Author: dayoff

Recently small businesses have been blooming all around the globe, managing finances, HR management, and employees’ requests can become a difficult task. Small businesses search for ways to make their business management become simpler and easier so here are 7 incredibly useful software tools for small businesses.

1-Accounting software: Xero

Overview:

Accounting is a time and effort-consuming task, Xero is an online accounting software. Xero accounting is a cloud-based software. Xero is mainly developed for small businesses. Xero allows you to track and pay bills and get an overview about finances in general and cash flow. It makes tracking expenses easier and gives you a detailed view of your expenses spending. You can connect your bank account to Xero and set up your transactions securely and bank feeds. Accepting payments can be an effort and time-consuming job, so Xero makes it possible to claim payments rapidly by connecting to E-wallets and connecting them to Xero. Xero also helps in tracking your projects. Multicurrency payment option, Xero has multicurrency payment acceptance which makes it more flexible for any international dealing.

Payment plan:

Xero has 3 payment plans depending on what you will need in your small business, it also offers a 30-day free trial.  

Customer support:

Xero has 24/7 online customer support.

2-Small business communication: Slack

Overview:

Making decisions and communication in the workplace, slack makes it easier to communicate with your own team and teams at other businesses. Voice calls, video calls, and also messaging are available to communicate with your teams or other teams from other businesses. You can connect slack to multiple programs like google drive and Office 365 and many more to make video conferencing easier. High security and complete control of your data is also available in slack.

Payment plan:

Slack has 3 payment plans to choose from and also has a free trial with limited features

3-Best online payment software: PayPal

Overview:

E-wallets have become greatly used in our time; PayPal can make payday easier by securely transferring the payrolls of employees to their PayPal accounts. PayPal is easy to use, and millions of customers use it around the world. PayPal can also help in accepting payments.

Payment plan:

PayPal doesn’t have a free trial, and it also takes a certain fee for transferring money

Customer support

PayPal offers technical support in the forms of emails; texts and they have a forum.

4-Best marketing software: MailChimp

Overview:

Making an entrance to the market from the start can be challenging at first, MailChimp is the best marketing option for small businesses. MailChimp has proven its effectiveness,12 million businesses rely on MailChimp to do their marketing. MailChimp sends the right messages on the right channels like social media ads, emails, and Landing pages. MailChimp also offers to build a website for your small business to prosper your E-commerce.

Payment plan:

MailChimp offers a free version for small businesses with less than 2000 subscribers, this plan allows you to form landing pages and build a website.

Customer support:

Email support is available for the free version and the paid version, while voice support and chat support are available for the paid version.

5-Best project management software: Trello

Overview:

Project organizing is hard and requires a lot of effort to do, Trello is a project management software that organizes your projects in an organized and easy way to understand. Trello helps you track due dates, completed projects, and to-do projects. You can also attach photos, files, and documents to your projects. Trello is available for IOS and Android.

Payment plan:

Trello offers a free version with limited features and has many flexible payment plans depending on your needs in your small business

Customer support:

For customer support, Trello has a help site and a community for the most answered questions and for fellow users to help each other. Trello also has customer support to answer questions.

6-Best PTO tracking software: Day Off

Overview:

Tracking your employees’ leaves, absences, and paid time off is exhausting, so a PTO tracking software will be very helpful. Day off is a PTO tracking software that has a very easy-to-use interface with step-by-step help in creating your team and adding your employees. It also presents a mobile app that makes it easier for you and your employees. One of the best features of Day Off is that it presents push notifications to notify you of any leave requests and notify your employees if their requests are accepted or not. It gives you and your employees a calendar to monitor the workflow, vacations, and time off.

Payment plan:

Day Off has a free version with the basic features to try out the software, for the full version 1 USD is paid per employee per month which is a great price for what the software offers.

7-Best documenting software: Microsoft 365

Overview:

Microsoft 365 is a software that everybody is familiar with, it helps in many things, making reports, presentations, and documents in general. Despite having a pc version for when at home or at the office Microsoft 365 has a mobile version and an online version, this helps you when you are on the go to see some reports or presentations and many other features. Microsoft 365 provides you with Excel, Word, Publisher, Access, and PowerPoint.

Payment plan:

Microsoft 365 offers 4 payment plans for business; this makes it flexible for the needs of your small business. It offers a free month trail for any plan of your choice which is helpful to determine which plan suits you. Microsoft 365 also has a family plan which offers up to 6 licenses, this plan can be very economical if your small business doesn’t contain more than 6 people including yourself

Customer support:

Microsoft 365 has a FAQ section to help answer your questions if they have been asked before. Microsoft 365 has billing support, and you can also contact customer support. 

Being alienated in the workplace is the most common fear that newly hired employees face. Not fitting in, and lack of engagement are all hindrances that face the newly hired employees at first. It is the responsibility of the employer to help the newly hired overcome these hindrances. So here is how to plan a successful employee orientation program.

Why create an employee orientation program?

