Category: Management

Maximising efficiency

Maximising the Efficiency of Your Audit Process: Key Features to Look for in an Audit Management System

May 3, 2024

An audit management system is integral to the success of businesses in several spheres. Audits have multilayered processes that include preparation, execution, verification of products, processes, systems, and of course, reporting. The right integrated management system audit solution can help with better assigning of roles, scheduling, implementation, and document control. How an Audit Management System Helps Here’s looking at some ways in which an audit management system (AMS) will be of immense help for your operations. So, now that you know how an integrated management system audit process can help, you should set a feature list that your AMS should contain. Here’s a guide to the same below. What Features Should Your Audit Management System Contain? What should your audit management system come with? What are these features or other aspects? Here is a guide that will help you prepare a checklist of your own in this case. These are some of the key features that you should look for, while choosing an audit management system. They will help you get organised, productive, and of course, smarter in terms of undertaking and tracking audits. What Else Should You Look For? There are a few other things that you should keep an eye on in this regard. These include the following: To sign off, it can be said that selecting a suitable audit management system is imperative to ensure that your processes are well-oiled, easily trackable, and integrated into the master system in terms of data, statuses, and so on. Compare multiple systems and software options based on the above-mentioned parameters and then come to a final decision accordingly. FAQs 1. How can I evaluate the effectiveness of an audit management system for my organisation? There are several ways in which you can assess the effectiveness of an audit management system. Look for easy report-creation and audit template features along with real-time insights and analytics, task and workflow assigning and scheduling, and overall ease of use. 2. How can I choose the right AMS for my organisation? You should always check for software that is tailored to the needs of your organisation and business sector. This means more customisable and tailored pre-built reports along with easy notification/reminder setting, assigning tasks and status updates from the field, among other features. Look for an AMS that can be easily used by all stakeholders with everything stored securely and easily accessible. 3. What are the key features to look for in an audit management system? Some of the key features that should be present in an audit management system include real-time insights and analytics along with workflows and tasks (scheduling, notifications, updates, etc.). At the same time, other features should include report creation, desktop and mobile interfaces, scheduling, findings integration, and more. 4. How can an audit management system improve efficiency? An audit management system can be immensely helpful in terms of enhancing overall business efficiency. It boosts coordination amongst teams, while helping save time and resources considerably. At the same time, it enables remote auditing and keeps everything accessible and trackable in a single place. 5. Is the AMS compliant with relevant industry regulations and data privacy laws? Every audit management system has to comply with relevant regulations and data privacy laws. There should be adherence to all notified rules pertaining to data security, consent, encryption, and so on.

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Emotional Intelligence at Work: The Key to Anger Management

