Concise communication can help technical teams clearly relay complex information, a crucial collaborative element as the workforce shifts online.
To enhance effective communication in-house, employers across industries are increasingly seeking soft skills during the recruiting and hiring process. In the remote work era, organisations are often compartmentalised, siloed into specific departments with minimal overlap between teams, however, developers, programmers, and IT professionals routinely must collaborate across the business structure to achieve common objectives.
Effective communication requires a host of considerations including the ability to clearly and concisely relay technical information. Mastering the art of brevity in communication is a helpful way to further boost one’s soft skill set.
“Soft skills are critically important for all professionals, especially those in a supportive function. IT professionals and programmers tend to be linear thinkers and goal-focused, but also, they have their own vernacular and their own technical language, pun not intended, that may not be easily understood by the people that they’re working with or serving,” said Cheryl Dixon, communications executive and adjunct professor, Columbia University.
To learn more about ways to deliver crisp, compact language we sought advice from a number of organizations across the communications and tech sector. Here are seven tips to help technical members of the workforce streamline collaboration and boost their soft skills.
Define key terms
As teams continue to work remotely during the coronavirus pandemic, many organisations are leveraging a spectrum of communication tools such as Teams, Slack, Zoom, and more. These tools lack the richness inherent in face-to-face communication further increasing the risk of indeterminacy. That said, one of the most imperative aspects of succinct communication is reducing the risk of miscommunication.
“Define your terms. Miscommunications often occur when people think that they’re talking about the same thing, but are talking about different things. By defining your terms, it can help ensure that everybody is on the same page when they’re talking about something,” said Max Boyd, data science lead at Kaskada.
Similarly, by defining key terms, you are able to more succinctly carry on a conversation without long explanatory parentheticals peppered into discourse. Additionally, if terms are defined on Slack, for example, the end-user now also has a ledger and reference point if they need clarification down the road.
Be concise, not quick
Remember there is a difference between brevity and expeditiousness; haste may eventually require further remediation. Remember, with concise communication, each word carries tremendous weight, so make them count and consider their impact in advance. As mentioned, limited messenger platforms are prone to misinterpretations. Concise communication may require more forethought than a traditional in-person conversation.
“‘Concise’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘quick.’ Taking a little bit of extra time to read and clarify what you wrote before hitting send—and understanding your objectives—will cost you a bit of time in the short term, but will pay back large returns on investment in terms of time spent reading and talking,” Boyd said.
Ask questions
At times, concise communication functions optimally with redundancy built-in. To do so, it’s imperative to routinely check in with your audience during the conversation. Before taking the next step, first make sure everyone is one the same page. Similar to defining terms, regular inquiry and mindfulness can decrease the risk of confusion.
“Ask questions to check in for understanding. When working with IT partners, people might feel intimidated or feel foolish if they don’t understand some of the technology — so they may not ask the questions they need to. So, checking in for understanding and comprehension as you go along is going to be key,” Dixon said.
Remember to take pause
Effective communication involves active listening and planning. Rather than waiting for your turn to talk or present a set of ideas, it’s important to listen carefully, keeping in mind the ideas presented during fluid conversations. Before stating a particular point, take pause to ensure you’re approaching the next step in a way that takes into account the other person’s points, while also moving toward the common objective.
Put the audience in the picture
In the age of daily video conferences and Zoom Fatigue, it’s imperative to engage the audience. An actively involved, attentive audience is more likely to be aware of the points being discussed and retain this information moving forward. Maintaining the listener’s attention will reduce the risk of needing to backtrack later in the conversation. Illustrating the various ways in which the ideas presented will directly impact a person is an easy way to accomplish engagement.
“Humans are innately biased towards ideas and activities that have a direct impact on them,” said Patrick Ward, director of marketing at Rootstrap.
“Rather than communicating every aspect of a particular issue, a better strategy is to identify the other person’s motivations and share information that is specifically relevant to that motivation and nothing else,” Ward continued. “This is not dishonest, and the other person is not awful for not caring: It’s simply a case that humans, especially within the tech industry, have an enormous cognitive overload and therefore must prioritise what they focus their attention on at any given point in time.”
Incorporate abstract concepts and metaphors
Programming, development, and IT are hinged on discernible, duplicatable processes and strategies. While this concrete realm of standard operating procedures may not readily lend itself to the use of abstractions, the use of these devices and metaphors may help others understand complex material. The use of everyday examples can help technical teams break down complex information into more digestible portions. These concise communicative segments can illustrate a larger framework in a more approachable way.
“While a non-engineer might not understand what a SQL database is, we might still communicate salient points about the size or structure of our data by using concepts familiar to anyone who has used Excel. Similarly, we might compare full-stack feature development to the construction of a physical house, or we might compare a code review conversation to the process of editing a Google Document,” said Lusen Mendel, Karat director of Developer Relations.