1.     Reduces employee turnover

Newly hired employees commonly feel left out in the workplace and can’t fit in easily. When newly hired employees don’t feel they fit in, it makes them think of leaving the workplace. So, an employee orientation program comes into action to reduce the issue of not fitting in. You have to be cautious about this reason because this reason is the most common reason for employee turnover.

2.     Saves time and increases efficiency

Your HR management should organize an orientation that sums up all the main topics of your company. Giving the newly hired a brief about the current employees, how to run the work, and teaching them the policies of your company. This will save effort and rapidly increase the productivity of your company.

Creating an employees orientation program main reason, is to make the newly hired employees comfortable around your company and be excited about working. Here is a complete guide on how to create a successful new employee orientation program.

1.     Planning your program

Putting a detailed plan for your orientation program can be very helpful. You have to appoint certain employees at your company to be responsible for the newly hired at the orientation to answer their questions. Design a timetable with all the activities that will be made during the orientations, and the time of each activity, by doing this it will make the implementation of the orientation program easier.

2.     Take your current employees’ opinions

Let your current employees help you with some of their ideas and opinions, your current employees were newly hired before and attended an orientation program once, so their opinions will be of grave importance and help you in organizing a successful new employee orientation program.

3.     Reduce their tension

The first day at a new job is the hardest for a newly hired employee, so it is your responsibility to help your newly hired employees get over it. The most important thing in a successful employee orientation program is to give your new employees a warm greeting. You have to introduce the newly hired to your current employees and let your employees greet them as well. Before the orientation program, you can send them a greeting email and tell them that you are delighted to work with them and that you are waiting to know them better during the orientation program. This will decrease their tension significantly.

4.      Tell them about the company and its policies.

During the orientation program, you can give a speech to the newly hired employees about the company’s history, targets, and main objectives. Your speech can be an inspiration to the newly hired and excite them to work at your company. Go over your company’s policies as well because they are of grave importance. Tell the newly hired about the holidays, working hours arrival times, and give them answers to all the frequently asked question

5.     Give them a tour

Giving your newly hired employees a tour around the workplace and introducing them to their supervisors will bring them up to speed and break the barrier of shyness to deal with their supervisors for the first time. Tell the newly hired about their new jobs and how to execute them.

6.     Don’t overload them with information

During the orientation, you will tell the newly hired about their jobs and how they are done, but don’t overload their brains with information. The newly hired need to break the tension at first so during the orientation they aren’t ready for much information, so you have to look out for how much information you give them. Answer any questions being asked and give them time between the activities you planned to eat a snack or drink, this will help the grasp much more information.

7.     Give your newly hired a tour in your virtual workplace

Digitalization has done a great role in making our life easier, now companies use numerous software to make their jobs easier. You have to introduce the software that your company uses to the newly hired such as PTO tracker software, Employee self-service software, and many more. Create accounts for the newly hired to make them feel included and teach them how to use each software.

8.     One on One time

Providing one on one time between the newly hired and their managers is very important. This will save you a lot of time and effort. Scheduling one on time between the newly hired and their managers will break the tension between the two parties. That will also help the newly hired get the hang of their new jobs faster.

9.     Take their feedback

At the end of the orientation take the comments of the newly hired. Their comments will be of great help in the next orientation programs.

After orientation

Don’t let the onboarding of your newly hired employees end after the orientation and their first day. The newly hired may take a few months to reach their full potential. You should keep an eye on the newly hired and offer them a hand every while to make them produce the best work they can offer. Ask the newly hired regularly about how they are doing in their new jobs and if they are comfortable or not in the workplace. Try as possible to provide the newly hired with an environment that helps them be creative and feel free to express their opinions. You should ask the newly hired employees after the orientation if they have any unanswered questions and repeat the questions a couple of times in case anyone is shy to ask.

After you are done with the tedious recruiting process, now it is time to welcome them. An employee handbook is like a welcome guide for new employees. It is not only a tool for their orientation but can also be a guide for future references.

Your handbook not only creates the tone for the company’s culture, goal, atmosphere, and ground rules, but it also demonstrates your purpose to communicate effectively. Your handbook should be coherent. Moreover, some components of the handbook, such as rewards, remuneration, benefits, and a safe workplace, are critical for employee retention.

First Things First!

The opening to any employee handbook can be a description of your business or a welcoming message. Still, it should not be an attempt to put the staff in their places. One of the first things to include in an employee handbook is the company overview. It is like showing a visiting card when you first meet someone. The handbook should contain detailed information about the company, its history, initial plans, and its operations in this section. You need to be clear about the company goals to strive to achieve them.

Mention the mission and vision you have for your company. If you resonate with your employees about the company, it will help build a trusting relationship. Your employees can connect with the workplace better once they understand the work itself.

Code of Conduct

Even though there are some universal ethics to maintain when it comes to workplaces, it is important to have a written code of conduct. Your code of conduct should contain everything a new employee can have questions about. Code of conduct includes pointers on the kind of dresses employees should wear, which behaviors will not be tolerated, which devices and gadgets are allowed, lunch breaks, guidelines for using a substance, and so on.