Emotional Intelligence at Work: The Key to Anger Management

December 22, 2023

Anger management is highly essential in the workplace, particularly when it comes to boosting emotional intelligence and cultivating an atmosphere of positive leadership. Anger is a universally recognised emotion that everyone is familiar with. It can sometimes be a blessing, but more often than not, a bane. Getting out of control and regretting actions/words spurred by anger is avoidable, especially in the workplace. Workplace anger can be tackled by the right strategies, along with a deep-rooted effort to enhance EI (emotional intelligence). This refers to the ability to regulate and understand emotions, while also understanding and sensing others’ emotions accordingly. Those with higher emotional intelligence are usually better managers and leaders while performing better at work, especially in terms of building superior interpersonal relationships. Those without empathy often have problems adjusting to diverse and unique work environments. Here is a closer look at anger management strategies and other information that can help. What Emotional Intelligence Entails Noted psychologist Daniel Goleman has broken down EI into five core elements in his book Emotional Intelligence. He feels that EI matters even more than the IQ of an individual. Here are these components:  Constructive Ways to Manage Anger Anger management can be implemented constructively as a way of life. EI is vital for helping people choose anger that is constructive in place of the corresponding destructive nature of anger. Healthy anger means pausing and reflecting on feelings, sensations, and thoughts instead of reacting to anything. Anger is a distraction and reaction to negative emotions and suffering in most cases. Anger stems from any perceived threat to physical and emotional well-being and also core needs and desires. Identifying the same will help understand arousal and triggers better. Empathy can be an excellent buffer against anger that is destructive, inclusive of verbal and physical aggression towards other individuals. It helps recognise the inherent humanity in not just oneself, but also others. The Connection between Anger and Emotional Intelligence Workplace anger and other occurrences can be tackled by boosting emotional intelligence. Those with higher EI are usually seen to demonstrate lower aggression. Those with lower EI are more prone towards anger in workplace environments. Several psychological advantages of higher emotional intelligence are evident, including better anger control in place of negative reflection or suppression outward. Training in building emotional intelligence can also affect the management of anger arousal. Every individual can learn skills for boosting emotional intelligence and subsequently grow resilience to tackle several negative effects such as anger. Cognitive behavioural techniques can also be learnt for regulating emotions better while identifying distortions in thought processes. Anger Management Strategies to Follow  For dealing better with workplace anger, here are some anger management strategies that may help.   The biggest thing to remember about anger is that it is not always an enemy that you have to vanquish. Rather, once the root cause is identified and you can reflect on your arousal triggers, it can be channelled into constructive and productive thoughts and actions. Embracing proper anger management will help foster better workplace environments and inculcate better leadership. FAQs Why is emotional intelligence crucial in the workplace, particularly in the context of anger management? Emotional intelligence is vital in the workplace, especially for anger management. EI  helps people cultivate and develop empathy and identify the triggers behind anger better. It helps control anger better and channel it into constructive actions. How can employees develop and improve their emotional intelligence for better anger management at work? Employees can certainly develop and enhance their emotional intelligence for better anger management at the workplace. Some of the ways include following a mentally healthy lifestyle, taking time-outs or breaks whenever there is any emotional surge, reflecting and identifying the root causes of anger, meditation, mindfulness techniques, and deep breathing. What are some common signs that indicate a lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace, and how does this relate to anger issues? Some of the signs that indicate a lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace include perpetually blaming others, difficulty in asserting oneself, inability to cope with stressful situations, feeling easily misunderstood or stressed, holding grudges, and lacking empathy for others. It relates to anger issues, since all of these may be triggers for outbreaks of anger and avoidable verbal/physical aggression. 

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Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence at Work: The Key to Anger Management

December 5, 2023

Anger management is highly essential at the workplace, particularly when it comes to boosting emotional intelligence and cultivating an atmosphere of positive leadership. Anger is a universally-recognized emotion that everyone is familiar with. It can sometimes be a blessing, but more often than not, a bane. Getting out of control and regretting actions/words spurred by anger is something that is avoidable, especially in the workplace. Workplace anger can be tackled by the right strategies, along with a deep-rooted effort to enhance EI (emotional intelligence). This refers to the ability to regulate and understand emotions, while also understanding and sensing others’ emotions accordingly. Those with higher emotional intelligence are usually better managers and leaders, while performing better at work, especially in terms of building superior interpersonal relationships. Those without empathy often have problems in adjusting to diverse and unique work environments. Here is a closer look at anger management strategies and other information that can help in this regard. What Emotional Intelligence Entails Noted psychologist Daniel Goleman has broken down EI into five core elements in his book Emotional Intelligence. In fact, he feels that EI matters even more than the IQ of an individual. Here are these components: Constructive Ways to Manage Anger Anger management can be implemented constructively as a way of life. EI is vital for helping people choose anger that is constructive in place of the corresponding destructive nature of anger. Healthy anger means pausing and reflecting on feelings, sensations, and thoughts instead of reacting to anything. Anger is a distraction and reaction to negative emotions and suffering in most cases. Anger stems from any perceived threat to physical and emotional wellbeing and also core needs and desires. Identifying the same will help understand arousal and triggers better. Empathy can be an excellent buffer against anger that is destructive, inclusive of verbal and physical aggression towards other individuals. It helps recognize the inherent humanity in not just oneself, but also others. The Connection between Anger and Emotional Intelligence Workplace anger and other occurrences can be tackled by boosting emotional intelligence. Those with higher EI are usually seen to demonstrate lower aggression. Those with lower EI are more prone towards anger in workplace environments. There are several psychological advantages of higher emotional intelligence that are evident, including better anger control in place of negative reflection or suppression outwards. Training in building emotional intelligence can also affect the management of anger arousal. Every individual can learn skills for boosting emotional intelligence and subsequently grow resilience to tackle several negative effects such as anger. Cognitive behavioral techniques can also be learnt for regulating emotions better while identifying distortions in thought processes. Anger Management Strategies to Follow For dealing better with workplace anger, here are some anger management strategies that may help. The biggest thing to remember about anger is that it is not always an enemy that you have to vanquish. Rather, once the root cause is identified and you can reflect on your arousal triggers, it can be channelized into constructive and productive thoughts and actions. Embracing proper anger management will help foster better workplace environments and inculcate better leadership. FAQs Why is emotional intelligence crucial in the workplace, particularly in the context of anger management? Emotional intelligence is vital in the workplace, especially for anger management. EI helps people cultivate and develop empathy and identify triggers behind anger better. It helps control anger better and channelize it into constructive actions. How can employees develop and improve their emotional intelligence for better anger management at work? Employees can certainly develop and enhance their emotional intelligence for better anger management at the workplace. Some of the ways including following a mentally healthy lifestyle, taking time-outs or breaks whenever there is any emotional surge, reflecting and identifying the root causes of anger, meditation, mindfulness techniques, and deep breathing. What are some common signs that indicate a lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace, and how does this relate to anger issues? Some of the signs that indicate a lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace include perpetually blaming others, difficulty in asserting oneself, inability to cope with stressful situations, feeling easily misunderstood or stressed, holding grudges, and lacking empathy for others. It relates to anger issues, since all of these may be triggers for outbreaks of anger and avoidable verbal/physical aggression.

