outside the scope of work, which directly impacts their productivity at the workplace.
A human-centric work culture allows employees to share their woes, aspirations, and ideas with their superiors without fear of criticism.
While leaders showcase a level of emotional intelligence and servant leadership practices, employees develop a sense of belonging and are constantly inspired to display high levels of effectiveness when discharging their duties.
This promotes an atmosphere of positivity and enhances the flow of communication at all levels of the organization.
Pro tips:
Create room for constant exchange of feedback and value employee inputs
Schedule occasional one-on-ones and skip level meetings
Customer loyalty isn’t built in a day, and it takes a great deal of effort to stay at the top of customers’ minds.
When you have a team of highly motivated people, employees become more passionate about their work and practice more effective communication modus operandi to meet the needs of your clientele.
The assurance that the organization prioritizes their needs serves as a driving force that increases their efficiency in the workplace. When customers become used to your services and eventually derive the satisfaction they yearn for, what you get is customer loyalty.
Show appreciation to employees who are putting in their best.
Increased revenues and organizational growth
Employee satisfaction and customer loyalty are important factors that determine the growth of any organization. While the latter is dependent on the former, organizations must strike a balance between the two to reach their full potential.
Having an all-inclusive work model where employees and their superiors alike are constantly updated on the company’s progress can ameliorate the engagement and productivity of your workforce.
If you take care of your employee engagement, you can double the business efficiency, which all leads to lasting impact on your customers’ satisfaction.
Organizations can then leverage this as a means to generate more income and step up the growth of their businesses.
Pro tips:
Focus on your workforce first and what you get is customer satisfaction, organizational growth and higher profits.
Organizations are constantly striving to retain talented employees, but only a few firms understand how profitable a human-centric workplace can be in enhancing the employee work experience.
Just as organizations will make extra efforts to keep talented employees in their workforce, employees give preferences to organizations that prioritize their well-being and psychological safety. Everyone wants to feel at home at their workplaces and be treated with respect.
When employees experience setbacks in their workplaces or personal lives, they expect a certain level of empathy from coworkers and superiors in the organization.
Human centric businesses prioritize employee wellness over profit margins, and decisions are made to satisfy the needs of employees.
The long term effect of this is increased employee retention rates and a surge in overall business productivity.
Pro tip:
Streamline company strategies and operations to enhance employee experience.
Attract talent pools
A human-centered work culture does more for you than just retaining employees; it can also be an effective tool in attracting today’s best talents.
Job seekers can be particularly inquisitive when looking for job placement, and many will go to great lengths to conduct background checks on the position and work ethics of the organization they are vying for.
They want to know
What is achievable within the organization,
How employees are treated,
How conducive the working atmosphere is,
The relationships that exist between coworkers and superiors,
The employee benefits package, and what have you.
All of these and more are what a human-centric workplace promises for employees. With these, you won’t have to expend much effort to hunt down talented candidates, as they will naturally come to you in myriad ways.
Pro tip:
Create a good first impression in the hearts of potential employees by adopting a human centric work approach.
Set your course for greatness
Employees are hardwired to seek out comfortability in their workplace; they want to be reassured that their career path is laced with elements that drive efficiency and not regression.
Organizations, on the other hand, strive to beat the fierce competition in the business world by way of innovation and ingenuity while relying on the efficiency of their workforce.
To that effect, the human-centric work model should be an integral part of every business looking to up its game in the global market, as it balances the interests of employees and organizations alike.
While the benefits it brings are unquantifiable, it is the key to unlocking the full potential of an organization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is a people-centric workplace?
Ans. A people-centric workplace is an organization that prioritizes the needs, well-being, and satisfaction of its employees above all else. In a people-centric workplace, the focus is on creating an environment where employees feel valued, respected, and supported, and where their contributions are recognized and rewarded.
This type of workplace culture values open communication, collaboration, and teamwork, and places a strong emphasis on creating a positive and inclusive work environment where everyone feels empowered to do their best work.
Q2. What is an example of people-centric workplace?
Ans. One example of a people-centric organization is Patagonia, an outdoor clothing and gear company. Patagonia has a reputation for being a socially and environmentally responsible company, but it also prioritizes its employees’ well-being and satisfaction.
For example, Patagonia offers its employees generous benefits, including paid parental leave, onsite child care, and an employee health care plan that covers alternative and holistic treatments. The company also encourages its employees to pursue their passions outside of work, with initiatives like its Environmental Internship Program and its Environmental Grants Program, which provide funding and support for employee-led environmental projects.
Patagonia’s commitment to its employees goes beyond just benefits and perks, however. The company is also known for its flat organizational structure and open communication policies, which encourage collaboration and teamwork across departments. And perhaps most importantly, Patagonia’s leadership prioritizes transparency and ethical decision-making, which helps to build trust and a sense of shared purpose among its employees.
Overall, Patagonia is a great example of a people-centric organization that values its employees as much as its customers and the environment.
Author: Rilwan Kazeem
Rilwan Kazeem is a freelance content writer, and an enthusiastic one at that. He has been in the writing world for three years. Being an explorer and reader, he engages his readers with in-depth and thought-provoking blogs and articles.
Imposter syndrome is an internal experience when an individual denies believing they are competent as others consider them to be. They also worry about being tagged as incompetent or incapable of meeting workplace expectations.
You aren’t alone in experiencing this syndrome when sometimes it becomes hard to cope. It’s also challenging to confess these feelings to others. Managers intend to support their team, but identifying and addressing the syndrome may not be easy.
Imposter syndrome is not what only new hires experience, rather, all people experience it. Research shows that 62% of workers experience imposter syndrome, and 42% of employees are experiencing both the syndrome with burnout worldwide.
The 2020 pandemic caused a rise in imposter syndrome. Self-doubt became a byproduct when employees started to work in isolation. Due to this, 33% of professionals reported how the pandemic, along with problems like imposter syndrome, impacted their professional confidence.
The symptoms intensified with fewer chances to connect and celebrate success with coworkers.
Signs of Imposter Syndrome
The head of Early Career Insights, Laura Mills, told Workest that employees with signs of imposter syndrome face difficulty accepting praise or compliments. They can even abstain from asking for help as, to them, it is a sign of failure.
Giving others credit for your success
You don’t realize success or accomplishments. You give accolades for other reasons except for the one you are to be praised for. These are types of imposter syndrome. People with a healthy knowledge of self-esteem can take credit for any hard-earned achievements. They will praise others but have problems accepting it themselves. No matter how privileged you feel, accept credit when it’s due at the workplace.
Taking up unnecessary pressure on yourself
Do you over-prep for every meeting and stay back to work even after your co-workers have left? Perhaps you are constantly comparing yourself and cannot handle the constant anxiety saying that you are yet to give your best. If this sounds similar, these are obvious signs of imposter syndrome and try to come out of it. People with the syndrome have a tendency to overcompensate with fear to avoid being ‘found out’. However, with success, the fear also worsens, resulting in an escalating cycle leading to an unbearable situation overall. Constant fear leads to procrastination.