Think about your communication profile
Overall, organisations are a patchwork of departments brimming with various personality types. As a result, concise communication will need to be tailored for a particular audience. The communicative equation that works for one person may not necessarily work with another.
CEO of Avantra John Appleby brought up the DISC personality assessment tool. This system looks at communication in terms of Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness, and Steadiness. These tests build a communication profile of sorts, enabling enhanced collaboration between different DISC “types.”
“If you’re having a conversation with someone who demonstrates ‘C’ style communication traits, be super precise in your ask, set clear expectations and lay out the deadlines. But, remember, this doesn’t define personality. It’s simply someone’s default communication style. A comfortable exchange would be one that’s structured and backed by facts,” Appleby said.
Our expert IT recruitment consultants are here to take the pressure off you when recruiting someone new, permanent or contract. We liaise with candidates with the utmost care to ensure that their candidate experience is a positive one. Call us on 0207 788 6600 and let us help you Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.
Brevity is a lost art in this age of data overload, but there are three tips you can master in order to improve your communication skills.
People are inundated with information, and their brains have reached a saturation point. If you want to get someone’s attention, you must be brief, according to Joe McCormack.
There are three tendencies that keep most people from being brief:
The tendency of overexplaining
The tendency of under preparing
The tendency to completely miss the point
“If we can overcome those tendencies we can get to the point and we have so much to gain,” said McCormack, who is the author of Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less.
People spend about 8 hours a day consuming media. “By that I mean it could be television, radio, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. It’s a constant consumption of information. We’re drinking from a proverbial fire hose. So when you look at the world around you, the mind is really, really burdened,” McCormack said.
This means that people have low attention spans, and their brains are weakening because they’re consuming so much information. As a result, everyone must adapt to that and learn how to be brief, he said.
It’s possible to overcome the three tendencies that keep people from being brief. And people will hear your message if you say less. They will be able to focus on your point and the message.
Tendency #1: Over explaining
Many people overexplain. To overcome this, think about all of the things you can talk about on a topic. Trim the less essential information, and keep only the essential components.
People speak 150 words a minute, but people can process 750 words a minute. This means if your presentation isn’t on target, people’s minds have 600 leftover words floating around their brain, and typically they will start to think about other things. “You’re hearing what he’s saying but you’re thinking other things. You’re thinking ‘he’s an idiot, where did he go to school?'” McCormack said, calling those 600 words the “elusive 600.”
Tendency #2: Under preparing
“To be concise and clear, it’s a balance of being clear and concise. You can be too brief,” McCormack said, quoting the French philosopher Blaise Pascal, who said, “I would have written you a shorter letter if I had more time.”
If you don’t prepare, you cannot be brief, because you don’t know what the key points are. This is useful in job interviews, for instance, when you’re asked to tell a little about yourself, and why you want to work at a company. One way to prepare is to create a mind map, which is a visible outline on paper to help organize your thoughts. Assemble your thoughts in advance and be prepared, he said.
Tendency #3: Completely missing the point
“You’re at work, and it’s late in the afternoon, and somebody knocks on your door and they say, ‘have you got a minute?’ Nobody is so busy that they don’t have a minute. And the person starts talking and talking and talking and you start thinking, ‘what is their point?’ And they don’t even know. They think the more they talk the point will emerge. At some point your elusive 600 occurs and you get annoyed,” he said.
“That point is a headline,” he said. “Think and speak in headlines.”
If the same person had walked into the room and said, “the project that I’m working on, it’s behind schedule but I have a fix for it,” then the person listening would pay more attention and actually hear the trimmed down version of the information,” he said.
It’s essential to start your communication, whether it’s an email, a conversation, a speech or a meeting, with a headline. Sum up the topic concisely. If it’s an email, don’t write “update” in the subject line. Put the headline in the subject line, he said.
McCormack’s 3 suggestions
McCormack offered three suggestions to improve brevity:
Map your message first
Lead with a headline
Trim away excess detail
“If I say 150 words a minute, and you can hear 750 words a minute, the less I say, the more you hear. The more you say, the less they’re going to hear,” he said.
Our expert IT recruitment consultants are here to take the pressure off you when recruiting someone new, permanent or contract. We liaise with candidates with the utmost care to ensure that their candidate experience is a positive one. Call us on 0207 788 6600 and let us help you Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.
With working from home looking more like a long-term reality than a short-term solution, Jenny Perkins explains how employers can keep workers engaged
The UK government is now letting employers decide if the time is right to bring office-based staff back to work. So far, many have decided not to. In fact, British Chamber of Commerce research found that 62 per cent of employers expect some or all of their staff to remain working remotely at least for the next 12 months. Health secretary Matt Hancock has suggested that the right to work from home could be more strongly enshrined in law as it becomes “the norm”. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has also said employees can carry on working from home “forever”.
When it comes to the future of work, there is no shortage of views on what the ‘new normal’ will entail. But one thing that researchers and commentators everywhere agree on is that remote working will become a lot more prevalent.