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Leadership Strategies for Reducing Stress in Your Team

Leadership Strategies for Reducing Stress in Your Team

November 20, 2023

Stress-Relief Leadership Stress is unavoidable not just in your personal life, but also at your workplace and while working with teams. However, stress reduction in teams is imperative in order to boost productivity and achieve collective goals without burnout or negativity being a part of the process. Stress at the workplace may crop up due to several factors including conflicts, deadlines, huge workloads, organisational changes, and more. Based on reports, close to 60% of employees have witnessed negative effects owing to stress at the workplace. These include lower motivation, interest, or energy levels along with decreased work efforts or performance.  Being a leader, it is important to prioritise team stress management. The first step is to understand the impact that stress has on everyone in the team and then come up with leadership strategies to manage the same more effectively. Stress management is increasingly being regarded as a crucial part of strong leadership and here are some techniques that you can follow to achieve the same.  Leadership Development and Stress Management- What’s the Connection?  Leadership and team stress management have an intrinsic connection that you should highlight. Stress management is a vital part of leadership development. Leaders are required to not just support or guide teams but also make vital decisions, and manage diverse organisational priorities. These may sometimes lead to higher stress levels which may affect not just your ability to effectively lead teams, but lead to your employees getting stressed as well.  Here are some ways in which stress may directly affect leadership:  Now that you have an idea of how leadership and team stress are connected, here are a few leadership strategies that you can employ to get things back on track.  Leadership strategies for stress reduction in teams Here are a few team stress management tips that will help you manage things better.  Some Other Tips for Leaders Here are some other tips that will help you achieve stress reduction in teams at the office.  Leadership strategies for managing stress at the workplace should focus on promoting a culture of open communication, well-being, and mindfulness throughout teams and the organisation at large. Leaders should model healthy behaviours for stress management that can be adapted by their teams for a healthier and happier environment at work.  FAQs How can open communication and transparency be leveraged to alleviate stress within a team? Transparency and open communication can be used to reduce stress within teams. This encourages people to talk about issues that are bothering them and seek solutions from colleagues and leaders. It naturally helps people stay in sync with each other with fewer communication gaps.  What role does work-life balance play in leadership approaches aimed at reducing stress in the workplace? Work-life balance has a vital role to play in leadership approaches that are aimed at lowering workplace stress. Leaders should encourage employees to prioritise self-care and mental health along with empowering them with efficient resources and tools to get work done more productively. Leaders should also encourage teams to take time off, take breaks, engage in other activities, and exercise.  Are there specific techniques or practices leaders can employ to foster a stress-resistant team culture? There are several techniques and practices that can be employed by leaders to foster a stress-resistant team culture. These include mindfulness, self-care, open and transparent communication, prioritising and time management, delegation, and more. 