Doing too much self-sabotaging
You receive an ambiguous email from your boss and get trapped in a spiral of anxiety. The email is enough to convince yourself that you may get fired. You keep on thinking that whatever you bring to the table to your boss might devalue you and hamper your future promotions.
You are already preoccupied with a story to make you unnecessarily anxious. Even when things aren’t falling into place with personal relationships or office colleagues and friends, deep down, you start believing that you don’t deserve to be happy. And that you have to take risks and will get hurt eventually.
Struggling with burnout
You may be struggling with burn out for years, leading to imposter syndrome problems. Burnout is a condition that is caused due to persistent occupational stress, and you may struggle to cope with it. Three characteristics to understand it is:
Exhaustion or fatigue
Lower work effectiveness
Feeling increased pressure and negativity from the job and being mentally distanced from the job
This shows how imposter syndrome gives rise to burnout situations. If you only overthink and never feel proud of your accomplishments, it can eventually lead to feeling low and getting a negative perspective on your occupation. Once this happens, you will stop caring about your professional performance in the workplace.
The situation can come up in different ways. An individual may be reluctant to negotiate for salary when hired. That reluctance to negotiate for salary again comes from the feeling that you are a fraud and getting the job is enough for you, no matter the pay scale.
It impacts self-care and doesn’t even take benefits like vacations or others. But you work hard throughout the day without leaving any stone unturned at your workplace.
These are some of the signs of imposter syndrome at work that both managers and employees can experience. If you recognize any of these signs with behavioral changes, try to acknowledge them. Whichever signs you relate with, it is important to find what drives you to those behaviors and the associated causes.
How to get rid of imposter syndrome?
Before holding on to negative self-talk when suffering from imposter syndrome, try the following to get rid of it.
Go by facts and not feelings
Imposter syndrome aggravates your feeling that your performance isn’t up to the mark. These are often based on fear and are not real. Try to combat imposter syndrome with facts, and don’t let your negative feelings win. That way, you can take actionable steps for what you cannot control.
You cannot stop your brain from creating stories, but you can try to center your thoughts around facts. When feeling trapped in an imposter syndrome, go by facts rather than feelings.
Look for Guidance
Look for guidance from a mentor who can help improve your soft and hard skills. This way, when you feel that you aren’t good at any task, you can get back confidence with the belief that you are trying your best. The mentor should be someone from your field with practical experience to support you. Moreover, if you trust the person, you can better share imposter syndrome as an employee and how you feel.
Learn from your teammates
A common instinct is to compare yourself with your teammate and think each member can outdo you. While comparing becomes a habit, try to reframe your perspective.
Next time you feel like comparing yourself with teammates, take a step back and try to learn from what you think are their superior qualities. You will have teammates who excel in various fields, and there’s a lot to learn from each, including yourself. That won’t make you less worthy. Instead, it’s an excellent opportunity to help others grow in a team. Recognize others’ good work and use it as a tool to improve yourself to deliver better in the future.
If you are a team manager, your priority should be to support each and reduce signs of imposter syndrome at work. A few ways can be:
Provide opportunities for connection
Every team member should have ample chances to connect with each other. Mentor any new member of the team and help them mingle better. Similarly, all the members should be aware of any available resources.
Clarify ways for communication
Without a clear sense of communication norms, it can be intimidating how to approach other team members. It can simplify the initial hurdle of communicating. Make sure to use the correct tool and person to contact when having doubts.
Keep a frequent check
Have a check-in during a meeting where team members can feel free to express how they are doing. If managers are transparent about sharing thoughts, it encourages team members to do the same.
So, when someone is putting a lot of pressure to give their best, managers can help them with positive feedback.
Get into the habit of sharing frequent feedback
More often, imposter syndrome isn’t based on a real situation. Situations leading to imposter syndrome can improve with comforting and frequent feedback from team members and managers. Once you have a sense that you are doing it right, it can work with confidence. A little feedback now and then, can boost your confidence and help grow the basis of working hard.
It is how managers can help team members conquer the syndrome with confidence and proper guidance. Managers should support the growth interests of team members, giving them the adequate confidence boost they require.
In conclusion: Can imposter syndrome affect your work?
If imposter syndrome seems to hold you back at work, try to identify the psychological discomfort behind the role. It is a temporary state of being in a person who is always thinking about whether they can give their best performance. If you are aware of workplace microaggressions, you must know how they can lead to imposter syndrome. So, challenge the lies beneath imposter syndrome and prevent it from aggravating. This syndrome can affect any area of activity, if you don’t let your negative feelings go.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How does an HR handle imposter syndrome at work?
Ans. The role of an HR is to encourage managers with the latest tools and knowledge and create healthy expectations in the workplace. When an employee is not respected in a workplace it can lead to imposter syndrome. This is when managers should focus on inclusion, which can make one feel validated. Acknowledge hard work publicly that can boost an individual’s motivation.
Q2. Why is Imposter Syndrome a problem?
Ans. There are types of Imposter Syndrome that can lead to problems like:
Reduce wellbeing and increase the chance of mental health problems
Isolates an individual and impacts their interpersonal relationships
The sufferers fear of failing and fail to try new things due to failure
Q3. How to deal with imposter syndrome before it can hinder success?
Ans. Know the signs, and you aren’t alone in it. Try to distinguish between fear and humility. You can seek help from a mentor or manager who can show you the best ways to overcome those negative thoughts.
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” — Tony Robbins
Fierce competition, ever-changing technology, and a capricious business landscape, coupled with the great resignation and aftermath of the pandemic, are the leading factors that are shaping global business.
In this uncertain environment, how are organizations keeping pace with growth and development?
While goal setting helps organizations keep track of their performance, it is essential to involve every employee in organizational success. So, how do you ensure that the entire workforce is committed to the organization’s goals and create initiatives that help meet those goals on time?
One of the ways that organizations can create, implement, and measure goals, is by adopting the OKR framework. It is one of the most popular and effective techniques that is used by organizations to achieve ambitious and aspirational goals. Through this framework, leaders and managers can keep a track of the employee initiatives and ensure their time and effort goes into the most productive activities.
For decades, organizations have been using different approaches and methodologies to create and track employee goals. While there are multiple approaches available for goal setting, OKRs is one of the most widely appreciated and widely accepted throughout the world. It helps in articulating the organizational goals into simple objectives and provides measures to track and check the progress of every employee. Furthermore, it increases transparency in the organization and makes departments, teams, and individual employees more accountable for their key results.
As organizations are steering through pandemic-led challenges, it is difficult to track the progress and inputs of every employee. Moreover, setups like work-from-home and hybrid environments create barriers to communication, collaboration, and connection, which ultimately leads to less productivity and engagement. OKRs are a great mechanism to tackle such challenges and offer insights into employees’ deliverables.
Before we dive deeper into the intricacies of objectives and key results, let’s take a closer look at what it means to the organization and how it provides actionable insights to leaders.
OKR Templates
An OKR template is a document that helps organizations, teams, and individuals set up challenging and ambitious goals that are aligned. Also known as the OKR tracking template, it provides great insights into the achievements of team members and helps managers constantly track the progress of different goals.
The leading industrial and HR experts at Engagedly have created a number of OKR templates that accompany different aspects of goal setting and tracking. You can customize these templates to use them for your organization and keep track of the most important organizational goals.