So, what have we learned since we went into lockdown in March that could help us make remote working work well for employers and employees alike?
Although working from home has become increasingly widespread in recent years, not every employer actively supported it. Many felt that for employees to be really productive, they needed to be in the office. All too often, this stemmed from a lack of trust. Many managers like to see where their teams are and what they’re doing. Lockdown forced a sudden and seismic change as more managers had to let go and become more flexible.
Trust and flexibility are key as we take tentative steps back towards the office. It looks like many organisations will adopt a hybrid model, combining that time in the office with more remote working. As we enter this period of transition, leaders and managers have a critical role to play.
When planning for the future, we need to ask employees what they want. We are going to see an increase in formal requests for flexible working, so be proactive about offering flexibility and choice. We can keep this conversation alive as guidelines and circumstances change. The future is uncertain, but if employees feel they are listened to, they are more likely to feel an active part of that future.
Every manager is now faced with challenges they have never had to deal with before. Many who have previously had a strong preference for sitting in a shared office space with their teams have had to make changes to their leadership style. This isn’t always easy, and organisations can provide valuable support. Virtual learning offers opportunities for development that can be implemented quickly. You may benefit from building skills such as virtual leadership and managing remote workers across your organisation. This learning can cover specific areas such as listening skills to help managers build that all-important trust. Coaching can also be invaluable during periods of transition, helping managers to reflect on their behavior and find new ways to deal with issues.
A positive and supportive culture is of course key to building trust and keeping people engaged in our virtual world. And often getting together face-to-face helps us to build that company culture. Again, managers have a critical role to play in building this culture. Virtual coffees, quizzes and online events all help. However, ultimately great cultures come from employees feeling valued and trusted. Informal conversations, support networks, and a focus on wellbeing and work/life balance are important. Rewards and recognition help, too. Some big corporates, such as Citigroup and RB, have given all employees a day off as a thank you for going the extra mile during the Covid crisis.
The role of the manager as a coach has really come to the fore in recent months. Many have found new ways of building relationships of trust as we support employees to adopt healthy and productive new ways of working. As ‘new’ becomes ‘normal’ we all need to keep building that trust and create the future of work together.
Our expert IT recruitment consultants are here to take the pressure off you when recruiting someone new, permanent or contract. We liaise with candidates with the utmost care to ensure that their candidate experience is a positive one. Call us on 0207 788 6600 and let us help you Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.
IT professionals work in a field that is inherently susceptible to change. While bedrock concepts such as software development, administration of networks or operating systems and security requirements have been in place for decades, infrastructural evolution is a factor that has grown more prevalent in recent years. In the 1990s many system administrators got Novell CNE (Certified Novell Engineer) or Microsoft MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certifications and then dwelt fairly predictably within those realms. Now, however, mobile and cloud computing, the rise of big data and the importance of business continuity/disaster recovery have made today’s tech landscape a very different place from the almost quaint era of desktop client/server management and exclusively in-house systems.
This evolution had a significant impact on information technology employment and the available career options therein. Many types of jobs can now be performed remotely (or overseas, provoking more global competition), physical systems are being replaced by virtualized editions and entire data centers are moving up to the cloud, endangering certain traditional roles – while also laying the groundwork for new opportunities.
It’s been said for years now that IT workers would benefit from stronger business knowledge in order to remain competitive. This factor is undoubtedly important as occupational lines are blurring – the system administrator parked in the server room fixing problems while avoiding human contact is being replaced by the technology and communications expert well-versed in training and project management, offering face-to-face solutions geared towards meeting company needs rather than establishing them.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that while business skills come in handy to establish relevance and prove one’s value, focusing on the right technologies is an even bigger part of the picture – it represents the foundation of the trade. Business skills are only useful when they are wedded to meaningful technology to capitalize upon them.
Our expert IT recruitment consultants are here to take the pressure off you when recruiting someone new, permanent or contract. We liaise with candidates with the utmost care to ensure that their candidate experience is a positive one. Call us on 0207 788 6600 and let us help you Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.
A new report from Kudelski Security provides companies tips for how to recruit and retain talent up for the digital challenges of tomorrow.
The market for top cybersecurity talent will remain competitive in the years ahead, as this first-line network defense is prioritised and buttressed for the rigors of tomorrow. Gartner estimates that nearly two million security positions will remain vacant through 2022. To provide organisations with insights to identify, recruit, and train premium cybersecurity professionals, Kudelski Security released a report titled “Cyber Business Executive Research: Building the Future of Security Leadership.”
The report was created in partnership with the firm’s Client Advisory Council and utilises information gleaned from surveys and interviews with more than 100 American and European CISOs.
Key findings: The importance of CISO soft skills
On the security leader side, the report highlights the invaluable need for soft skills such as strong communication and team-building capabilities alongside technical know-how. Interestingly enough, 82% of CISOs interviewed believed these communication skills to be critical. This compared to about half (52%) of individuals who believed hands-on technology experience to be critical.