A code of conduct is a set of guidelines for the workplace. It would ease your freshly recruited employees’ nerves to have a clear set of guidelines on hand.

Benefits and Compensation

This is a popular portion, and we can guarantee that it is among the first pieces that the employee will read thoroughly. They want to understand not just when and how they will be reimbursed but also the performance assessment process. Also, they want to grasp the benefits and corporate incentives for which they are qualified.

PTO (Paid Time Off), insurance coverage, health insurance, annual bonuses, retirement plans, performance bonuses, etc., should at least be mentioned in the employee handbook. You do not have to go into details for all of these in the handbook, but make sure to include the basics. Your employee should know the benefits and perks they will enjoy once they get on board with your company.

Legal Clause

Employers must include legal policies in their employee handbooks. Employees should know that your company works in accordance with the law and that any kind of breaking of those laws will not be tolerated. Also, make sure to include the anti-discrimination clause as well.

NDA and Conflict Resolution

A company has people coming from different backgrounds. When there are differences in opinions and viewpoints, one should expect conflicts to arise. Instead of dreading such disputes, figure out effective ways to resolve them.

Whenever there is a conflict within the company, the chain of command comes to light. Employees want to know when to involve the supervisor and seek out anyone from top management. Establish conflict resolution policies for your employees to follow. Most of the disagreements would be resolved among the employees themselves. Only a handful of cases require top management to be involved. Also, make sure to include the consequences for disrespecting any conflict-resolution policies. Your employees should know the risks they would be taking.

Your employees must sign an NDA beforehand. So even if there are conflicts, your company is at no risk of internal information being leaked.

Workplace Safety

People want a sense of security in their household and place of work. Explain the measures you take to create a safe tangible and intangible work environment to minimize confusion and a potential lawsuit. Whether you mention regulations and protocols for operating machinery or the procedure for reporting sexual harassment or dealing with bullying charges, your employees should feel confident that they work in a safe setting. That feeling of safety can boost an employee’s morale.

Why You Need an Employee Handbook

Many companies decide to create an employee handbook because they believe it might effectively reduce disputes among employees. The precise moment varies depending on the company. Still, suppose you believe your small business has grown so that disagreements are likely to arise. In that case, it’s generally a good idea to create a handbook. That’s one of the many reasons to get an employee handbook no matter which sector your company operates in.

The most important reason for every organization to have an employee handbook is establishing benefit programs and personnel standards. It helps eliminate confusion and offers your team a plan to follow if there is ever a dispute or rebuttal that requires top management to intervene. It also provides balanced job prospects.

Also, a detailed employee handbook protects your organization legally if anybody ever disputes whether you’ve effectively explained the company policies or not.

Final Thoughts

After completing the primary elements of your handbook, include a brief summary of the book’s objective, a key contact for any inquiries, a warning that regulations might change, and an acknowledgment signature line. Make it a point to express how pleased you are to have the employees on board.

The employee handbook is not a legal document. A guidebook should properly define your policies without getting carried away with information. It doesn’t have to be too lengthy or too complex.

Every user experience is multifaceted. It takes organizations years to fully mature and delivers excellent results. However, you can reap significant short and long-term benefits with the best Employees Self Service practices. Let’s take a look!

10 Best Practices for a Successful Implementation

Your company can achieve this sustainable commitment through continuous refinement. Only then can you exceed the expectation of your users. Make small, incremental changes to witness larger ones.

1. Make Self-Service Easy

If users cannot locate the self-service area, does the functionality exist? Try to create a system that is accessible. Increase and encourage the use of assisted channels. Your team will be frustrated otherwise.

2. Empower Users

A company with successful implementation is the one that makes users feel confident and empowered. Therefore, usability is crucial for its success.

Once you empower your users, you will have increased adoption rates. In addition, there will be more user loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising.

Avoid displaying excessive information. You will overwhelm your users otherwise. Focus on simplicity. Add meaningful and valuable content. Remove anything that doesn’t add meaning to your platform. Hide the unimportant features.

Focus on the probabilities. Don’t offer multiple choices to your user. Instead, provide the possible decisions to help your user—incorporate images and icons for easy recognition. Most importantly, focus on functionality and device compatibility.

3. Understand Your Users’ Problems

Goals are critical when developing a self-service strategy. Organizations often misconceive the user experience. They typically want to resolve a problem but fail to do so.

Resolution rates play a huge role in an organization’s understanding of problems. Therefore, you should better know potential problems to help resolve the issues.

Here’s what you can anticipate with self-service platforms:

1. The user may want to report an issue. It could also be on behalf of someone else.
2. The user may need software or hardware access.
3. The company’s HR personnel make requests on behalf of an employee.
4. A user may request someone for assistance when self-service isn’t sufficient.

Don’t give into building a platform based on the internal workings of your department. The existing workflow may not be relevant elsewhere. Moreover, it may not match the mental model of other users or departments.