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INT. serve during covid 19

Indus Net Technologies (INT.) Will Continue To Serve You As-Usual During The Covid-19 Outbreak

March 23, 2020

We are living in unprecedented and uncertain times. Within two weeks, a novel virus has split the world apart. It has changed things like never before. The challenge we face today globally with the pandemic will transcend all boundaries – health, economy, social, political in days to come. Having said that I am pretty confident that we will overcome this. Indus Net Technologies (INT.) have been around for over two decades, and have faced many crisis situations. Our resilience is well proven, and we will prove it yet again. However, it is important that we practice precaution over panic. It is critical for us to think about three things: 1) Our responsibility towards our society 2) Personal well being of every INTian and their family 3) Business continuity to ensure our financial wellbeing on short, mid and long term To control the pandemic, which is our collective responsibility, we need to practice isolation. We need to reduce social interaction. We need to be with ourselves, maintain proper hygiene and avoid being a carrier of the deadly virus. This is important for the society as well as your own self, and your family. Besides this, it is our responsibility to support and continue to build for our clients globally, who depend upon us for their critical business applications and functions. We stand committed to all the three objectives mentioned above. To meet these objectives, I am announcing complete isolation for all our teams in all our offices globally. Our teams will continue to work from home with complete focus and intensity. We believe that, at such a time, if they stay close to their family, they will be less anxious and be able to deliver better results for our partners. We will be fully accessible through all digital channels during normal office hours (or the hours when our team works with you). We will be available for online (video conference) meetings. The only activity that is suspended from our end is – in-person meetings until the situation becomes normal. Our teams have worked overtime last week to put in action our business continuity plan, to ensure that each individual is able to work from home as effectively as they do from office (if not more), to ensure that they have secure access (secure VPN and device monitoring) to office code repositories, to ensure that they have the right infrastructure to perform their responsibilities, and to ensure that they are socially in touch with their colleagues in the virtual environment. We do not know about every possible problem, but we have prepared for most of it, based on our past experience. We may have initial hiccups on Monday/Tuesday (23rd/24th March) and our team productivity may be slightly reduced. We request your kind cooperation during these days. We have prepared for months, not days. Hence, you can be rest assured that we will be able to support your business-critical applications and functions. Your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or Business Consultant on the Indus Net Technologies (INT) side is available to you as always and will be able to guide/help based on your specific needs or address specific concerns or specific steps that have been for your work that is being done at INT. I am available to you if you need to reach me at Abhishek Rungta (+91 9831151614) on Mobile/WhatsApp and also on email at talash@indusnet.co.in We thank you for your trust, business, and partnership. We would not have been here without you. And, be rest assured, we will be with you through thick and thin, in years to come. This will be behind us soon. Stay safe, stay healthy, and take very good care of yourself, your family and your colleagues. — Regards Abhishek Rungta Founder & CEO, Indus Net Technologies

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Project Management in 3 Minutes