Interpersonal talents will provide the CISO with the communication skills required to aptly manage emergent organisational models featuring increased telecommuting in the years ahead. Specifically, the report notes that ideal CISOs will have a 50/50 balance of both technical knowledge and this increasingly prioritised soft skill set, as this combination of talent both is currently rather rare among these professionals.
Insights for security leaders, and recruiters
Overall, the report details the principle difficulties surrounding hiring and retaining well-equipped security leaders. To assist, the report also provides insights to aspiring security leaders and executive recruiters, ranging from brand building and advice for building a network of future talent to protocols for handling the often lengthy CISO recruiting process.
Executive recruiters
Kudelski Security details protocols for talent acquisition to ensure long-term company health, especially in the event of CISO vacancies in-house. The respondent CISOs recommend that executive recruiters look across industries to find premium candidates, especially if their specific industry is known to be lagging in modern cybersecurity measures.
Approximately half of American CISOs and more than 90% of European respondents reported that the average recruiting time to bring in a new CISO is between six months to a year. As a result of these lengthy vacancy periods, it’s recommended that executive recruiters utilise an interim virtual CISO during the search for the ideal candidate.
It’s also recommended that companies start to consider “nurturing a talent pipeline” of candidates in the military, universities, and technical schools. Similarly, the report also reiterates the importance of identifying current employees with industry knowledge, the aforementioned soft skills, and “some ambition for career growth” as these individuals can eventually helm leading security positions with adequate training and mentorship.
Security leaders
For those security leaders with CISO aspirations, it’s suggested that these individuals begin to build key relationships in their industry and use social media platforms to increase their visibility and build their brand. Nearly one-third (29%) of those interviewed believed that risk management and compliance as well as governance positions are the “best pre-CISO” roles for aspiring security leaders.
Our expert IT recruitment consultants are here to take the pressure off you when recruiting someone new, permanent or contract. We liaise with candidates with the utmost care to ensure that their candidate experience is a positive one. Call us on 0207 788 6600 and let us help you Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.
Are You Getting the Most from Azure DevOps’ capabilities?
Join us and Luke Miles, CIPFA’s Development Manager, for a live webinar on Thursday 30th July 2020 at 7pm to learn:
The What and Why of Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD)
Simple strategies to get up and running quickly with Azure DevOps
Key feature highlights of Microsoft’s Azure DevOps tooling
Register your interest by emailing Richard Jones at richard@langleyjames.com who’ll send you a Zoom invite.
Background:
Continuous Integration and Deployment have been long-standing practices within our industry. Teams large and small have leveraged these practices to improve how they deliver solutions to their users. With the emergence of DevOps, tooling has only improved, allowing teams to quickly adopt these practices without the need for weeks of manual scripting or long procurement processes holding it up.
Azure DevOps is one of Microsoft’s offerings to teams looking to leverage these practices. Azure DevOps provides developer services help teams plan work, collaborate on code development, and build/deploy applications.
Register interest today and hear Luke Miles explain his experiences with Microsoft’s Azure DevOps tooling and how it can help streamline your software development processes.
Expected Duration: 1 hour (40 min presentation & 20 min Q&A)
Our expert IT recruitment consultants are here to take the pressure off you when recruiting someone new, permanent or contract. We liaise with candidates with the utmost care to ensure that their candidate experience is a positive one. Call us on 0207 788 6600 and let us help you Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.
Remote workers all over the world are climatising to the new way of life, settling into newly forged daily routines, and getting to grips with the clever technologies that make it all possible. Online video software has allowed us all to not only replicate our old office ways but vastly improve how our meetings work using combinations of an ever-growing number of handy tools and content options. But are you using it appropriately when conducting interviews?
When it comes to meeting prospective new hires online, there are big differences between interviews and our in-house meetings. Put yourself in the shoes of the remote candidate: You’ve read the company website, some press releases and the job description, and been told to attend an online meeting with two people you’ve never met on a laptop, sat in your second bedroom. Sounds cold right? As a Hiring Manager, how are you going to replace the shiny branded signage, the welcoming receptionist, and the touchy-feely, face to face interview experience?
Here is some experienced advice from the Langley James recruitment team to help you get the most from your online interviews.
1 – Test the Tech
The backbone of any successful online meeting is reliable technology. Preventative action and an awareness of the variables that threaten success is key, and never assume people know your tech.
Check your own equipment including software updates, speakers, microphones, headgear, batteries, internet connection, and be certain of your own login credentials. Map the meeting process from invite to close and look for ways it could go wrong. For example, if the candidate hasn’t used your meeting platform before they’ll be invited as a guest. Using an off-network computer and a personal email address, pretend to be a candidate and follow the steps from their side, then write instructions and an equipment checklist that can form part of your interview invitation. This may seem like hard work, but you’ll only need to do it once and will give you the confidence that it’ll work every time.