What Are OKRs?
“One: set inspiring and measurable goals. Two: make sure you and your team are always making progress towards that desired end state. No matter how many other things are on your plate. And three: set a cadence that makes sure the group both remembers what they are trying to accomplish and holds each other accountable.” — Christina Wodtke1, Author of Radical Focus.
Objectives and Key Results” (OKRs) is a goal-setting and leadership framework. With OKRs, businesses can communicate their desired outcomes and identify key milestones to achieve them. OKRs help companies align their teams with their overall strategy and drive meaningful progress towards their goals.
It became a globally accepted and acclaimed strategy after Google started using it in the 1990s’. Thereon, it has found its way from Silicon Valley to innumerable startups and the world’s leading organizations, like Microsoft, Dell, Baidu, and Adobe.
But what makes it different from the other goal-setting methodologies like MBO (management by objectives) and SMART goals? Even though OKRs originated from MBOs, there are multiple differences in the structure, approach, goal review frequency, and degree of autonomy. OKRs help define the success strategy of the organization while encompassing the “What and How”, meaning they highlight the organizational objectives to be achieved and also provide a set of measures as key results.
To have a clear understanding of how OKRs impact the organization, let us first look at its components.
OKR is a great leadership exercise that can be conducted either monthly or quarterly. It helps align the efforts of resources toward achieving organizational goals by clearly outlining their objectives and the quantifiable actions necessary to achieve them. Keeping the focus on some specific and major objectives makes it easier to track their progress and ensures that the workforce is committing their efforts to achieving them.
What Are Objectives?
In simple terms, objectives are what is to be achieved. They are short, inspirational, organized, and clearly defined goals that lead to major changes in the organization. Objectives are aligned throughout the organization and are qualitative in nature. Properly designed and effective objectives ensure that the workforce does not lose sight of the goals and puts their maximum effort into them.
The process starts with leadership deciding on 3-5 objectives to be accomplished. Then the departments and various teams under them set their own objectives based on the organizational objectives. The crux is to ensure the achievement of organizational objectives by channelizing the efforts of every team member.
An example of an objective: Increase overall traffic to the website blog
Qualities Of Objectives
Every objective in the OKR bears some unique qualities. It is crucial to understand them to set relatable and clear objectives. Some of them are discussed below.
Very Clear: It is critical to have clear, unambiguous, and direct objectives that are understandable by every employee in the organization. They should be written in a manner that is easily interpretable and quickly understood.
Challenging: Challenges make teams and departments in an organization collaborate and work towards the mission. You can either bore your employees by making them work on something easily achievable, or you can flex them by putting a challenging objective in front of them. But it is important to ensure that objectives are not impossible to achieve, as this may lower the morale of the team and put them off track.
Actionable: There are objectives that put your team to the test and offer them something challenging and actionable to work on and then there are objectives that seem vague and will put your team off. Creating actionable objectives is the key to imbibing enthusiasm in your employees.
Inspiring: Your employees should be energized while working toward your goals. By setting inspiring objectives, you can increase employee engagement and productivity and ensure they have something to look forward to.
Key results are a mechanism to measure the achievement of the objectives. Usually, every objective is followed by 3-5 key results that help in its accomplishment. They are measurable, specific, time-bound, and verifiable. They are signifiers that the objectives are in place and they support their evaluation by everyone in the organization.
Additionally, organizations create scoring systems to evaluate the key results. Usually, the system is in the form of a score varying from 0 to 1. The movement on the scale indicates the achievement of the key results.
Examples of key results
Below are the sample key results required to achieve the objective of increasing the overall traffic to the website blog.
Increase year-on-year traffic to the website by 100%
Optimize 50 articles every month
Publish 70 articles every month
Qualities Of Key Results
For key results to be effective and actionable, they should have the following qualities in them.
Measurable And Quantitative: Key results should be easily measurable in a unit or scoring system as defined by the organization. It should highlight the progress of the team or an individual towards the defined objective.
Supports Accomplishment Of Objectives: Achieving key results should be directly linked to objectives. A key result cannot exist on its own and must be related to the team or individual objectives.
Clear: Key results should be clearly defined and easily understood by the teams and individuals. The initial value and target score should be stated while setting the key results.
Time-bound: Setting a timeframe helps employees stay focused on the activities. Hence, it is important to fix the start and end of all the key results. All team members must be notified about the dates of key result activities.
History Of OKRs
The history of OKRs goes back to 1974, when Peter Drucker2, an Austrian-American management consultant and business enthusiast, invented Management By Objectives, popularly known as MBO. It became the predecessor of OKRs. Drucker’s purpose was to enhance the productivity and performance of an organization by introducing objectives that were agreed upon both by the leadership and employees.
It was in the 1970s that the co-founder and CEO of Intel Corporation, Andy Grove3, revolutionized the concept of objectives and key results. He used this concept to enhance the performance of Intel and increase revenue by manifolds. He used the MBO framework and tied the objectives with key results to create business excellence.
In 1975, John Doerr joined Intel and learned the concept of OKRs. He found it to be immensely useful in achieving objectives and empowering the employees. He then went on to teach the concept to the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as an advisor while working at the venture capitalist firm, Kleiner Perkins.
At that time, Google was in its initial stages and quickly adopted the concept. Since then, thousands of companies, from multinationals to startups and even kindergartens, have adopted OKRs and used them to become tremendously successful.
There are two types of OKRs: committed OKRs and aspirational OKRs. Committed OKRs are objectives that are achievable and realistic, while aspirational OKRs are more challenging and ambitious. Both have different purposes and methods for achieving them.
Categorization of OKRs is done on the basis of two questions: the first one is “What does the organization want to achieve?” and the second one is “How do we achieve it?”. By answering these questions, leaders can segregate the OKRs into two baskets: committed OKRs and aspirational OKRs.
Understanding the differences between the types of OKRs helps organizations organize their resources and adopt the methodology that is most suitable for bringing in the key results, driving culture change, and increasing employee engagement. As the purpose of the OKRs is to align the resources towards the most important organizational priorities, it is therefore important to categorize the OKRs to get the most out of the time and efforts of the employees. Let us understand the differences between them and which methodology works best for the organization.
Committed OKRs
Also known as “roof shot goals,” these OKRs highlight the focus areas where the teams are expected to have a 100% achievement rate. An organization sets committed OKRs to focus the efforts of teams on such parameters whose achievement is critical and important to the success of the organization.
Even though these OKRs are ambitious, they are still realistic and achievable. Hence, the teams are expected to deliver 100% on them. In a scenario where a department or a team finds that the committed OKR cannot be achieved in the current cycle, they must consult with the leadership and create solutions and alternatives to get the goals back on track.
Please note that there is no room for failure in committed OKRs. They represent the utmost priorities of the organization. Team members need to put their heads together to ensure the achievement of the objectives.
Aspirational OKRs
Aspirational OKRs, in contrast to committed OKRs, are stretch goals which are impossible to achieve in a given cycle. The purpose of creating them is to push the departments, teams, and individuals to go further than the committed goals and think better in their approach and execution. Also known by the name “moonshots,” aspirational OKRs drive team efforts towards creativity and innovation. As long as the organization sees considerable and meaningful success, falling short on the achievement of aspirational OKRs is not considered a problem.