February 28, 2019

When the Pyramid of Giza was being built around 2500 BC, Project Management was not much of a fad. Maybe whip yielding Scrum Masters did have daily stand up meetings and maybe some engineers had the blueprint drawn up in some papyrus scroll, but that was all to it. No jargon, no certifications, no proud Project Managers with PMP badges. Yet we know the pyramid was one of the daunting projects of human history, one that modern engineers still marvel at. Was this project managed right? You bet! But modern organizations cannot operate like the Pharaohs. We can not whip engineers to build a project out – well not at least literally. As we have refined process over the years, including sophisticated terminologies like Work Breakdown Structure and Process Flow Diagrams and Trade-Offs, we have no doubt blown up something simple and rational into something more of a puff-and-show. But at the heart of it, Project Management remains simple and straightforward. Any project, of any proportion or complexity, can be defined, scoped and planned (at least the basic draft, not as a versioned scope document that clients will accept, duh!) by just answering in a few sentences the following 6 questions. WHAT Well let’s just answer that, shall we! What is the project all about? What needs to be done? Such a basic, such a primary question – yet I find Project Managers, Project Leads, Team Members and sometimes even clients struggling to answer that question – WHAT is the project all about? Even when someone starts a narrative, they usually go on to describe the WHAT in terms of multitude of scattered user stories and exception scenarios. Well, take a breath and get a hold! The WHAT of a project needs to be like an Elevator Speech – short, crisp and to the point. No matter the complexity or budget of the project, if you cannot define the WHAT of it in a few sentences, you really need to get back to the drawing board. WHY Even though we sometimes survive the WHAT session, what really get’s at us is the WHY. When I ask teams working on a project – WHY are you doing this project? I am always amused by the look of befuddlement in their faces. People go like – What do you mean WHY? As if I have just asked one of the most absurd questions that they have ever heard. When I nudge them further, they conjure up reasons like – Well because the company won this project or Because it will earn us money. There are some bad-ass who retort to my WHY with a smirk and a – WHY NOT? The WHY of a project is the soul of the entire project and is the crux of the solution that we as a service providing company or team is supposed to provide. The WHY is the answer to the problem the client wants to be solved. If the WHY is not clear to the team, it is usually like a driver steering a bus without knowing where they are headed. On the contrary, answering the WHY, again, in a few simple sentences, get’s the entire team on the same page in terms of the requirement of the project and also shift’s their focus from Execution to Solution. HOW Now that we have discussed and written down in a simple document and in very simple format, WHAT the project is about and WHY the client needs the project, we next come to HOW of the project. Answering this clearly and briefly will make sure there is distributed clarity in terms of the solution implementation. Do not mistake this simple description as a replacement to the FRD, but rather treat it as a premise to the same. Different team members of an ongoing project are often clueless about the basic yet critical information regarding what technology the project will be built on, what will be the associated technologies and what will be the solution model. Defining such simple details in this section as to whether the project will be developed as a single application or a CMS or a SaaS model application; whether the scripting language will be PHP or C# or DotNet and whether, if any, a framework will be used, goes a long way in achieving critical project clarity for the development team. WHO With most of the project understanding in place, it just remains to set up the team right. Though we ideally want the best team to work on every project, but unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world! So we know the resource pool at our disposal. In this section, we can be realistic and quickly define the team who will work on the project. This will include defining the entire team – from the Team Leads to the Developers to the Designers to the Client Relationship Managers, if any. It is extremely crucial at this stage to list out the backup resources as well. Though such resources may not be available presently, but we must always have a list of back up resources named to jump into should the occasion arise (trust me, it always does!) WHEN A human may not live by a timeline, but a project must! Discuss and quickly frame up a timeline for the project. When will the requirements be discussed? How much time should be invested for requirement discussion? X number of days? Great! What if it extends to X+2 days? Ah, then the deadline just shifts further by 2 days, right? Wrong! Time has an Avalanche Effect. When a rock starts rolling at the mouth of an avalanche, it is not 1 rock that ends up at the bottom of the mountain, but a huge pile of rumbling, disastrous heap! It is the same with time delays. A 2 day delay in the requirement analysis phase may end up delaying the project by months. So in this section of the document, quickly draft an initial and ideal project timeline, but also draft 2-3 other parallel timelines for delay scenarios. That way, if we jump and miss the rope, we will

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Here Is How to Set the Right KPI and Targets For Your Digital Journey?