2 – Have a Plan B
Despite rigorous testing and avid preparation, it might all go horribly wrong. Fear not! Providing you’ve planned ahead and obtained the candidate’s phone number and/or email address you can simply perform a telephone interview.
Sometimes it’s not that serious and the meeting can indeed be salvaged. Build a troubleshooting checklist featuring found and personal experiences so you can take action or offer advice on the spot. For example, in the event of glitchy video, simply switching off other bandwidth-hungry devices on your or their network might help. If not, switching off the camera may result in improved audio. Whatever the problem, try to preempt a workaround.
3 – Be Organised and Leave Nothing to Chance
Having an organised agenda and a planned format should be a standard requirement for all interviews but for online meetings, it is nothing short of essential.
You might want to consider giving candidates the same professional experience you would give a new client. Send out an ‘interview pack’ containing dates and times, an informal statement describing the role and why its important, some company info, the job description, a clear meeting agenda, a list of the interviewers and their roles in the process, and above all, crystal clear instructions on how to attend and what to do if they experience problems. Ask yourself, would you be impressed or bewildered? If its the latter, there’s more work to be done.
4 – Block Out the Time and Avoid Distractions
Remember, you’re trying to simulate a face to face interview. With that in mind, visualise your old interview environment and take note. You probably didn’t have your computer with you and your phone was set to silent, you were somewhere quiet, away from distractions and you looked at the candidate in the eye while talking, aware that you needed to appear alert, interested and engaged at all times.
Being online, you’ll be sat at your computer so, apply the above to the new scenario. Turn off notifications, minimise your email and other message systems, select ‘do not disturb’ on your online meeting software, and put your phone on silent. Remember, this is a live meeting so apply all your usual social graces, look out for facial expressions and signs of engagement, and keep still where possible.
5 – Be Ready
Many Hiring Managers have an intention to plan but often, simply turn up to an interview with a pen, paper, and a largely unread CV, still warm from the printer. Instead, decide to deliver a professional interview. Read your own job description and prepare the questions. Remind yourself of the key skills, traits, and experiences required for the vacancy and read the candidate’s CV making note of any areas to explore. Decide on how you want the interview structured and stick to it. It’s not hard and will yield better results, but it won’t create itself. Book a specific time in your diary to do it.
6 Look the Part
Yes, we’re working from home and yes, many of us have ditched the suits or smart casual gear in favour of jeans and t-shirts. While this may be an accepted, unspoken theme of today’s remote workforce, its important to remember that as a Hiring Manager you are responsible for giving the best possible first impression of your company. As such, dress accordingly. Presumably, you’re expecting the candidate to be well presented so why shouldn’t you?
7 Prepare a Quality Outro
Interested or not, always leave a good taste at the end of the interview. Explain what will happen next and offer some feedback if appropriate. Ask them if they have any questions and take the time to answer them properly. Be certain to thank them for their time and interest in the company.
There you have it. 7 vital tips on how to conduct a good online video interview designed to improve your selection choices and impress the socks off your candidates. Remember, you are likely to be the only person the candidate has ever spoken with from your company so, their impression of the business relies entirely on you. Happy interviewing!
Our expert IT recruitment consultants are here to take the pressure off you when recruiting someone new, permanent or contract. We liaise with candidates with the utmost care to ensure that their candidate experience is a positive one. Call us on 0207 788 6600 and let us help you Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.
Declines in consumer confidence and decreased sales can threaten all businesses, but small businesses can be particularly vulnerable. They often don’t have reserves to help them weather difficult times. From protecting your cash flow to building your customer base, implementing a few practices in advance can help recession-proof your business so it survives and even thrives during economic downturns.
Protect Your Cash Flow
Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. Money must continue inflowing and outflowing for optimum business health, with the obvious goal being that you bring in more income than you must spend on expenses. You’ll have expenses as long as your business exists.
Note: Admittedly, it can be hard to keep the cash flowing in. Recession-proof your business by implementing strategies to keep the cash flow moving, from increasing sales or billable services to trimming unnecessary expenses.
Review Inventory Management
See if anything can be done to reduce your inventory costs without sacrificing the quality of goods sold or inconveniencing your customers. Maybe you’re ordering too many of particular items, or something can be sourced somewhere else at a better price. Is there a drop-shipping alternative that will work for you so you can eliminate shipping and warehousing costs?
Note: Just because you’ve always ordered something from a particular supplier or done things in a particular way doesn’t mean that you have to keep doing things that way, especially when other ways can save you money.
Focus on Core Competencies
Small business owners often simplify the concept of “diversification,” translating it to simply “different.”
Simply adding other products or services to your offerings isn’t diversification. At best, it’s a waste of time and money. Worse, it can damage your core business by taking your time and your money away from what you do best, damaging your brand and reputation.