4. Provide Relatable Content

Create content that is easy to read and write. Don’t use jargon. Stick to the point. Users like skimming between pages. They don’t like heavy content. Use graphics to catch their attention. Use videos or bold texts. Make the users glance again.

More importantly, good content is crucial for an excellent user experience. You don’t have to be technical or educated to reach out to them. Make sure your content is readable. An eighth-grader should be able to read it!

These content guidelines will increase the effectiveness of your content. It will be easy to translate them too. So you can serve a multilingual customer base. The more complicated the content is, the more poorly the software will translate it.

5. Provide Multi-Channel Help Desk Choices

Offering a unified experience across multiple channels will elevate the success of self-service. Therefore, it should always be the primary and only business solution. However, uptake on this channel can be slow.

Here are some of the channels you may pick:

A.    Web Self-Services

Directing interactions to web self-services will result in high success rates. Users can resolve their problems quickly and effectively. As a result, the organization can improve its user relationship while lowering costs on other channels.

B.    Chat

This channel offers a powerful way to connect with users. It passively helps users engage with support issues. Real-time interactions will provide better engagement. Otherwise, users may abandon the self-service experience.

C.    Phone

Phones can help users gain immediate information. This platform also offers a combination of the two services.

D.    E-mail

This channel allows strong communication between the user and the organization. This channel is helpful for low-priority issues. It also enables users to respond when it’s most convenient for them.

6. Optimize User Feedback

You’ve poured blood, sweat, and tears into developing your self-service platform. You want it to be the absolute best. However, you won’t find flaws as others will. As a result, it’s easier to be biased. This gap is why you need user feedback.

You will get to know how to improve your self-service application. Use a multitude of tools and surveys to make your platform successful. Detect the changes in personality behavior and take actions accordingly.

7. Measure the Performance

Users dislike taking the path of low resistance. They don’t want a slow, awkward self-service experience. Your users will abandon the platform like this. Make sure all the graphics are optimized for websites and cellphones.

A self-service session is said to be successful if no problem is reported. FAQs or articles should resolve all issues. However, you shouldn’t focus on this. A user may have stumbled across an answer and given up in the process.

8. Offer a Personalized Experience

People seek personalized experiences. Consider the information you can already use. Retrieve data you already have access to. Personalized experiences build loyalty among users. On the other hand, people don’t like repeatedly inputting information.

Here’s what you can do:

1. First, don’t force users to re-enter information. It’s aggravating and annoying.
2. Automatically populate data fields. Make use of similar information.  Allow users to edit and modify the content accordingly.
3. Clearly label the mandatory fields. Make the forms simple so users can easily navigate them.

9. Improve Accessibility Support

The information must be accessible. Your platform should support a variety of browsers and platforms. Try incorporating assistive technology for users with disabilities. Your self-service content should have maximum reach.

Conclusion

Employee self-service platforms are crucial in today’s organization. A typical organization needs to be in a constant state of improvement.

Here are some of the basics: Don’t create content that is difficult to find. Don’t make cluttered or crowded content. Make every interaction meaningful. Make use of customer feedback. Elevate the content accordingly.

Adopting all nine practices can be intimidating at first. It’s an overwhelming process. The organization takes years to implement these practices successfully. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Move slowly and steadily. Your company will flourish in no time!

Handling a team can be rather stressful and tiring work if the team members often complain of not being highlighted or appreciated enough. It can be even more problematic if their negative feelings hamper the output itself, such as your marketing team not coming up with the best ideas because they feel the team leader does not appreciate their work or that the company itself undermines the effort put in. In such cases, employee recognition strategies are one of the best solutions for displaying your gratitude or your company to your team or employees in general. These methods often lead to a creative and motivated workforce as your employees feel appreciated and encouraged towards work. Any monotony is outweighed in the long run.

What are Employee Recognition Strategies?

The term “employee recognition” refers to the method of showing gratitude or appreciation towards the employees for their significant contributions to the company’s betterment, which can include achieving the targets or certain goals set by the company or firm in either the long or short term. Employee recognition strategies are numerous methods or ways that can be used by the company or firm to highlight employees, make them feel more valued, and help the growth of the firm itself in the long term.

What are the Strategies You Can Use!

1. Empower Employees with Monetary Rewards

One of the most effective, not to mention successful, is awarding your employees with monetary rewards. This may include an increase in salary if a certain target is reached or giving out commissions if goals are met at the earliest. This will provide a sense of importance to your employees, as their efforts will be recognized more.

2.     Give Bonuses and Prizes

In addition to monetary awards, another effective method is bonuses and prizes. This may include festival bonuses such as a new year or Christmas bonuses, or even any holiday bonus in the country your company is operating in. Also, involving prizes creates an incentive for your employees to work hard and tap the potential in them. Such a prize may include “Employee of the Month” or “Best Employee,” or a day off which may attract the employees towards focusing on work even more.

3.     Stand out from the Crowd

By thinking outside of the box, you can make your company the best workplace in the world. This means approaching your employees with various other benefits that make them feel valued and important.

