Attention to detail, or lack thereof, is a crucial component in making or breaking a business. Consequently, the level of detail-orientation of your employees plays an important role in the success and longevity of your company. There are measures that can be taken to enhance and improve employee attention to detail throughout your organization.

Hire Accordingly

If you want to increase the level of attention to detail in your organization, one of the best places to start is at the foundation. When hiring new employees, make sure to ask them about their ability to notice the little things, and test them on this if possible — a lot of people list “attentive to detail” or “detail-oriented” on their resumes and in their interviews without actually having this skill. Candidates with the Analyzer/Logical personality type are naturally exacting, make excellent troubleshooters, and are more likely to double- or triple-check their work before handing it in.

However, keep in mind that these personalities may perform poorly in high-pressure environments.

Training

Training employees about the importance of attention to detail is the first step to achieving the desired milestones and goals set for your business. Moreover, the aspects of your business in which more thorough attention is needed should be specifically outlined to the appropriate employees with training tailored to their unique business needs and contributions. Setting the right expectations upfront encourages workers to pay attention to the small details each and every time.

A training program can be set up accordingly by utilizing a work plan or task checklist with emphasis on areas such as employee and client relations, fiscal benchmarks, and data and operational accuracy for example. Training should be customized in a way that makes the most sense for your company’s business goals.

Track Employee Progress

Tracking employee progress and providing actionable feedback is pivotal to the growth of your workforce. In addition, it helps to build trust and motivate your employees to continually improve and strive for strong results in regards to attention to detail. Furthermore, facilitating feedback can lead to improved communication and effective completion of work tasks. When employees are tuned in to how their position ties in and relates to company goals, the potential for costly mistakes and errors are greatly reduced.

By following the three steps outlined above, your organization and employees will be on an empowered path to contribute quality work as a direct result of increased attention to detail. A few small changes can prove to be both beneficial in building up your company and hardworking personnel alike.


Liked this article? Read this one next: How to Make Employee Engagement a Daily Habit

• advice ×
• attention to detail ×
• benchmarking ×
• benchmarks ×
• communication ×
• communications ×
• culture ×
• data ×
• data analysis ×
• employee ×
• employee engagement ×
• employees ×
• employers ×
• feedback ×
• goals ×
• hiring ×
• manage ×
• management ×
• managers ×
• managing ×
• milestones ×
• organization ×
• organizational culture ×
• productivity ×
• quality ×
• results ×
• tips ×
• training ×
• trust
  

Your new business is finally up and running and you feel like a kid in a candy store. You are happy, you have all your ducks in a row, and you feel ready for that first sale. Here are five things that you need to know in order to be successful in your business now and in the future.

It's About the Experience
Make sure that your customer's journey is a pleasant one every single step of the way. Businesses thrive on customers having a great experience when buying a product or service, so it's up to you to make sure that this happens for the people that you serve.

Providing a good experience for customers is important for future growth and success because these customers are going to be able to speak well of their experience with your business. They're also the customers most likely to come back repeatedly.

Reputation is Important
Being able to manage your online reputation is important if you want to have a successful business. Once you've established a solid customer base, ask these customers to review you on outlets like Google and Yelp. Also, you can politely invite them to send in video testimonials of their experiences with your business, which you can use for marketing on your website.

By utilizing customer testimonials to manage your reputation, you'll be able to gain new customers faster because you have built a trust factor with your audience. If you're concerned about asking your customers for testimonials, don't be. Your customers will love to be involved in the process of your success and offer you their perspective on their positive experience in working with you.

Your Mindset Holds the Key
Some people say that the key to success is knowing how to make a sale. The true key to success is in your mindset.

Your mindset holds the key to your ability to be able to market yourself well to your target audience. If you have limiting beliefs on how many sales per month you can make or how many clients you can work with in one year, then you'll see that come to fruition in your business. Train your mindset so that you're setting yourself up for success and eliminating limiting beliefs from the get-go.

Your Business Shouldn’t Be a Replica of Someone Else’s
It's very easy when you're starting out in business to play the comparison game. Especially if your business is a year old or younger.

There may be people who have been in business at the same time as you and you see them and feel like they're crushing it with their sales goals and client testimonials and pretty photo shoots.

The truth is, your business shouldn't be a replica of anybody else's business. Your business is a living, breathing entity of its own that is specific to you and how you operate and who you serve. Don’t try to copy someone else.

Be at Peace with Failure
While you may feel like failure is one of the worst things that can happen in your new business, that could not be further from the truth.

Use failure as a stepping stone to learn what you need to know to run your business successfully. Everything in your business that doesn't work out the way you expected it to has a solution on the other side of it.