Note: Drop the extras and focus on what you do best that’s most profitable.
Win the Competition’s Customers
You must continue to expand your customer/client base if your small business is going to prosper in tough times. This means drawing customers from your competition.
Offer something more or different than what the other guy does. Research your competition and see what you can do to entice their customers into becoming your customers. How are your competitors advertising? Visit their business locations. Ask consumers what they like or don’t like about those companies, then tweak your own business practices accordingly.
Make the Most of Current Customers
We’ve all heard the old adage that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. The bird in the hand is your customer or client, and they’re an opportunity to make more sales without incurring the costs of finding new customers.
Even better, they might be loyal customers, giving you many more sales opportunities. You can’t afford to ignore the potential profits of shifting your sales focus to include established customers if you want to recession-proof your business.
The key here is excellent customer service. Ensure that your customers or clients love what you do or sell, and keep them happy. Yes, that means the customer is always right. Identify their needs, then meet them. You want to retain their business all costs. This is more important during a recession than at any other time.2
Don’t Cut Back on Marketing
Many small businesses make the mistake of cutting their marketing budget to the bone in lean times, or even eliminating it entirely, but this is exactly when your small business needs marketing the most.
Consumers are restless. They’re always looking to make changes in their buying decisions. Help them find your products and services and to choose them rather than others by getting your name out there. Don’t quit marketing. Step up your marketing efforts.
Watch Your Credit Scores
Hard times make it harder to borrow, and small business loans are often among the first to feel the squeeze, particularly for businesses with iffy credit ratings. Monitor yours frequently and keep on top of them. There are three major business credit bureaus and each assesses your business’s creditworthiness differently:
– Experian
– Equifax
– Dunn & Bradstreet3
Note: Keep tabs on your personal credit rating as well and do whatever is necessary to keep both in good shape.
You’ll stand a much better chance of being able to borrow the money you need to keep your business afloat if you have good personal credit as well. And keep in mind that the U.S. Small Business Administration makes easy-qualifying loans available during times of national economic crisis, in addition to its usual funding programs.
The Bottom Line
Nothing will make your small business 100% recession-proof, but implementing these can help ensure that your business survives tough times and possibly even profits from them. It all begins with analyzing how you’re doing things now and looking for ways to improve.
86% of people working from home in the US, Canada, and the UK don’t think it’s time to head back, according to a new survey.
The coronavirus pandemic has officially transformed the workplace, as many governments and companies shifted employees to working from home during the global health crisis. According to a recent survey by Gartner, more than half of organisations surveyed said that at least 81% of their employees are working remotely during COVID-19—and even after the crisis subsides, working from home may be here to stay.
Still, the economic toll of the pandemic, and its disruptions to daily life, are causing many to consider how—and when––companies can bring employees back to the office. President Trump, for instance, recently tweeted that he is focusing on “getting America back to work.”
Still, the uncertainty of the situation and the broad lack of testing are cause for concern for many workers. During a phone call with Trump, a group of business executives told the president that more testing was required before Americans “would be confident enough to return to work, eat at restaurants or shop in retail establishments.”
A whopping 86% of workers say it’s too soon to go back to the office, according to a new survey by O.C. Tanner of 1,581 employees in the US, Canada, and the UK.
“As part of our survey, we asked employees why it was too early to return to work,” said Alexander Lovell, director of research and assessment at O.C. Tanner. “The most common answer? ‘People are still getting sick.’ The virus is still spreading, and employees are monitoring these developments closely. They point to the evidence that people can be asymptomatic and continue to spread the virus. As one employee related, ‘What if I killed my 58-year-old co-worker? I might have it and simply not know.'”
As for when, exactly, workers should consider returning to work, the survey, taken April 19 and 20, shows:
4% — this week
5% — next week
19% — in 2-4 weeks
26% — in one month
34% — 2-3 months from now
13% — longer than three months from now
Some employees did not believe that it was too soon to return to work. Workers who did not live alone—they had a spouse, partner, or roommate—were three times more likely to fall in this category, suggesting that working from home with others might take a deeper toll or impact productivity.
Additionally, employees with school-age children who must now be taught from home were two and a half times more likely to fall in the camp of thinking it was not too soon to consider going back to work, according to the study. This also suggested that the office environment might be a welcome relief from a new life of working and home-schooling.
The fourth COVID-19 Pulse Survey also revealed that 77% of US CFOs are planning to change workplace safety measures and that 2020 is a “lost year.”
Some 32% of US chief financial officers are anticipating layoffs in the next six months—up from 26% two weeks ago—and 49% are planning to make remote work a permanent option for roles that allow it, according to PwC’s fourth COVID-19 Pulse Survey released Monday.
Layoffs in traditional manufacturing are expected to be higher and lower in financial services, where roles tend to lend themselves to remote work, PwC officials said during a noontime conference call to discuss the latest survey results.