Having a 100% achievement rate in aspirational OKRs is rare, and it turns out that if the teams were able to achieve it, then the OKRs weren’t aspirational. In such a scenario, an organization needs to work on improving the methodology of setting OKRs.
Committed Vs Aspirational OKRs: How To Choose?
A global multi-sector survey4 conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with 500 senior executives from organizations with revenues of $1 billion or more found the following about goal setting.
Right implementing goals is critically important: 90% of the respondents shared that they failed to achieve all of their strategic business goals of wrong implementation.
Workforce capabilities define the success: 55% of executives found their business exposed to competitors because of inadequate delivery capabilities.
The above statistics highlight the importance of goal setting in the workplace and how it should be done in tandem with workforce capabilities. That’s why selecting the right mix of OKRs is important for organizational success. While an organization may want to have only aspirational goals to push their team to work hard and achieve more, having only aspirational OKRs can demotivate the team and exhaust them for never achieving their targets.
On the flip side, having only committed OKRs will inhibit the innovation, creativity, and problem-solving abilities of the team. They will never be attuned to failure and will be discouraged from risk-taking.
The best approach to selecting aspirational or committed OKRs is based on the organizational culture and strategy. For innovative organizations like Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft, going beyond the comfort level is imperative, and setting aspirational OKRs is a must. And for organizations that are more into operational activities, committed OKRs will serve the purpose. However, in the long run, as the organization grows, it is crucial to have the right mix of aspirational and committed OKRs to pivot the organization towards success.
OKRs are the key to successful business planning. Organizations that have implemented OKRs found it to be immensely useful in creating an impact on the culture, business outcomes, engagement, and communication. Let us explore some of the benefits of using OKRs.
OKRs are the key to successful business planning. Organizations that have implemented OKRs have found them to be immensely useful in creating an impact on the culture, business outcomes, engagement, and communication. Let us explore some of the benefits of using OKRs.
Business Success
Time and again, it has been proven that organizations that opted for OKRs had tremendous success. The biggest benefit of OKRs lies in making organizations more agile and transparent. It aids in streamlining employees’ efforts to achieve real-world business outcomes.
By giving ownership to the teams to set their own objectives in cadence with the organizational goals, it increases accountability and makes them feel involved in the decision-making process. There is no doubt that organizations like Google, Netflix, and Microsoft have embraced OKRs and focused their efforts on achieving specific goals.
Strategic Alignment
Chris Zook and James Allen, in their book “Profit From The Core5” mention that between 1988 and 1998, out of 1,854 large corporations they surveyed, seven out of eight could not achieve profitable growth. Yet 90% of these organizations had detailed plans for growth.
The startling statistics highlight how important it is to align organizations and employees with goal setting. While you are burning the midnight oil to prepare plans for growth, not having the goal alignment will not lead the organization to its desired objectives.
OKRs help leaders, managers, and individuals align their efforts and focus on the most important goals of the organization.
Cultural Shift
For long, organizations have focused on output rather than focusing on outcomes. While many leaders still use the terms interchangeably, there is a lot of difference between them. In simple words, output is what the organization or a team does, and an outcome is the change accompanied by the output.
By focusing on outcomes, OKRs help drive employee engagement, higher performance, and transparency in the organization. When continued for a long time, it embeds into the organizational culture and brings purpose, commitment, and innovation into the system.
Clear Communication
As per a report6 by HBR, around 95% of employees are unaware of the organizational strategy. The key to connecting, empowering, and engaging employees is clear communication. An organization that fails to communicate its objectives clearly, suffers losses and employee disengagement.
Using OKRs can solve the challenges of communicating organizational, departmental, and individual goals to every employee. Weekly and monthly check-ins help create a communication channel to highlight any issues in the progress of any objectives.
The purpose of writing and implementing OKRs is to align the efforts of resources towards the achievement of core organizational objectives. They help bring purpose and meaning to the organization and offer employees something to look forward to. Even though all organizations create short-term and long-term business strategies, only a handful are able to execute them effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, non-alignment of resources with the objectives leads to substandard results and ineffective business delivery.
Most organizations opt for OKRs to bring accountability, transparency, and alignment to the system to implement and execute business strategies. It is important to have leadership involved in the end-to-end process to get actionable results and bring substantial change to the organization.
Creating and implementing OKRs can be cumbersome. It requires integration of teams and leadership to understand the complex problems to be solved and the mechanisms to follow. Let us now understand the process of getting started with OKRs.
The Ultimate Goal
A company’s ultimate goal is a pivotal point for the whole workforce. Departments and teams create their OKRs based on the objectives set by the leadership team. Hence, it is crucial to understand which objectives will solve the organizational challenges and which ones will offer growth opportunities. While there can be innumerable problems to tackle, concentrating on the mission and vision of the organization will help narrow down the most important aspects of organizational growth.
An example of an ultimate goal could be “to become the most preferred IT training provider in the APAC region.”
The best way would be to convert your mission and vision into overarching objectives and key results. This will provide a focus area for various departments and teams to create their OKRs that will support and contribute towards fulfillment of the ultimate objectives.
OKR Cadence
The frequency with which the organization and teams set their OKRs is known as the cadence. Usually, there are two cadences in OKRs: quarterly and annually. As organizational objectives are directional and take a longer time to accomplish, their cadence is set annually.
Departmental and team OKRs are more actionable and are set quarterly. The short-term cadence of departmental OKRs helps leadership change the strategy and direction if they are not contributing towards organizational objectives.
Setting an OKR cadence requires meticulous planning and understanding of the business environment. Refer to the following points while selecting the cadence:
Uncertain market conditions require setting up a short cadence to accommodate the recurrent changes.
For startups that aim to achieve more in less time, it is preferable to set up a monthly or quarterly cadence.
For organizations that are prone to technological changes and stiff competition, a shorter cadence will work well.
Cultural and behavioral changes in the organization can be achieved through a short OKR cadence.
A long cadence is generally suitable for large and stable organizations that are prone to sudden changes in the business environment.
Writing Organizational Objectives
Having a single objective will keep the energy and efforts of the whole workforce focused and channeled. However, based on the industry, size, and growth prospects, an organization can create 3 to 5 objectives after taking input from various teams.
It is important to involve all the key stakeholders in order to share their inputs regarding the most important organizational objectives for the next 12 months. The inputs collected from employees have to be evaluated against the company’s strategy and market position and then converted into objectives. Objectives should be specific, clear, and in agreement with what the organization should achieve in the next 12 months.
Keep the following pointers in sight while writing the organizational objectives.
Refer to the organization’s mission and vision statements.
Take past objectives into consideration and look at their key results.
Understand the most important business priorities that need to be addressed
Look at the OKRs that are performing well in the current cycle.
Understand the business and market complexities and decide what could be the pivotal point for the organization.