By using these five things as guideposts in your business, you're setting yourself up for success and less frustration when failure hits.
​
Want more ideas to help you succeed in business? Read all about The Business IDEA today!

• adversity×
• advertising×
• advice×
• brand×
• branding×
• business×
• business strategy×
• creative×
• creativity×
• customer experience×
• customers×
• customer service×
• design×
• enthusiasm×
• failure×
• feedback×
• growth×
• hacks×
• innovation×
• lifehacks×
• marketing×
• mentality×
• mindset×
• online×
• original×
• originality×
• outlook×
• reputation×
• research×
• reviews×
• sales×
• selling×
• setbacks×
• small business×
• small business owners×
• social×
• social media×
• strategic management×
• strategy×
• testimonials×
• tips×
• website

If your marketing strategy is older than three years, it could be time for an update. Moreover, if you find your messaging is not getting the results you want, maybe it's time to go back to basics. If you work on the fundamentals of a good marketing strategy, then the results should fall in place.

Revisit Your Audience Personas
It's vital for your company to understand the likes and dislikes, backgrounds, age groups, political affiliations, dreams, and aspirations of your ideal audience persona. Consider the type of audience that would be the best match for your product and/or service. If you haven't evaluated your audience personas in years, now is the time for an overhaul — especially if your products and services have changed over time. If something isn't "clicking" with your marketing, this may be the step you need to get back on track. You can then use your updated audience personas to get back in sync with their needs and wants. Sundance explains that all this information is vital to understanding how to interact meaningfully with your target market.

Understand Your Product and Service
For this step, perhaps you should take another look at analyzing your product and service. What market need does it meet? How is it unique from similar products and services? What sets it apart from your competitors? Enfusen reminds you that no one can market your product and service better than your company can. While you do need customer advocates, the basics of product marketing start with your understanding. And, if you can explain your product’s niche, price point, and the benefits in detail, then you are off to a running start.

Get to Know Your Competition
When getting back to marketing basics, your company might be so focused on your product line and customers that you forget any other obstacles that might be lurking around. MarketResearch.com warns that one such hurdle in your quest for market domination would be your competitors. It is critical to get to know your competition. You can learn from their mistakes and avoid similar pitfalls.

You can also gain a better understanding of why your target audience might purchase from them instead of your company. In addition, you might learn from their successes and apply some of their winning strategies. Not to mention, you can study their segment of the marketplace to find any opportunities to sell more of your products and services.

Embrace Strategic Partnerships
In order to grow, some companies need to find allies. For instance, if you look at the history of McDonald's, Ray Kroc partnered with local bakeries throughout the nation to ensure a consistent baked product for every McDonald's franchise. As far as your company stands, think of a partnership that can work in a mutually beneficial way. If your company sells lipstick, you might partner with an eye shadow brand to sell kits instead of individual pieces. In terms of marketing, you and your partner benefit from exposure to new consumers.

There you have it, the basics of marketing. At times, going back to basics is all it takes to get your company moving in a forward direction once more.

• advertising ×
• advice ×
• branding ×
• business ×
• business strategy ×
• competition ×
• corporate strategy ×
• customer service ×
• marketing ×
• revenue ×
• sales ×
• selling ×
• service ×
• small business ×
• target marketing ×
• tips
  

(BPT) - One of the latest business buzzwords this year is EX, or the employee experience. Organizations are beginning to realize that they need to create a positive employee experience in the same way they have focused on the customer experience. In this ever-tightening job market, it's mission critical to keep employees happy, fulfilled and challenged. Only then can they keep their customers happy. Focusing on EX means evaluating an employee's entire life cycle with the company, from before they even apply for a job to beyond their last day. It's so critical that Forbes even dubbed 2018 the Year of the Employee Experience. 

What is the EX, exactly? EX is not just about what it's like to work day-to-day in the office, and it's not about benefits, half-day Fridays, sleeping pods, beer fridges in the break room and other fun perks, though those things do enter into it. But EX is deeper and more meaningful than that. It's about truly engaging employees. Employee engagement (EE) and EX are intertwined so closely they can be called one and the same.

The problem with EE: There's a disconnect

In a recent study, Dale Carnegie found that 70 percent of top executives believe that employee engagement has a strong impact on financial performance. In a similar study, Deloitte found that 85 percent of company leaders say EE is an important strategic priority, but Dale Carnegie found that just 31 percent of front-line employees and managers strongly agreed that their company is actually making engagement a top priority.

Clearly, there's a disconnect between what execs are saying and what employees are feeling. That's because there's a piece left out of this puzzle: the employees' managers.