Additional findings are that 77% of US CFOs anticipate changing workplace safety measures upon returning to on-site work, as employers focus on protecting employees, 65% anticipate reconfiguring work sites to promote physical distancing, and 52% anticipate changing and/or alternating shifts to reduce exposure, the survey found.
In talks with dozens of CFOs in the past couple of weeks, foremost on their minds is not just the question of how to get people safely back to physical offices but “what does work look like going forward,” in light of the fact that remote work is proving effective, said PwC Chair Tim Ryan. Other questions Ryan said he’s hearing are about how companies should be managing costs and productivity needs.
But consistently, the “main theme” is about employee safety, he said.
“Virtually every company we speak with is putting the health and well-being of employees as a top priority and as they think about coming back to work, that’s first and foremost on their minds,” Ryan added.
“Lost year”
Over 300 CFOs responded to the most recent survey, which PwC conducts every two weeks, the firm said. The key themes where responses have changed between this survey and the last one reveal differences from a sector perspective, said Amity Millhiser, PwC’s chief clients officer. The biggest sentiments are around businesses returning to the workplace and the effect on the workforce, especially in furloughs and layoffs and impact on revenue and earnings, Millhiser said.
On the return to the workplace, 65% of CFOs said their companies will reconfigure worksites to promote physical distance, and “companies will increasingly look to digital solutions to adapt to physical distancing,” she said.
Some will do some contact tracing and there will be a greater emphasis on “that kind of technology” as opposed to manual workarounds as technology becomes available and the new normal for how companies work in offices, Millhiser said.
Workforce health and safety will also become “a critical job benefit” and more technologies will be leveraged in traditional offices and increasing remote workforces, she added.
As they were two weeks ago, CFOs remain pretty evenly split on how long it will be to get “back to normal,” Millhiser said.
Protecting cash and liquidity positions is paramount for CFOs, the survey found. “Financial impacts of COVID-19, including effects on liquidity and capital resources, remain the top concern of CFOs (71%). Over half (56%) say they are changing company financing plans, up from 46% two weeks ago,” the survey said.
Approaches they’re taking include hiring freezes and tightening controls on discretionary costs, such as ending travel and the use of contractors, according to the survey. At the same time, investments are being made in areas that are considered important to companies’ future growth, including digital transformation, customer experience, and cybersecurity and privacy initiatives, the survey said.
More than half (53%) said they are projecting losses to be greater than 10% this year. While experiences and changes differ by sector, the combination of the increased negative impact on earnings and revenue and the longer time to come back to normal is leading many CFOs to conclude that 2020 is “a lost year for them,” Millhiser said.
As states start to lift stay-at-home orders and reopen local economies, 52% of CFO respondents said their businesses could return to normal in less than three months if COVID-19 were to end immediately, the survey said.
New insight from survey data shows that less than a quarter of respondents (22%) indicate they plan to implement contact tracing as part of their plan to reopen their workplaces.
PwC also announced it has created a Check-In with Automatic Contact Tracing tool that allows companies to help quickly identify and alert employees who may have come into contact with a co-worker who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Additional survey results
The top concern of CFOs:
71% of respondents indicate that financial impacts remain a top concern.
Revenue:
80% of respondents expect that COVID-19 will decrease their company’s revenue and/or profits this year.
12% of respondents report that COVID-19’s impact on revenue and/or profits is still too difficult to assess at present.
5% of respondents expect a decrease in revenue of over 50%.
Financial actions:
86% are considering implementing cost containment (up 4 percentage points).
70% are considering deferring or canceling planned investments. Of these respondents, 80% are considering delaying or canceling facilities/general CapEx, 62% considering workforce, and 48% considering IT.
40% of CFOs are indicating no change to their strategies (up 6 percentage points) while 15% indicated an increased appetite for M&A.
91% plan to include a discussion of COVID-19 in upcoming external reporting.
50% plan to include discussion around COVID-19 in financial statements.
Supply chains:
56% are planning to develop additional, alternate sourcing options for their supply chains.
54% are planning to understand the financial and operational health of their suppliers.
“We are seeing many geographies being considered [for additional sourcing], not just domestically—and frankly, there’s a lot of excitement about that,” Ryan said. Stressing that “there’s a long tail” with adding additional suppliers, he said areas besides the US that can expect to see an uptick in sourcing include Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as Mexico and Canada.
“If you were to unplug with China completely, it’s a firehose,” Ryan added. “You’ll see many geographies benefit, all in the name of diversification.”
Whether due to budget cuts or performance, letting staff go is sometimes a necessity, even during a pandemic. Here’s how to best handle the sensitive situation.
The coronavirus pandemic has sent shock waves through the enterprise forcing companies to make tough employment decisions with their staff. While the virus has directly resulted in layoffs and furloughs, some companies may have needed to terminate employee contracts before the disease’s outbreak, putting them in a particularly difficult position given the current economic climate.