Writing Departmental And Team Objectives
Now that the leadership has decided the objectives to be achieved, it is time for departments and teams to create their objectives. They need to chart out the activities that will help the organization achieve its long-term objectives. The activities help keep the focus on the most important tasks that are vital for accomplishing the objectives. As team OKRs follow a quarterly cadence, it is important to craft objectives that can be achieved in the given cycle.
Setup OKR Scoring Method
How will you understand the progress your team has made towards an objective? To determine how well a team delivers on an objective, it is important to fix a scoring method.
There are different scorecards used by organizations to indicate progress. One such method is using a scale of 0 to 1, where 0 indicates no progress made by the department or a team on the objective. One can also use a 10 point scale for scoring OKRs.
The next step in measuring progress is labeling or benchmarking the scorecard. Labels help in understanding the overall accomplishment of an objective. For example, you can use labels like “30–40% as average progress and 50–75% as good progress.”
Communicate OKRs To Everyone
Sharing organizational and teams’ OKRs publicly helps in increasing the transparency in the system. Additionally, it brings more visibility regarding the organization’s most important priorities and helps employees collaborate to achieve their objectives.
Track OKRs
Successful implementation of OKRs lies in frequently tracking their progress by weekly check-ins and conducting a quarterly OKR review at the end of each cycle. OKR tracking assists in the following ways: understanding progress made on objectives, addressing any shortcomings, resolving any challenges encountered by the team, and motivating the team to continue putting in efforts.
OKRs are an impressive tool to track and measure the progress of organizational objectives. But there are times when things can go haywire. And to prevent such events, it is best to follow OKR best practices that help avoid any hiccups and inefficiencies in the process.
Onboard An OKR Champion
Creating and implementing OKRs is a challenging process, and many organizations fall prey to poor OKR adoption and implementation. To successfully incorporate OKRs into the culture and business, it is crucial to have an OKR champion. A person with expertise in the adoption, rollout, modulation, and review of the OKRs helps channelize and streamline the processes effectively. Furthermore, having an OKR champion will reduce the risk of running an incompetent and ineffective process.
Communicate OKR Benefits
To get the full range of benefits from the OKR methodology and framework, it is important that every employee in the organization is well informed about the process. By communicating the OKR benefits through different communication channels, leadership can ensure higher adoption and more visibility in the system.
Autonomy To Set Employee OKRs
Involving employees in setting their own OKRs increases their accountability, transparency, and trust towards the organization. Moreover, it will help employees choose the projects, tasks, and challenges that are more suitable for their skills and professional growth. Managers can hold discussions with the team members to understand their expectations and help them align their OKRs towards organizational objectives.
Hold Organization-wide OKR Review
To understand the overall impact of the OKR on the organization, it is important to hold an organization-wide review that discusses the achievements, setbacks, and improvement measures for the next OKR cycle. Such reviews provide OKR champions with insights to understand where the process is lacking and to suggest changes. It is important to note that the whole workforce should be part of the review meeting to incorporate the values of OKRs in them.
Mix Of Aspirational And Committed OKRs
As discussed in the previous sections, having the right mix of committed and aspirational OKRs keeps the workforce motivated and drives them towards organizational success. Additionally, labeling OKRs as committed and aspirational will allow employees to understand how much effort they have to put into a particular objective.
Incorporate Learning In The Next OKR Cycle
The weekly check ins and quarterly OKR reviews provide valuable insights to the leadership to enhance the effectiveness of the process. Before setting the OKRs for the next cycle, it is important to look back at the feedback collected from the process and the managers and integrate them into the system.
Use Both Top Down And Bottom Up OKRs
An organization that is new to OKRs will naturally use the top-down cascading method, meaning the objectives are set up by the leadership and they trickle down to different teams and finally to the individual OKRs. On the other hand, the bottom-up approach allows employees to set up OKRs and convince the management of their adoption.
Much research has pointed to using a mix of both top-down and bottom-up approaches. It helps in keeping up the motivation and involvement of employees in their work and also ensures the leadership vision and objectives are met.
Performance Review, Promotion, And Compensation
The purpose of creating OKRs is to align the efforts of the resources in reaching organizational objectives.But some organizations make the mistake of tying compensation, promotions, and performance reviews to OKRs, which can kill their essence of transparency and accountability. Employee performance evaluation is an entirely different aspect of a business and must not be married to OKRs.
The above pointers help to avoid common OKR mistakes that organizations make while creating and implementing OKRs.
Setting up OKRs can be challenging for first timers. But with experience and due diligence, one can create OKRs that bring in results. It is important to refer back to the past OKRs to avoid mistakes. Additionally, OKR examples can also provide quick insights to set up goals for various departments and teams.
Below are some of the OKR examples to kick start the process.
OKR Examples For HR
Objectives
Key Results
Create an employee wellness program
Organize 5 mental health sessions per quarter for every team
Organize 5 physical wellness sessions per quarter for every team
Conduct an online webinar per month on physical and mental health
Increase employee registration for physical fitness activities by 50%
Improved training and development opportunities for managers
Increase manager enrollment in learning courses by 70%
Ensure 100% course completion rate by quarter end
Increase assignment submission rate by 80% for every course
OKR Examples For Information Technology
Objectives
Key Results
Enhance client data security measures
Reduce security breaches by 100% by the quarter end
Conduct 5 cyber security training sessions throughout the organization
Increase compliance score by 50 points by the end of the quarter
Reduce website and application load time
Decrease server response time by 3 seconds.
Increase code quality through code optimization from 2 to 3 by quarter end.
Product Management OKR Examples
Objectives
Key Results
Increase the count of daily active users on the application
Enhance the notification feature to increase daily notification from 1 to 10
Provide an application widget to directly sync the user’s calendar for the upcoming webinars
Increase reliability and scalability of the product for external stakeholders
Increase database security by 10% through the latest updates and code enhancements
Ensure all new joinees take mandatory data security training within 60 days of their induction
Resolve all outstanding client issues by the end of the quarter.
Sales OKR Examples
Objectives
Key Results
Increase quarterly revenue to $500,000
Work to increase lead conversion from 5% to 15% by the quarter end
Increase customer upsell from 7% to 10% by the end of the quarter
Increase customer acquisition in the APQC region from 10% to 15%
Increase high net-worth corporate client-base
Target corporations with more than $100,000 turnover.
Increase promotional outreach from 10 to 30 clients per month.
Customer Success OKR Examples
Objectives
Key Results
Provide state of the art customer enablement tools
Implement latest updates to reduce downtime and lags by 50%
Enable query automation to reduce waiting time
Launch mandatory tool updates every month
Reduce customer response time by 50% by the end of the quarter
Increase customer involvement activities
Increase mandatory training activities from 5 to 7
Launch 7 free certification programs for inactive customers
Increase email outreach for latest guides and white-papers from 4 to 8 every month
OKR Examples For Operations
Objectives
Key Results
Increase organizational productivity
Automate file keeping, record maintenance, accounting, and bookkeeping tasks
Provide 1 training session every month to employees to reduce recurring tasks.
Incorporate learning management system to increase productivity and efficiency
Launch 5 team specific training programs every month
Ensure 80% completion rate from all the departments
Mentor and coach 5 employees from every department for managerial positions
OKRs have gained phenomenal success in the last two decades. From startups to multinationals, thousands of organizations have embraced it for reaching their ambitious and most challenging goals. Due to its simplicity in setting up and tracking key business results, many renowned leaders have used it for personal and professional success.