An example can include adding a caregiver section to the office for your female employees who have recently given birth. It can also include a suitable kitchen with appliances that are convenient for your employees to get coffee or tea during breaks or a hangout area for your employees to just have fun.

4.     Start Making Opportunities Available

Furthermore, providing more opportunities and chances to those you have recently joined can create an incentive for beginners to be better at their tasks and perform well as they feel hopeful about working hard. Because they can achieve better opportunities by working hard and producing a fruitful output,

5.     Increase peer-to-peer Recognition

Peer-to-peer recognition is a more modern method of employee recognition. It allows feedback to circulate from the team leader to the team and from the team members to the team leader.

It can be an adequate method of employee recognition, such as asking for individual feedback regarding your company’s progress from employees or handing out forms involving surveys being carried out to get proper feedback, as employees may not be comfortable with one-to-one feedback sessions.

6.     Offer an Incentive that Goes Above and Beyond 

There is no real limitation with employee recognition strategies when it comes to appreciating your employees’ hard work. Hence, based on your company policies, you can go above and beyond to highlight the efforts and contributions made by the employees. You may use the following methods that may be a little bit outside of your budget but can be tremendously effective if used properly.

For example, profit sharing is a method of distributing portions of profit made by the company to employees who have performed well over several years. Similarly, share distribution under market value is also a significantly effective way to encourage your employees to work extra hard for the benefit they can get.

To Conclude

Overall, employee recognition strategies are very important and practical if used properly and in a certain way that aligns with your company’s budget and targets. It also highly depends on the extent to which you require the need for an ultra-effective workforce and how much you are willing to spend, or the length you are willing to go to highlight your employees’ efforts in general.

On the other hand, the financial incentives are much more important to focus on. They can be costly and expensive, not to mention risky, to hand out shares of your own company as rewards. Hence, if you are looking towards these methods as an employer, it is best to initiate the process with non-financial incentives first.

However, suppose you are just in charge of a single team. In that case, the tactics stated above, such as awarding rewards and incentives, may be just as successful because working as a team will ultimately help the firm succeed. The employee recognition methods can also be of greater use if they are consulted with the company itself so that your team can work to its full potential.

We are all thriving every day at work and also giving time to our personal lives. And, because both aspects of our lives are crucial, one must be prioritized over the other. While we all try to balance work and professional life in neutral gear, sometimes it doesn’t stay that way. Hence, in this article, we tried to outline the different methods and ways that will enable one to have a perfectly balanced life and maintain a work-life balance, specifically listed just for you!

What is “Work-life Balance” in General?

The relationship between work and personal life is known as the work-life connection. Many aspects of one’s personal life, such as family, leisure, and health, can collide with a career. Work-life balance is a two-way street; for example, work can interfere with personal life, and personal life can interfere with work.

Hence, it is essential to strike a perfect balance between one’s career and personal life activities, as both may not always be parallel and often collide with each other, which may not be in a healthy manner.

Stress from work can often have a negative impact on one’s personal life. This may involve coming home after a very busy day and being unable to give time to family, friends, or even ourselves. Self-leisure time, along with family and friend time, is something that everyone requires to live a healthy life, and when work and personal life collide, we often sidetrack our personal lives and give in way too much in our professional lives, leading to an unhealthy lifestyle that often damages one’s mental and physical health over time.

Similarly, sometimes our emotions may intervene in our professional lives and may overtake professionalism in the work environment, often leading to being rude to colleagues or simply having a languishing feeling. Such incidents often create a negative reputation toward one image at work, which necessarily doesn’t have a significant impact, but may have its own downsides depending on the degree of rudeness and whatnot.

Thus, to solve such an issue, it is highly suggested that you focus on certain activities that will help you keep a neutral gear in your work and personal life.

Types of ‘Work-Life balance’ Activities Teams

If you are leading a team and are having a hard time managing a team well due to a lack of a certain work-life balance, then this section of the article is just for you. In this particular section, we tried to jot down various methods that can aid in achieving a perfect, or at least close to perfect, work-life balance for your team.

Taking Time Off Between Work

One of the most problematic situations is working continuously for hours without a proper break in between. According to medical science, our brains can remember things in short bursts, so working for five to six hours may not result in creative and productive output from your team at the end of the day but may lead to possible inefficiency and lack of quality content from your team.

Hence, when having teamwork, ensure you and your team are taking regular and proper breaks and time off between the busy schedule and workload assigned to the team.

Proper Planning

When working with a team, one must focus on creating a proper work and leisure plan. It may include time limits on when to stop working or take short breaks or start working. The plan should have a creative foundation that gives an equal amount of time between personal life activities and work-life to strike the right balance.

Encourage a no-work-at-home Policy after Hours

Furthermore, it is essential to keep a no-work-at-home policy. This means not starting any work after returning home or coming from work after doing hours of work in the office. Hence, keeping a no-work policy at home will give you and your members more time to spend time with family and friends instead of working another four to five hours, which will eventually lead to a very hectic life in the long run.