Those who have been laid off or furloughed are flocking to apply for unemployment benefits: More than 26 million unemployment claims have been made since the start of the coronavirus-related shutdowns, so supervisors that are considering letting an employee go need to think long and hard about the timing, experts say.
“[Companies and HR professionals] should consider whether the reason is one for which they would have terminated the employee had we not been in this COVID-19 environment,” said Kelly Charles-Collins, unconscious bias expert at HR Legally Speaking.
“Tensions are high and patience is low. Perhaps things that an employee would not have been terminated for if we were in our regular workplaces may trigger a different reaction in this remote working environment,” Charles-Collins said.
However, companies also shouldn’t feel guilty if they ultimately decide to let someone go, said Neal Taparia, co-founder of SOTA Partners.
“It’s very easy to feel bad about it, but at the end of the day, you’re running a business, and other people are dependent on you,” Taparia said. “It’s a situation where you have to think about the greater good and be financially disciplined about it.”
Terminating an employee during the coronavirus pandemic is undoubtedly delicate, as the disease has impacted people mentally and economically. HR managers and supervisors may also have difficulty letting remote employees go, as remote work could be a new way of work for the company.
How to terminate an employee during COVID-19
The following steps and considerations can help HR managers appropriately navigate employment termination during the unprecedented time of COVID-19.
Maintain transparency
If you think your company might need to make layoffs, Taparia said to be open about that from the start.
“We’ve been trying to be as transparent and communicative as possible about what’s going on.” Taparia said. “This also means trying to be more transparent on how we’re trying to plan our company out financially.
“We’ve explained to them that there’s certain milestones that we need to hit, and within different periods of time we’ll continually evaluate the business,” Taparia said. “Not being transparent is even worse because they’re left into this world of uncertainty.”
Consider making the termination discussion impromptu
Notifying the company layoffs or terminations may be coming is important, but the actual conversation shouldn’t necessarily be expected, according to Taparia.
Taparia has run a few businesses. During an employment termination at one of his businesses, Taparia said there was an incident with the employee having known the difficult conversation was coming.
“In one instance, this employee became suspicious [of termination] because our HR lead was going to be in the meeting with myself,” Taparia said. “After we had that hard conversation, terminated the employee, and cut off access to email, when we looked through the email, the employee had sent himself a bunch of proprietary files from our company.
Upon suspecting the meeting was coming, the employee sent I private business information. Ever since that incident, Taparia said they have kept termination meetings as impromptu as possible, for the sake of security.
“It’s a ‘Hey, I need to talk to you,’ situation,” Taparia said. “Try not to mention that an HR professional will be in the meeting. That tends to be a surprise. But to me, that surprise is well worth it to prevent any type of IP loss.”
Have the conversation face-to-face
These conversations are ideally done in person, but a remote work environment doesn’t allow for that capability. HR managers should do the next best thing and have the conversation face-to-face over video, Charles-Collins said.
“We have access to technology that makes these types of face-to-face” meetings possible. Make sure that the meeting is not broadcast to anyone that should not have access,” Charles-Collins said. “If they are using technology like Zoom, they can require a password.
“Conduct the meeting just as if they would if they were in the office,” Charles-Collins said. “If they would not regularly record the meeting, I would recommend not doing so or allowing the employee to do so. This will require disabling the recording feature. Make the meeting short and respectful.”
Take care of the employee
Employment termination is a devastating blow in any scenario, but can be especially harmful during a worldwide crisis.
“Terminating an employee is never easy, but it should be humane,” Charles-Collins said. “Someone is losing their livelihood and people are not their best behavior. So, while their misconduct may be against company policy or even in violation of the law, our humanity should not be discounted or disregarded.”
To help during this time, Taparia said he offers to act as a reference for the terminated employee, whether it be via phone or recommendation letter. He said he has also pointed terminated workers toward platforms such as Upwork or Textbroker for easy contract jobs.
“We do give some small severance,” Taparia said. “We want to do what we can so they land on their feet. I even told them that I would try to think of contracting jobs, too, to help them in the meantime.”
“You have to go above and beyond to think about how you can take care of your employees. It’s not a ‘cut the cord and forget it’ situation, which some companies normally do during general business times,” Taparia said. “In my experience, you want to look after people.”
Postpone exit interviews
Exit interviews are a critical step for companies in the employment termination process, however, Taparia recommended letting the employee settle down first. He said that is what his company recently did with a former employee.
“The reason we decided not to [immediately have the interview] was it just felt awkward doing it, given all the circumstances, and we didn’t want this person to continue to feel anxiety around everything going on,” Taparia said.
“We plan on, in the next month or two, touching base with this employee every single week to see how it’s going. When things have cooled down, I’d like to send them a survey on what they think we could do better,” Taparia said. “[This would] give us some authentic feedback, as opposed to feedback that’s very emotionally driven, because everything happened so sudden.”
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