September 19, 2018

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help you understand whether you are achieving your target goals or not. KPIs also tell you how close you are towards achieving them. KPIs can help you track progress related to expenses, customer insight, revenue, etc. There are KPIs for every business function within an organization. Important sales related KPIs include number of wins, deals, and opportunities, sales qualified leads, etc. Return on marketing investment, customer retention, customer acquisition cost, etc. are examples of marketing KPIs. Measuring customer service KPIs is important too, as it tells you how happy or satisfied your customers are with your brand. Key performance indicators of customer service include Customer Satisfaction Score, first response time, customer retention rate, SERVQUAL developed by Valerie Zeithaml, which measures service + quality, etc. In this article, let us take a look at how you can choose the right KPIs and set targets so that you are always on track. Choosing the right KPIs to improve performance KPIs can be grouped under lagging and leading indicators, and you will need to monitor both. Lagging indicators are those which can be easily measured but hard to influence. Leading indicators, on the other hand, are easy to influence but hard to measure. An example of a lagging KPI is the number of orders placed on a certain day, while an example of a leading indicator would be return on marketing investments. Begin with choosing a KPI Key performance indicators should be SMART, i.e., specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Specific KPIs are easy to track and monitor than vague ones. For instance, a specific KPI would be “exact number of orders placed every week”. A vague KPI would be “Satisfactory order processing”. In other words, it should be reduced to a number in order for it to be tracked. KPIs should also be measurable. If we take the number of orders per week as a KPI, it can be averaged over months and years. KPIs should be realistic so that if employees work hard, they are attainable. If they are unrealistic and unattainable, you stand the risk of demotivating employees. KPIs need to be tracked over a period of time and measured against time too. Make sure you can evaluate your chosen KPI across time phases. An example of KPIs : Image Source: Flickr Monitor and measure KPIs and metrics However, you might wonder what a “metric” is. Metric is a quantifiable measure or that which can be reduced to a number. The number of orders placed on a given day is a metric. However, only when it is studied over a period of time (number of sales per week, observed over many weeks) does the metrics become a KPI. While a KPI helps you measure performance and success, a metric is simply a number that needs to be assessed within a KPI. Reward employees who achieve KPI targets Recent research reveals that setting realistic KPI targets help employees to perform better. Not just that, rewarding employees when they achieve or surpass KPI targets will incentivize their performance. This IBM white paper explores how the right employee behavior can be rewarded and motivated by using KPIs. An interesting observation of the paper is to reward teams instead of choosing individual employees for rewards. This motivates entire teams to work harder to achieve set KPI targets. Key Performance Indicators (KPI): The 75 measures every manager needs to know by Bernard Marr is an important book that can help you familiarize with using the right KPIs to evaluate employee performance and encouraging them to achieve KPIs set for other areas. Review and make changes to your KPI strategy Conduct regular audits of the KPI targets and assess the metrics associated with each KPI. If they are under-performing, you might want to set a more realistic goal. If you have been consistently performing high, set yourself a higher target that is tied around time phases. Choose a different KPI is the one you have chosen is not getting you the result you need. You may also need to vary your targets consistently depending on your business success. A neutral observer will help you take an objective look at your KPI performance, and provide you with a more realistic picture of your situation. Speaking to a consultant that specializes in KPI metric analysis helps. KPIs help businesses to get back on track KPI is a measurable value that helps businesses achieve targets. KPIs help businesses to understand and evaluate their performance so that they can be further improved over time. Choose the right KPIs carefully and make sure that they are specific in what they measure, quantifiable so that what you measure can be reduced to numbers, and that they can realistically be attained. They must also be relevant to your goals and success, and must always be measured against time. Once you choose your KPIs and set targets, you should continuously monitor and measure your chosen KPI metrics. Make sure to reward employees (preferably teams) who enthusiastically work towards attaining KPIs. Finally, always review your KPI strategy and make changes to it if need be.

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Discover the Value for Culture of Originality in a Workplace

November 28, 2016

Originality is defined as the ability to create something that isn’t copied. It is something authentic,which comes from the source of the creator or the doer. In organizational terms, originality refers to be creative and being able to make decisions in situations where others might have taken a different path. This ability says a lot about how good a leader you are. If you are willing to take alternative decisions and solutions, you are probably being original. This originality is required to sustain organizations and companies because they also ensure that creativity is always present within work culture. Without creativity and the ability to be original, companies cannot survive in a highly competitive world. To answer the question if originality is a workplace culture, we only need to look at it this way – If you are not original, you do not innovate. If you do not innovate, you perish. Thus, it is quite clear that originality is required in  a workplace place, and most important is that it needs to be nurtured and encouraged within an organisation. Boosting originality at work To boost originality at your workplace, there are a number of things you can do. Firstly, it is important to encourage employees who are creative. This may include encouraging their own individual creative processes which may not be related to your business. For example, if your web designer can strum the guitar, why not bring a guitar to one of the rooms, and get him to play regularly to other staff? This helps not only to feel appreciated, but helps in encouraging other employees to realize the value of creativity. Creativity is never limited to a single artistic pursuit. There are chances that the web designer who is good at strumming guitar comes up with a better design than those designers who aren’t very creative. Look for individual instances of originality, especially in problem solving. If a manager makes a daring decision, do not reprimand him. Instead, appreciate him for the courage and laud his originality in problem solving. This does not mean you should allow everyone to do everything they choose to. It just means, hand-picking instances of originality and encouraging that in your workplace. Looking forward Originality at workplace is a work in progress. You cannot develop that overnight. On the other hand, you can inspire those who are not original to engage in creative thinking, by encouraging and providing positive reinforcements to those who are original. This indirectly helps to boost productivity and enhance your organization’s work culture. Encourage creative people and give them platforms to showcase their talent. This helps other people to get creative too, and they begin to value the importance of creativity and originality. It is well known scientifically that creativity and the ability to make individual decisions are very crucial to leaders and budding leaders. Encourage these budding leaders at your organization to reap benefits and also to boost originality at your organization as a whole.