Technically advanced OKR software, such as Engagedly, makes it easier for quick adoption and implementation of OKRs. It offers excellent insights into understanding the progress of your important objectives and provides an execution focused approach to aligning and tracking performance outcomes across the organization.
Book a free OKR demo with our experts to explore the complete set of features of the Engagedly’s OKR software or for a free 30 min OKR consultation.
Are you aligning your employee goals with your organization’s goals? If not, 2023 is the right time to start. With your teams mostly functioning remotely or hybrid, OKRs are a great way to keep them focussed towards a common goal and achieve results.
Globally, they have become an indispensable part of performance management in organizations. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) methodology is one of the most simple and effective ways for goal setting and monitoring at workplaces.
Brief History Of OKRs
OKRs were introduced at Intel in the ’70s by Andy Grove and were made famous by John Doerr when he introduced it in Google in 1999 as a “management methodology that helps to ensure that the company focuses efforts on the same important issues throughout the organization”.
Now multiple industries across different domains such as Amazon, LinkedIn, GoPro, Salesforce, Target, Duns and Bradstreet have adopted OKRs as their goal-setting framework.
Create Your Goals
The first and most crucial step for setting up OKRs is to create business goals based on the company’s annual strategy. This step involves collaborating and brainstorming with different departments and understanding how the organization collectively will achieve the OKRs.
Remember that your OKRs should answer these two questions:
Objectives–What Do You Want To Achieve?
Key Results–How To Know If You Are Getting Closer To Achieving It?
Example:
Objective: To improve inbound lead processing by 52%
Key Results:
Website enquiries answered within 24 hours
50% sign-ups given product demonstration within first 2 days
Minimum questions on landing page to prevent customers from losing interest
Objective: Leverage product feature that is ranked most popular in the market
Key Results: The heat map of the website shows 60% of visitors focus on a primary feature of the product and the remaining on secondary features. Feedback received from customers indicates the product’s primary feature provides 2x more value.
It is important to introduce your team to the OKR methodology and give them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the whole process. While there are a number of OKR guides out there, why not go to the one that is synonymous with the term OKRs? Google has an OKR guide that will take users through history. It will help them set up and even teach them how to write actionable OKRs.
Before moving on to the next step, make sure that your teams understand why OKRs play an important role in the growth of a company and how alignment of goals works internally.
Create and Align Individual OKRs To Team / Business OKRs
Once all your teams are sufficiently familiar with the approach, encourage them to draft their own OKRs. Collaborate with them and help them create their OKRs. This can sometimes lead to conversations that help you understand your teams and their plans better. It allows employees to understand an organization’s expectations of them.
All goals need to be aligned with an organization’s goals. That is the true purpose of achievable goals and objectives. Once your employees have set their individual OKRs, align their goals with company OKRs or business goals of your company.
Now that all your teams understand the purpose of OKR methodology for goal setting and have set their individual OKRs and successfully aligned them with company OKRs, all you need to do is review these OKRs before they start working on them. Review the OKRs of all your teams and make sure that their OKRs align with the company properly.
The next step is to monitor these OKRs. You have to keep track of the progress your employees make on these OKRs in the coming days. Monitor how regularly your teams are checking in on their OKRs and keep track of their progress regularly and modify the OKRs if needed.
Did your Director just thrust his hand toward your face while you were speaking in a board meeting? Was this just to get the POV of your male colleague? We have all been there. The humiliation. The sheer unprofessionalism of that one solitary gesture. Yes, you guessed it right. Today, in this blog, we are going to dive head-on to unravel the five major gender equality challenges women leaders face in today’s global economy. We shall also try to find tips and tricks to combat these challenges and triumph!
The prejudice and discrimination, silent and sinister, have created gigantic hurdles for female leaders everywhere. In an idyllic statement, Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, professed that “In future there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.” But how far are we from that idealistic world? Why is that Utopia, where there are no gender equality challenges, still a distant dream?
Why is there such a blatant gap in employment in the workforce between men and women?
Why to this day do such rampant gender equality challenges abound?
The global women leaders summit organized by GIWPS and The Rockefeller Foundation on June 20-23, 2022 addressed the urgent need for action to advance gender equity. One of the signatories, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, announced that “Women leaders are a catalyst for change.” But this begs the question that why is the percentage of these catalysts so low in the global workforce?
A report published in 2021 highlighted that the industries with the lowest share of female representation in the overall makeup of the industry were Technology, Agriculture, Energy, Supply Chain and Transportation, Manufacturing, and Infrastructure.
Why is it that when it comes to hiring women in leadership roles, organizations take a one-step-ahead-and-two-steps-back approach?
Let’s dive right into the heart of these problems and work our way through the tips to combat the challenges.
The Vicious Loop of Bias-Prejudice-Discrimination
The biggest hurdles many female leaders face are bias, gender stereotypes, and preconceived attitudes about female capabilities. It can also be the manifestation of a socially conditioned brain thinking, “Oh! She’s just a woman. Women can’t lead.”
Prejudice against female employees is fatal in management and leadership spheres. It makes it onerous a task for female leaders to become women who climb to executive levels.
In today’s society, outright bias and discrimination are unethical and disapproved of. Many female leaders daily fight the subconscious judgment prevalent at their workplace. Therefore, they are often less likely to be promoted.
How to fight this loop?
Many businesses spend time considering how to bring in a more diverse workforce without having a clear strategy. Culture and organizational paradigms play a role in this.
More than just laws and hiring procedures, creating an inclusive workplace matters. Everyone should feel respected, heard, and be able to make a difference while advancing their careers.
The single most effective action a company can take to encourage more women leaders is to foster a culture of “Conscious Inclusion” by increasing people’s motivation, awareness, and ability for decision-making. Lead, consider, and take action with the awareness of involving everyone. Business leaders need to walk the talk and lead by example.
Even if equal compensation for women executives should be a goal, that alone is not the answer to this problem. We have Chidi King, Director of the Equality Department of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), stating a fact that women are still getting paid 23% less than men in the same jobs.
Companies must check the availability of promotions. Women are frequently found in lower-paid leadership roles. Because they have less chances to achieve “high-paying” C-suite positions, these female leaders are compensated less.
How to bridge the gap?
Samir Modi, Managing Director of Modicare Enterprises, has shared an interesting two cents on this.
He says, “Women bosses exude positivity and can handle immense responsibilities with great finesse. They also bring in natural leadership attributes such as empathy and display higher emotional quotient, which are absolutely necessary in navigating through the complex business environments that we operate in.” He also goes on to expound that one must practice equality at home to achieve it at the workplace.
The only way to master this hurdle is to make a stand.
Leaders must create a safe work environment where any employee who has put in the effort, doesn’t shy away from reaping the rewards.
People leaders and managers must be trained and groomed to be approachable so that no one hesitates to talk to their immediate supervisors.
Business leaders have a love for data. Leaders should inculcate the culture of data-oriented analysis and discussions throughout the org.