Work Schedule Flexibility

Work schedule flexibility should be highly focused on when understanding the productivity and other variables of your team. This includes having a good time interval between projects given to the team and not having back-to-back projects and workload being put on your team. Hence, monitoring the time frame of how much work your team is doing and how high the pressure is may help create a work-life balance.

Hobbies Should be Encouraged

Aside from your professional life and its workload, you can have different hobbies that act as therapeutic ways to balance work and life. This may include watching movies, listening to songs, painting, taking a walk every morning, having a garden, or even cooking! Anything that helps keep your creative boat afloat is a hobby. It is also essential that your team members are encouraged to have hobbies as well for a perfect balance!

To conclude

At the end of the day, it highly depends on how your team interacts and communicates and whether work-life balance is a significant issue or not. Hence, the outline mentioned above may not fully align with your team members or either your life motto, but these are outlined for your convenience and pointed out in a way that can help maximize the neutrality between your work life and personal life in the long run.

workplace communication styles are the key to an effective workforce anywhere around the world. But are you someone who notices a slight difference in behavior at work when compared? If you answered “yes,” then you are correct! There are certain methods to understand how someone behaves differently compared to others and how their communication style impacts others.

What are “Communication styles’ in the workplace?

Our predisposition to communicate directly or indirectly defines our communication styles. In the office, you’re likely to encounter four different communication styles. You’ll be better able to work with any sort of person if you can precisely recognize each style. These workplace communication styles allow us to better understand the work environment and our colleagues, as this indicates the ongoing situation in any workplace.

The four types of ‘Communication Styles’ in the workplace

In order to answer your confusion and questions, we tried to jot down the four possible communication styles in any workplace that you may join and encounter on average. And to sum it up, we can say there are exactly four crucial communication styles in any workplace that you will go through, and they may not necessarily be positive or heartwarming in any form. Starting with;

Manipulative Behavior

Manipulative conduct is when one person tries to control another’s emotions to get a particular response or result. Some of the core signs of a manipulative colleague or person in a workplace would be making excuses for you, blaming you, or intentionally divulging information about you while keeping other realities hidden. They usually think they are gaining control over you and some sense of intellectual superiority by doing so. Exaggeration and generalization are two skills that manipulators excel at.

It is very much encouraged not to be categorized as a manipulator as office policies may claim such incidents as bullies, and if you are someone who has been a victim of a manipulator, it is advised to talk to the human resources team or authorities immediately.

Submissive

To obey or surrender to someone else is to be subservient. You yield to someone else’s wishes when you are submissive, which means you put your own objectives below theirs. Submissive behavior often includes a variety of signs, such as self-protection, which is described as hunching the body, providing a sense of protection, and shielding critical parts, such as the crotch with hands or the neck with a chin pressed down.

While being submissive is acceptable, it is dependent on the degree to which someone in a workplace is submissive. Suppose you are someone who takes up unnecessary work because you want to be nice. In that case, it may not be healthy in the long run but rather have a damaging impact on the self-esteem and confidence of someone who is always submissive to a very significant degree.

And hence, it is usually easy to influence and manipulate submissive people at work.

passive-aggressive

Acting indirectly hostile rather than outright aggressive is what passive-aggressive conduct entails. Passive-aggressive people frequently oppose requests or demands from family and other people by postponing, showing sullenness, or acting obstinately. And to understand who is being passive-aggressive, it is important to outline the major signs, including resentment and antagonism to other people’s demands, particularly those made by those in positions of power. Similarly, in reaction to others’ requests, there might be resistance to collaboration, a potential form of procrastination, and purposeful blunders to avoid doing work.

On the other hand, passive behavior is the total opposite of aggressive behavior in general. Passive behavior is similar to submissive behavior, but the meaning is slightly different. The term “submissive” refers to meekly obedient or passive, whereas “passive” refers to someone who is submitted to action without creating a reaction. Hence, when you see someone giving no reaction at all to your activities, this highly suggests that you have encountered someone who is passive.

In addition to that, aggressive behavior often leads to a lot of violent reactions, which is very much discouraged and not accepted in many workplace environments and often leads to being laid off from work itself.

Overall, while passive, aggressive, and passive-aggressive have different sides and vary significantly, they aren’t usually encouraged in the workplace due to the unusualness they carry in the workplace and the very irregular awkwardness that is created of it.

Assertive

Assertiveness is defined as inspiring others to be transparent and upfront about their thoughts, desires, and feelings in order for both parties to act appropriately. The following are examples of assertive behavior: expressing wishes, thoughts, and feelings openly and incentivizing others to do the same. And such behavior is often encouraged in a workplace environment in order to ensure creative and meaningful work. Assertiveness often brings out the best in teams and individuals, which also positively contributes to the output, productivity, and overall efficiency.

How do they work for remote and non-remote teams?

While communicative styles are often more visible in non-remote jobs because the behavior can be easily traced, it may be difficult and inaccurate to judge someone who lives thousands of miles away simply because they once behaved in a certain way or sometimes do.