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How You Can Revolutionize Your Company’s Culture

September 9, 2016

People always want to know about company’s work culture before joining it.  It serves as a great means of attraction for hiring vibrant and quality talent. Many business leaders have realized that if internal work culture is not healthy, an organization cannot grow. A company’s culture is defined by various factors and practices incorporated by the company. It may include the hiring of right talent, service differentiation, sharing workforce’s compassion, employee skill development, using technology, creating effective means of communication within the organization, and engaging in corporate social responsibility and philanthropic initiatives. A strong leadership is another crucial factor that characterizes company’s work culture. Every company starts small; it is the work culture that navigates it through challenges to become a large and successful firm. Whether you are a startup, a small or a medium sized firm, it is fundamental for you to revolutionize work culture to make sure that you are synchronized with contemporary needs. Following are some important steps you need to take to revitalize your organizational work culture: Look for change An organization can’t be stagnant in its approach. There should be a constant push to make it better. An effective manager yearns for change to bring new energy to the organization. Now, what that change should be?  A manager must sort out what changes need to be integrated to boost work culture. Start with one change at a time. [php snippet=1] Go mobile Today’s young workforce relies on a smartphone for everything. Whether its HRMS or ERP, most cloud applications are accessible via mobile. Employees love to accomplish various business tasks through applications. Technology makes your employees productive and efficient. It is a great step to encourage the use of smartphone at the workplace; however, it is equally important to place checks to avoid misuse. Data security is a major concern when employees access critical organizational data on a smartphone. It should be well accounted for. Find out what makes employees happy A happy workforce can deliver better results than overstressed people. Try to figure out what keeps them happy. It could be flexible working hours, work from home or a monthly bash at the workplace. Do not encourage overtime because it is likely to create anxiety in the longer run. Make sure tasks are completed within stipulated time to promote healthy work culture. Inter-team communication Months pass by and some teams have little to no interaction with another team. Employees don’t get a chance to know members from other teams. Therefore, steps must be taken to promote inter-team communication. You can do so by shuffling team members; organizing get-togethers for discussion or games. Use gaming elements in non-game situations to boost productivity. You can also organize team building events to encourage team bonding in fun ways.  Employees feel more motivated and engaged at workplaces where people know each other well. Seek employees’ opinion There are certain employees who have excelled stupendously in the task that they do.  There are certain others who have a strong decision-making ability and their choices have always paid back. Identify such employees and take their opinion about relevant issues. It gives you a new line of thought. Consultation might help you to learn something new that you can apply across the organization. Learn, learn and learn You can’t sit back thinking that you know everything about how to run your organization effectively. This does not work. It makes your organization dormant in the long term. You have to strive to learn something new every day. Learn through books, magazines, events, symposiums, trade fairs etc to stay updated about new technology, methods, ideas etc. Moreover, learning is what differentiates leaders from followers. Prevent distractions during meetings It is common to see nowadays employees addicted to their smartphone. If employees are constantly bothered about new emails, phone calls, messages, and tasks-to-do, they fail to concentrate on the task at hand. Smartphone addiction creates anxiety among employees and they fail to participate fully in a meeting or discussion. It automatically makes them poor listeners. It creates a negative impression on other team members and they feel neglected. They also miss out on the gravity of important concerns. Create an environment that employees understand the importance of engaged participation and avoid unnecessary disruptions. Get your priorities right  Time management is a fundamental step towards promoting healthy work culture.  Employees are often bogged down by overwork. This happens due to their failure to prioritize work. Important tasks should be completed before other tasks. If there are multiple projects running with different deadlines, prioritize tasks in your calendar as per their importance. If you plan to implement a new application in your organization, set a time limit to avoid unnecessary delays. A good habit like this takes the time to develop, so you need to begin right away. Are you hiring correctly? Many organizations tend to select candidates purely on quantitative basis viz. education and employment history. The result is high attrition rate. When organizations hire, they need to look at many other factors like compassion, creativity, zeal, problem-solving skills, leadership abilities etc. This helps them to minimize the annual cost of hiring and create a quality workforce. Look for unhealthy practices at workplace An organization’s productivity could be marred by unhealthy practices at workplace. It may include punctuality issues, absenteeism, lethargy, banal conversations or probably workplace politics. Such practices deteriorate organizational work culture. It becomes an impediment to attracting new talent and rather becomes a reason for talented employees to quit the organization. Quickly act against such malpractices and revive your organization back to professionalism. Identify the higher purpose of your organization Busy work life often dissolves the higher purpose of your organization’s existence. If a leader fails to recognize that, you can’t expect employees to spot it. A true leader identifies and clarifies the higher purpose of the organization to employees. If employees know why they do what they do, your purpose is solved. Conclusion The work culture of an organization cannot be