The Arduous Chain of Expectations, Rising Stress Levels, and Burnout
One of the key insights that we have unearthed from Deloitte’s Women at Work 2022 report is that almost half of the women polled report feeling burned out, and 53% report that their stress levels are higher now than they were a year ago. This has, thus, become a major player in the gender equality challenges that we perceive worldwide.
Only 43% of people feel comfortable discussing mental health issues at work. The “always on” culture is still prevalent. Just over one-third of women evaluate their ability to switch off from work as bad or very poor. 42% of that group are concerned that their professional advancement will be hampered if they are not always available.
The question that pops into our mind is a resounding ‘Why?’.
Why is it that women leaders and workforce are not able to adapt to and adopt this ‘hustle culture’ with aplomb?
There are multilinear narratives to answer that. The major factors are:
There are frequently less demands placed on female leaders than on their male colleagues. Even in senior management roles, women are more likely to report feeling compelled to:
-Balance being liked and respected
-Overcome assumptions
-Deal with gender-related expectations
These lead to a constant condition of walking on a tightrope, especially for women leaders.
Furthermore, global research continues to show that women often have lesser career advancement opportunities and are less likely to be assigned “authoritative” roles.
Even brilliant women leaders, thus, feel the need to constantly prove their mettle to survive in the corporate jungle.
While the hybrid method of working offers advantages, such as the ability for many to keep the flexibility that remote working can provide, it also raises the possibility of exclusion for those who are not physically there. Nearly 60% of women who work in hybrid contexts believe they have been left out of significant meetings, and nearly half claim they do not have enough exposure to leaders, a crucial factor in career advancement and sponsorship.
Companies must set the bar high enough and control unfair demands if they are sincere about supporting a culture that empowers female workers.
Women must be given appropriate tasks and well-deserved promotions to prove their leadership ability.
The best way to promote career advancement for women is to ensure equal access to promotions and new leadership positions.
Mentorship programs and development strategies will be a huge boost to their careers and network.
The Oppression of Sexual Harassment and Microaggressions
Yes, even after the mega-publicized and still ongoing #metoo movement, there still exists gender-based harassment at every nook and cranny of today’s global economy.
Women who hold leadership positions are sometimes thought to be less deserving than their male counterparts. This may result in decreased collaboration and unprofessional behavior from people toward female leaders. One explanation for this is that women in positions of authority are more likely to encounter a range of unfavorable situations, such as sexual harassment, discrimination, microaggressions, unconscious bias, etc.
As women leaders advance toward higher positions in management and leadership, they face the most traumatic hurdle of the gender barriers in the workplace, which is sexual harassment. This demon is like the mythical monster Hydra, with many ugly heads, like:
Sexual animosity
Undesirable body language or gestures
Derogatory statements or innuendos
Lewd and salacious intent and attempts
The Deloitte report divulges that the majority of women (59%) have experienced harassment (such as unwanted physical advances or repeated disparaging comments) and/or microaggressions (such as being interrupted or talked over, being patronized, and so on) over the past year at work, an increase over the 52% who reported experiencing harassment and/or microaggressions in 2021.
To deal with the harassment, many women are compelled to leave their professions, switch careers, or cut back on their work hours. Such behaviors could compel individuals to pass up important opportunities and further impede their job growth.
How to battle this?
Business leaders worldwide need to, rather, should be forced to implement anti-harassment training for each and every vertical of their companies. But, people have a tendency to be deaf as a post to the message conveyed in training and workshops. So, conducting sessions won’t do. Leaders need to set an example.
A zero-tolerance policy needs to be prioritized and set.
Lenient work culture and attitude toward harassment encourages such lewd advances more. Transgressors should be dealt with utmost severity and punishment.
Ignoring the victim’s complaint leads to a betrayal of trust and further shatters the victim’s morale. This should never happen. Every organization must have an anti harassment committee which needs to hear both parties and pass on fair judgment.
The Uphill Climb Toward Becoming a C-Suite Leader
“One of the greatest gender equality challenges that our women leaders face these days is making their way to the sacred C-suite. More and more women are bagging the roles of managers and supervisors, but walking in the hallowed walls of C-suite in the corporate world is still a distant dream for many female leaders today.”, says Aishwarya Khan Bhaduri, the Marketing Manager at Engagedly.
The glaring factors we stumbled upon, while doing a root cause analysis, are: the significant lack of mentorship and preconceived notions.
Anyone who has held a position in a huge organization is aware of the value of sponsors and mentors in advancing one’s career. Men still outperform women when it comes to creating a strong professional network, though. In certain circumstances, women are over-mentored and under-sponsored.
According to Dr. Konrad, an Ivey Academy professor, research reveals that people are much less inclined to recognize women’s expertise than they do men’s.
“Decision-makers at the highest levels in the largest, most-powerful business organizations continue to be men,” Dr. Konrad says. “Men prefer to be led by other men, and show a clear anti-female bias in their ratings of leadership effectiveness.”
How to scale up?
Leaders should drive toward helping promising female leaders break the proverbial glass ceiling and rise to the executive ranks.
Every vertical in an organization should have advocates, mentors, and sponsors for guidance.
Women in the C-suite must not be reluctant to participate in discussions about modifying current procedures and structures in order to foster a more inclusive environment.
Each and every leader today should imbibe the mantra of ‘be the change to make the change’ and throw away all preconceived notions of gender bias that have been mentally conditioned since times immemorial.
A big no-no to the culture of patronizing the ‘little woman’. Gender equality will then be a predominant truth and not a challenge.
Women leaders need to empower themselves and remember that their worst adversary is equivocation. They need to know what they want and take the bull by its horns.
General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra shared her encouragement for women in the workplace by pleading with all women employees to “Find your voice. Have a point of view.” “Too often”, she said, “women are discouraged from speaking up, which can close the door to future opportunities.”
Many businesses are ignorant of the gender equality challenges that women encounter at work. The only effective approach to learn is to evaluate the culture of your company, then figure out how to improve the culture and provide female leaders with the resources they need.
Leena Nair, CEO, Chanel, equivocates that “to create a balance we need to change the men, the women and the culture.” Before joining Chanel, she was the Chief HR Officer at Unilever where she in her own words, “…feel especially honored in steering Unilever to a more balanced future.
As a woman who has experienced being in the minority, I have empathy for anyone who feels marginalized. I take it personally.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What are the top five challenges faced by female team members?
Ans. Female team members face quite a few challenges at the workplace. A few them would be:
Gender discrimination and prejudice
Lack of acknowledgment for hard work
Opinions and ideas not being valued
Sexual harassment and other types of microaggressions
Anxiety
Q2. How does gender inequality affect leadership?
Ans. Women are seriously underrepresented in leadership. Authoritative roles in decision-making and management are, often, not assigned to women leaders.
Q3. What is the best solution for gender inequality?
Ans. Here are the top five solutions to battle gender equality challenges at the workplace:
People want different things — it’s no secret. Depending on their social and economic status, education level, or unique preference, every person has their own set of priorities. And it is these priorities that determine what they want out of a job.
But while we, as a society, may be aware that people need and want different things, the truth is that modern management strategies still haven’t figured out that there’s one considerable obstacle to leading a team to success: age.