To conclude

Overall, we tried to put out the four most common communication behaviors in any workplace for your convenience!

There is hardly any employee who doesn’t expect their manager to be understanding, mature, flexible, and serious about work. A manager can quickly become a manager by controlling and commanding others. But to become ‘that’ manager, you need to attain leadership skills, and tell you what, it’s not an easy and fast job. But fear not, we went through and analyzed enough articles and stories of people to bring you the best possible tips for building leadership skills. Let’s take a look, Leadership? What’s that!  

Let’s imagine person A is a manager making a decision on his own and implying it to his employees, commanding them to do the work. “A” doesn’t care about his employee’s opinions. Now let’s look at B, who is a manager too. “B” analyzes the situation and discusses it with his employee, tries to create harmony between goals and workers, and tries to motivate and guide them to do the job correctly.

See the difference? What “B” has is called leadership skill. So have you gotten the idea of it? Let’s move on to the next topic,

Tips for Managers to Build Leadership Skills

To tell you the truth, leadership can’t be achieved the way you learn a new software because it is a learning process, and you’ll have to keep getting better. And it’s not as easy as it sounds. It requires certain abilities as a base. So, let’s give you some tips for building leadership skills if you’re a manager.

Learning Habit

Learning habits will lead you to acquire knowledge in your field. Opening the way to become the person with the best proficiency in their sector

Communication Skill

I used to think about the need to know about others and converse with every intellectual person I met? But it came to my realization when I saw my colleague has a finer understanding than me because he kept in touch with our senior manager. Communicating with others grants one experience without experiencing it. 

Experience

Well, this is not some skill that can be gained overnight, but if you keep in mind that” I have to gain experience to master my leadership,” your brain will automatically guide you to learn and look closely. Good or bad, experience is precious; otherwise, why do we value the opinion of someone who has been through it? You need to know what is best to steer the pack. Now, how to gain experience? The answer is by meaningful involvement in practicing leadership. Keep a close eye on what you lack and try to note it down. Try not to make the same mistake twice.

Mentoring Skills

This knowledge and experience will be in vain if you do not know how to illustrate, influence, and teach. And there is not one single method to teach someone which will work on anybody. The schooling method depends on whom you are helping to understand.

Try to figure out their preferences, points of view, logic, and thoughts, and customize your lecture in compliance with that because, in this way, your word will reach them the best.

Integrity

One way to take place in people’s hearts is righteousness. Undeniably, if you are not the most honest, the one with the strong set of values, you might lose your chance then and there. You have to keep professionalism, honesty, and reliability to build a strong personality that will make people accept you. 

Problem-solving

I must’ve heard this word everywhere, but this is indeed one of the best skills. Critical thinking, analyzing ability, and research skill are all part of achieving problem-solving skills. The ability to untangle a tricky situation will make you a very reliable person, and you can get at the top of your game.

I wish I could say,” These are all the skills you need to learn!” but in reality, you need much more than that, these are skills that you should be focusing on the most. Now jump to our next part,

Tips for Mastering Leadership

Work smart, not hard. Here are some tips to help you level up.

Figure Out Your Leadership Style

Yes, there are a few styles like the coach, visionary, autocratic, hands-off, democratic, etc. Try to know this by judging yourself, by asking others whether you always follow one kind of style or are you a mix of a few styles or can you switch to different styles according to the need? 

Practice Leadership at Every Chance You Get

Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity. You don’t need to practice it only in your office. Try looking around, find a chance to practice it; to give it a try; otherwise, you’ll never know what you are capable of or not. As we know, “Practice makes a man perfect,” so find an opening to hone your learned skills!

Make the Internet Your Best Friend

Did you know there are tons of YouTube channels where you can learn new skills for getting better at leading? Front Line Leadership, Leadership Nudges are highly recommended.

Take Feedback from Your Employee

It’s easier to know what you lack by listening to others’ opinions and feedback about you which you couldn’t have spotted on your own. It’s beneficial both ways because it also makes an impression on others that you care about others’ emotions.

Be Assertive without Being Disrespectful

Talk and negotiate in a way that none gets offended but yet gets your point. Quite a handy thing if you master it. 

Listen More

Pay a bit more attention to others’ opinions, observe and analyze them. You’ll see a big difference.

Keep a Diary with You

Note down every relevant and essential work to stay organized and ahead of the game.

Find an Idol

So who do you idolize for having the best leadership skill? If you haven’t found it, you should.

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” ― Aristotle. It doesn’t matter where you are coming from it only matters where you are going. Just because you haven’t been a leader before doesn’t mean you can’t become one.

Final Words

Try your best to learn from your surroundings, communicate with your employee, connect with their emotions, inspire them, keep your emotional composure, gather experience, and keep doing it even if you master it someday. 