The key to aligning executive priorities with what employees are experiencing lies in the management chain. Managers need to be enabled and empowered to engage their teams on a daily basis. It means getting managers the training they need to engage their teams, by making it a strategic priority and creating a culture of engagement. Dale Carnegie programs teach the skills managers need and can help organizations do the right things to increase overall employee engagement.

Ways to increase employee engagement

Focus on getting managers and supervisors the skills they need. Immediate supervisors and managers are on the front lines of employee engagement. Leaders at all levels need to understand that the way they interact with their employees and direct reports matters to the company's bottom line. Open a dialogue with managers about EE, and listen to what they're saying about what works and what doesn't, and if they're frustrated, give them the tools and training necessary for change.

Get CEO buy-in. If your CEO does not have employee engagement on his or her priority list, the effort is doomed to fail. Make sure the CEO has the facts on employee engagement, and the knowledge that it needs to start at the top. EE needs to be treated like any other strategic priority.
Align policies with EE. You need employee-supportive policies and procedures, such as a standard performance evaluation policy. But it also means changing policies that are barriers to engagement. Are there processes and procedures working at cross-purpose with engagement efforts? If so, change them. How are your rewards and recognition programs designed? What do you reward and recognize? Are they making your employees feel valued? It requires going through your policies with a critical eye, and the willingness to change what's not working.
​

Employee engagement needs to be on the top of the priority list for top executives, managers and supervisors, and that's no easy task. But in this ever-tightening job market, with greener grass just a click away on a job seeker's app, keeping all of your employees happy, engaged and fulfilled is the key to your company's competitive advantage.

• advice×
• best practices×
• BPT×
• Brandpoint×
• Brandpoint Content×
• CEO×
• companies×
• company×
• competitive advantage×
• culture×
• Dale Carnegie×
• dialogue×
• employee×
• employee benefits×
• employee engagement×
• employees×
• engage×
• engagement×
• EX×
• hacks×
• HR×
• HRM×
• human resources×
• lifehacks×
• listen×
• listening×
• manage×
• management×
• managers×
• organization×
• organizational culture×
• perks×
• policies×
• policy×
• procedure×
• procedures×
• tip×
• tips×
• train×
• training

Creating a just workplace should be a top priority of all business owners. Fair workplaces are one of the cornerstones of strong businesses, and civil rights movements have affected workplaces in many ways, providing better opportunities and better workplaces for everyone. Several civil rights movements have made substantial changes possible, and here's a brief rundown of three of the biggest ones.

Mental Health Awareness and Support
The Americans With Disabilities Act requires that employers provide equality for people with disabilities in the workplace. This includes people with psychiatric conditions. Under this law, employers can't deny hiring, demote, or deny training opportunities to someone based on their psychiatric condition.

Employers have also come up with programs to ensure employees with mental health conditions have access to the care that they need, including doctor's visits through insurance providers and accommodations for people with psychiatric conditions.

Work Equality
Equality in the workplace covers many groups. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers aren't allowed to discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sex, and religion. With this law, employers must give equal opportunity for employment, and they can't discriminate against someone based on these criteria for pay and advancement. This civil rights attorney explains that many states have several additional civil rights statutes which can be utilized in cases involving discrimination, harassment or violence and which allow for penalties, attorneys’ fees, compensation, and change.

Age Discrimination
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 requires employers to not discriminate against people based on age. This means that people cannot be discriminated during hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation, or terms. Creating a workforce of diverse ages also provides more stability for companies.

This career and job specialist explains that people of different ages have varying perspectives that they can use to inform each other. For instance, a 65-year-old woman might understand the utility of a particular product, but a 25-year-old worker might understand a younger consumer better. Businesses that have a wider range of ages also don't need to worry as much that all of their employees will retire within a few years of each other or all younger employees will be vying for a limited number of promotions.

Equality in the workplace benefits everyone, and employers should take the time to learn more ways that they can create a more just workplace. Businesses that merely work to be in compliance with the law rather than truly promoting an equitable work environment are losing out on opportunities to create a stronger business.

Here are a couple articles we think you’ll like:

• Family Doctors Remind People That #MentalHealthMatters
• Aiding Aging Parents

• advice ×
• age ×
• attorney ×
• business strategy ×
• career ×
• careers ×
• corporate strategy ×
• employees ×
• employers ×
• employment law ×
• firing ×
• hiring ×
• HR ×
• HRM ×
• human resources ×
• law ×
• lawyer ×
• legal ×
• management ×
• managers ×
• promotion ×
• strategic management ×
• strategy ×
• tips