Because 19% of the modern workforce is actively disengaged (Gallup’s technical term for being miserable at work), it’s easy to conclude that great leaders need to find new ways to bring workers together. And that’s not just for the sake of organizational success but also to achieve higher job satisfaction levels, which, in turn, drive company-wide results.
So, if you’re a small business owner or manager looking to do what’s best for their multigenerational team, here are the best strategies that will allow your team to thrive.
Understand What Drives Workplace Satisfaction for Your Team
As you work towards developing your leadership style that will encourage success, you have to find out one thing: what is it that makes your employees happy?
By taking the time to understand your team and analyzing employees’ feedback to identify any discrepancies in terms of priorities, you can adjust your leadership style, set team goals, and even encourage your workforce to discover new meaning in their day-to-day tasks to make everyone happier and more productive.
Obviously, the best way to understand your multigenerational team is to conduct a survey and ask about their top priorities at work. However, if you don’t have the time or resources to do that, you can still find plenty of resources on what people want to get from their jobs.
In July 2019, SurveyMonkey and CNBC conducted an online survey asking people what made them happy at the office. The results revealed that most workers’ job satisfaction was boosted by finding meaning in their work. But it’s worth knowing that monetary compensation, autonomy, development opportunities, and recognition also played significant roles in helping people feel satisfied with their work.
And a recent article from Flamingo collected data from multiple resources, identifying the five most desired employee benefits. According to the company’s research, these include health insurance, PTO, retirement plans, flexible work, and wellness programs, and the guide gives plenty of great advice on how to provide these benefits and what to expect in return.
Define Communication Preferences and Expectations
One of the greatest difficulties for multigenerational teams is that every age group has specific preferences regarding the proper way to communicate at work.
And, sure, it may not seem that significant whether you assign tasks via email, face-to-face, chats, or Slack. However, research shows that defining communication guidelines (and stating why they need to be followed) might be one of the most impactful things you can change to lead your team to success.
According to a survey conducted in 2017, individuals over the age of 55 have a strong preference for voice communication. Conversely, younger employees (aged 18-44) favor digital communication methods like text and email.
So, an older employee may find it oddly strange (or even disrespectful) that their manager prefers to send them an email regarding a relevant matter than a call. Yet, data shows that over 20% of people still think it’s inappropriate to call someone without texting them first.
The good news is, leading a multigenerational team does not have to mean communication struggles. In fact, the solution can be as simple as doing a couple of easy things.
First, ensure that your employees know what to expect from you regarding team communication. If you insist on managing projects through online tools so that all information is easily accessed by those working remotely, just say so. Your employees will understand.
Secondly, find out people’s unique preferences. If you need to communicate with someone one-on-one, ask them how they prefer to do it. Then, be prepared to meet them halfway.
Yes, older employees can change their way of thinking and accept modern, informal, or faster communication methods they’re not entirely comfortable with. But, if you can do them the courtesy of having important conversations face-to-face, you’ll show that you’re a leader who cares about them and nurtures intimacy and trust, both of which are crucial for a team striving for success.
Identify Strengths and Encourage Stimulating Work
A recent survey from Gallup revealed that as many as 58% of job seekers think that the way to achieve job satisfaction is to be allowed to do what they do best.
So, as a leader of a multigenerational team, you need to understand that one of the most impactful things you can do to drive success is to identify your employee’s strengths and encourage them to do work they find stimulating.
The fact that your employees belong to different generations gives you the advantage of having multiple points of view on the same topics. Plus, working with a diverse group of people could also allow you the flexibility to find out what your workers love to do. You can offer them the opportunity to spend at least a portion of their workday on tasks that feel meaningful (or downright exciting).
For instance, if you check out a business like Eachnight, you’ll see how well multi-generational (and multi-disciplinary) teams can work together to solve consumer pain points.
Because it targets people of all ages, Eachnight understands that producing valuable content requires different approaches. And, thanks to the fact that its team includes a large number of people — from well-established and experienced surgeons to health and wellness coaches to young content creators — the brand is capable of creating unique resources. For example, the mattress quiz shown below is a piece of interactive content that none of the company’s competitors offer. And the way Eachnight acquired it is by simply allowing employees to do what they do best and what they find exciting.
Create Opportunities for Bonding and Collaboration
If the above example teaches us anything, it’s that success must be preceded by collaboration. So, if your goal is to successfully lead your multigenerational team, it might not be a bad idea to set aside a generous amount of time for team building.
Now, you can choose a host of team-building activities, depending on whether you want to help people bond, encourage creative thinking, or nurture their problem-solving skills. But the one thing you should remember is that, in general, people form stronger bonds when they have the opportunity to interact face-to-face.
With this in mind, it might not be a bad idea to insist on your entire team coming together at least once a year.
Yes, getting everyone in the same room might sound like it’s outside your budget. But there are always ways to work around financial constraints. So, if you’re thinking about organizing a team retreat to encourage employees to build closer relationships, make sure you do your best to plan something fun, and rest assured that the results will more than justify the cost.
Don’t Neglect Your Own Growth as a Leader
Finally, as you explore ways to help your multigenerational team to do better, don’t forget that your role as a leader is just as important as your employees’ role in achieving success.
With this in mind, you must work on your leadership skills as diligently as you work towards helping your employees achieve the desired results.
Explore resources that will open your eyes to new leadership techniques. Be prepared to gather and accept employee feedback (yes, even if it’s negative). And learn to acknowledge your mistakes and commit yourself to always trying to do better.
Is perfect leadership a destination you will ever reach? Most likely not. But rest assured that if your team sees how hard you are working on improving yourself, they will be just as inspired to invest in their own professional growth. Moreover, they’ll be more ready to widen their horizons, learn new skills, and collaborate with peers whose points of view they may not entirely understand (yet).
In Closing
There you have it, some of the best tips for leading multigenerational teams to success.
As you can see, the best way to bring people together, regardless of age, doesn’t necessarily depend on technical tools or strategies. Instead, the most impactful thing you can do is practice open and honest communication and encourage everyone to keep an open mind.
As a leader of a multigenerational team, don’t be afraid to do things differently and disregard age-ist stereotypes. Work with your team to build strong relationships, encourage lifelong learning in your organization, and accept that our differences aren’t an obstacle but an opportunity to come together and do something great.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is a multigenerational workplace?
Ans. A multigenerational workplace includes employees from different generations such as baby boomers generation, Generation X, the millennial generational, and Generation Z.
Q2. What are some of the challenges in a multigenerational workplace?
Ans. Some of the challenges include:
Communication issues
Negative stereotypes
Varying employee expectation
Q3. What are the significant benefits of a multigenerational workplace?
Ans. The benefits of a multigenerational workforce are:
Learning/mentoring opportunities
Knowledge transfer
Problem-solving abilities
Different perspectives
Unique relationships
This article is written by Natasha Lane.
Natasha is a lady of a keyboard and one hell of a geek. She has been working for, and collaborating with, individual clients and companies of all sizes for more than a decade. Natasha specializes in writing about design, branding, digital marketing, and business growth. She is also addicted to art in all its forms and grilled tofu.
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