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What Madonna Can Teach You about Technology Adoption

August 12, 2016

It might seem a little odd to see Madonna’s name printed on the website of a company that lives and breathes technology. Yet, she is more relevant here than anywhere else, if one would like to put it that way. To begin with, Madonna is not only an artist/musician par excellence, she is also a businesswoman with a knack and an entrepreneurial spirit that needs to be emulated. Her music and entertainment business employs thousands of people and sustains, even more, people who are not directly employed by her. We also know that she has a softer side to her, adopting children from disadvantaged countries and bringing them up as her own. However, what technology insiders should take a note of is her dedication to technology, and bringing technology to every aspect of her life. In fact, every company has something to learn from Madonna about technology adoption, if not her music. In this article, let us see how Madonna can teach you a thing or two about adopting new technologies. Early Adoption of Technology Right from the days of ‘Vogue’, a groundbreaking single released in the 1980s, Madonna has been at the forefront of adopting novel technologies. If you closely studied her videos, you will notice that what she experimented with decades ago still remain relevant. Like her, it makes sense to adopt the technology before others do. Right now, it makes sense to adopt cloud computing before your competitors catch up. [php snippet=1] Embracing Social Media Madonna has used social media to document all her achievements, even before other stars began to use social networking sites. Her social strategy has been to interact with her followers intimately, which is what you should be doing too if you want success on social media. This should be a lesson to all those companies that are still hesitating to plunge deeper into the social domain. Using Technology to Bring Novelty Her most stylish videos have been in black and white, which are now again replicated by younger pop stars. She also was at the forefront of bringing techno and trance to mainstream dance music, which again, is now part of the music. When Ray of Light was released in 1998, it was a groundbreaking album, mainly because of the way technology was adopted into the recording and music making process. Today, younger pop singers are still finding inspiration in that album of hers. If you want your company to succeed, use technology to create something new! Promotion of Technology Not only has Madonna succeeded at adopting and using technology, she has also been an activist of sorts, by promoting technology to varied audiences. Her live performances are a standing testament to this, with some of the most advanced lighting, sound and stage effects used by her. She actively encourages her audience to participate in her live performances, making them an interactive experience. Likewise, you should promote your own technology to your users by making things more interactive. Learning from Madonna Certainly, there is a lot to learn from Madonna and technology is not the only thing. She is one of the inspirational figures for those who want to be successful in their business. She teaches business people that one should never let go of one’s passion and must always be at the forefront of technology adoption. If you studied her life closely, you will know that Madonna is not just a pop icon, but a world leader who has managed to change the way we approach technology.

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