“Oh, I hate my job!” I bet you’ve seen a lot of people say that but ever heard your employees saying that? No, I believe. You never know why your employees are leaving because they never share their true problems through a resignation letter. What if something about your company needs to be figured out and solved? If not, it’s going to cost you a lot. We analyzed the experiences of a lot of employees to bring out these top causes of employee turnover.

1. Clash with the boss                             

Different people have different mindsets and thus different opinions. It can either cause clash or development depending on how it’s handled. “From day one, I felt like my boss hates me because he gives me so much more pressure than others. I work so hard, but I can never satisfy him. I’m working for the little payment I get, but this getting unbearable; I think I’ll leave my job and look for another, “said my co-worker two days before he left the job. 

• Personal harassment, 
• Toxicity, 
• Nepotism, 
• Lack of motivation, 
• Lack of mutual understanding, 
• Immorality 

Harms the relationship with the boss.

2. Complications with colleagues

The percentage of leaving the job cause of a co-worker is low but not negligible as people usually don’t leave their job cause of it. We found a few cases like this.” My co-worker Jane was jealous of me. Continuously tried to sabotage me, my work, and if it went on, then I would’ve gotten into big trouble, which could hamper my career, so I’ll just leave the job.” Says one of the people we interviewed. When the workers are toxic, it’s hard to give their best as the situation gets uncomfortable and unprofessional for working. 

• Harassing, taunting
• Jealousy
• Lack of respect
• Unfair behavior
• Lack of understanding, communication

Can cause conflict among employees.

3. Job isn’t meeting the expectation

All a new employee knows about an organization is what’s written in the prospectus, website, circular, and the rest they realize after getting in. Sometimes the difference between expectation and reality is so big that they end up quitting the job.” The job description said I’ll teach only high-school students, but after I got in, I also had to take classes for the primary students, and they didn’t pay me as much as they promised.

So I think I’ll change the job if this doesn’t change!” says a woman we talked with. Some might lose interest in their job because they are not getting to learn what they thought they would learn. For example, I quit working for an organization because I expected to gather some good experience and knowledge, but I ended up being used by them; the morality, the style of working, and the connection they had didn’t worth enough to waste my time on.

4. Relevant job position

Everyone has self-respect, and they want to establish that in their work field by working with a group of people that understands their ability and skills. A job where you can’t put your expertise into the work can make you lose interest faster than light. Because people gain their mastery by putting a lot of effort and looking for a field that can make it all worth it. If not, they focus on other places where they can flourish.

5. Grass is greener on the other side

One just can’t get into a job and boom! He/she is the most successful person in their field. The good thing takes time. It takes time and effort to get a hold of your responsibility, figure out the tips and tricks, connect with people, and get comfortable and trustable with your colleague’s boss. Sometimes one lacks patience and starts thinking about other jobs. 

6. Provocation

Employees from other industries, family members, friends, or it could be a stranger whose opinion on your work can make you lose all the hope. “This job of yours has no future actually, said my aunt once, and I started to doubt my decision. I didn’t leave my job, but at every inconvenience in my work, I remember her words, and it makes me feel helpless.” Said, my friend. Employees may be lured to other options and thus end up leaving the job.

7. Office Culture

 “It was compulsory to follow the dress code, and it violated my morality and culture, so I had no choice but to leave,” stated a girl we contacted. Office Rules and regulations can cause trouble for employees if they are meaningless and not flexible. If a mother cannot take maternity leave, she’ll leave the job. 

8. Insufficient salary

Money is what our life depends on mostly. Call it greed or necessity, people will always be attracted to a higher salary, and they continuously fight for it. There is no chance one will stay if they’re paid high for their work elsewhere.

9. It wasn’t a permanent job

There is hardly someone who got into a job and stayed in it forever. Employees get into a company with various goals. Those who start to gain experience, connection, and recognition will never stay forever there, and it’s very normal. 

10. To test one’s limit

We develop ourselves by putting ourselves into challenging situations. Young, ambitious employees will look for more energizing work to thrive in their careers. And for this, they might resign from one job to get into another.

11. Transportation

The home-to-office passage is important if one’s not working from home. The reasons are,

• Moving out
• High transportation cost
• Time-consuming transportation
• Change of office location

Many people will only leave their beloved job because it got difficult to get into the office in time.

12. Other personal reasons

Not feeling encouraged, job hampering personal work like study and exam, family problems, not like the work environment, accident, not feeling suitable enough for the job, not understanding the work and continuously failing, selfish work environment, seeing others leaving a job can cause one to send the resignation letter. 

Losing two or three employees per month for a big company isn’t a big deal, but when a regular thing becomes, there might be something wrong with the system. Every owner starts off their business with a goal. They expect their employees to support by dedicating their time and effort. Still, it can get a bit chaotic if there is a sudden loss of workers because filling up their position to cover up the duties causes hassle; also, it can leave a bad impression on that company. 

Final Thoughts

Hope this article gave you an idea about what employees go through when they resign. The key to solving this issue is getting regular feedback from employees about their work and mental state and enabling a comfortable, understanding, dynamic work environment by keeping up with workers.