Most of us have come across our fair share of bullies throughout our lives. Whether we see it happening in the school yard, in political campaigns on TV, or experienced it in our own personal relationships, bullying is always a form of abuse – a way of intimidating and dominating others, through physical, emotional or psychological control.

Unfortunately, many of us run into bullying behaviour in our place of work, as adults. Have you ever been made to feel uncomfortable while trying to carry out your everyday work tasks? It’s very hard to keep performing well in your job when a manager or colleague sets out to make life difficult for you.

Workplace bullying can be particularly difficult to deal with, as many bullies tend to know how to operate within social boundaries, often using nonverbal tactics or subtle humiliation to make a targeted individual feel continually excluded, uncomfortable and anxious. In this way, they aren’t seen to be crossing any organisational lines, or throwing any actual punches, while still managing to wear down their victim’s sense of self-worth and resilience. 

In many cases, the person being bullied will eventually resign from their jobs. Sadly, even at this point, there are managers who are aware of what’s happening in their teams yet choose to ignore it, allowing the bully to simply move onto their next target. 

This is why it’s so important for employers to take a strong stance on workplace bullying.

As an employer, it’s important to show your commitment to providing a safe and positive work environment for your employees, through strong anti-bullying and harassment policies.

 If you’ve read our previous article on the importance of having a good bullying and harassment policy, you’ll know that when bullying becomes a problem in the workplace, it doesn’t just affect the person or people being harassed and targeted – it can very quickly become a problem for the whole organisation.

Workplace bullying has significant negative impacts for both individuals and the companies they work for.

In an organisation where bullying is not being managed – or worse, is tolerated – you can expect to see:

high levels of absenteeism and sick leave

For employers, this leads to a loss in reputation and brand name for their business, as well as financial losses from lower profits and the cost of hiring and training new staff. Bullying can also result in significant fines for your company, as in the recent case of an Australian employer.

Employee Awarded $1 Million After Workplace Bullying

This recent case has seen a NSW worker awarded more than $1 million in damages after suffering intense workplace bullying by her bosses.

Lucinda Gunning, of Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers, said her client’s $1 million payout was the largest amount she had witnessed for workplace bullying. The payout is made up of a payment for total and permanent disablement, as well as worker’s compensation.

The former NSW government employee, a middle-level manager herself, experienced constant bullying from two of her managers, to the point where she was “doubled over sobbing” and would sit in the bathroom for six hours without anyone noticing. 

Make Sure You Have an Anti-Bullying Policy in Place 

Want to avoid this situation from occurring in your workplace? Make sure your business has a strong policy in place around bullying and harassment.

As an employer, you’re responsible for preventing bullying in the workplace, and a strong policy in this area will ensure your organisation is compliant and reflecting its legal obligations. While bullies will continue to exist in every workplace, school and social circle, you can make a difference by promoting a safe and positive work environment for the people in your own organisation.

For more advice on how to handle bullying, you may like to look at this free online course – Bullying in the Workplace. It covers useful information about the most common forms of bullying in the workplace and the costs this has for both victims and organisations. You’ll also learn practical strategies for dealing with workplace bullies.

If you’re a manager or team leader, remember to review our previous post on Why You Need a Good Bullying and Harassment Policy, with links to e-learning resources such as Bullying: The Manager’s Role and Workplace Harassment for Managers. And please don’t turn a blind eye to any bullying or harassment that’s occurring in your team.

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As 2016 comes to and end, many businesses are beginning to think about what 2017 will look like in terms of rules and regulations.

While there are many compliance issues to be considered for a wide-range of areas, four of the top sectors include:

These categories contain a variety of requirements and suggestions that American businesses need to be aware of in order to avoid legal ramifications and monetary penalties. Through the observation of these areas, employers will also be providing safe, fair working environments for their employees.

In order to prepare you for the year to come, the following contains a breakdown of need-to-know information.

The Healthcare Plan Transition Relief is Expiring

Following the signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, many businesses were allowed a relief from its employment for a variety of different reasons.

Beginning on January 1, 2017, these reliefs will expire for large employers. The government has been mandated that these businesses begin providing compliant coverage by the end of 2016. Grandfathered plans and flex-contribution relief are also included within this group.

There is, however, some discrepancy amongst the qualification of “large employers.”

Following the passing of the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employers Act (PACE) in Fall of 2015, the categorization of business type is now done at a state level. While some states will allow business under 100 employees to be labeled as a small company exempt from the relief expiration, other states follow the more common guidelines stating that employers with more than 50 full-time employees are to be considered “large.”

It is imperative that businesses follow the guidelines for their state and determine what type of insurance coverage they are required to offer.

How United States vs. Texas is Affecting Immigration Policies

Due to the Supreme Court’s recent decision to vote against the protection of unlawful immigrants in the United States vs. Texas lawsuit, many businesses will now be facing a series of challenges concerning immigration policies within their companies.

While the standard I-9 forms used in the past to determine the legal status of potential new employees have expired, businesses are still required to issue them as a part of their employment screening process.

Businesses that ignore this policy and knowingly hire men and women who aren’t entitled to work in the United States could be facing sizable financial penalties. These fines will range in cost between $375 and $16,000 per discovered violation.

In addition to guidelines against the hiring of illegal immigrants, business owners may also be forced to terminate certain employees who are no longer allowed to work.

While up to 50,000 people affected by the Supreme Court’s decision have been granted temporary deportation deferments, certain mandates will be released to employers announcing that they are no longer able to work in the US.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Council is Passing a New Enforcement Plan

2017 will see an overhaul of policies and procedures regarding the treatment of employees thanks to a new strategic enforcement plan put into place by the Equal Employment Opportunity Council (EEOC).

This plan will introduce a series of regulations put in place to guard employees from discrimination and attempt to remove it from the workplace.

Some of the strategies discussed within the plan’s guidelines will work to assist in the following goals:

Preventing discrimination during the hiring and screening process

Ensuring an employee’s right to legal access

Discrimination Throughout Hiring Procedures

Safeguarding an Employee’s Ability to Exercise their Legal Rights

The EEOC will specifically work to prevent issues like employer retaliation following legal claims and vague contracts that can inhibit an employee’s right to fair working conditions.

Increased Attention to Harassment Prevention

Going hand in hand with their efforts to abolish discrimination in the workplace, the EEOC is also working to protect employees from harassment.

In the present day, up to 60% of employees are still facing harassment at work. This is most commonly seen within the realm of race and ethnicity, but sexual orientation and gender-identity based cases have also drawn notable attention.

In a report issued by EEOC commissioners Chai Feldblum and Victoria Lipnic, they are requesting that businesses employ the use of prevention programs and on-site training to deter employees from engaging in distressing behavior against fellow workers.

Feldblum and Lipnic are quoted as saying:

“We cannot be complacent bystanders and expect our workplace cultures to change themselves.”

It is imperative that men and women be protected from harassment and derogatory behavior. The suggestions made in the aforementioned report will provide the tools necessary to end these sorts of negative actions and provide safer working environments for employees.

By working against these compliance issues, employers will be taking the steps needed to protect themselves from large financial penalties and legal action. A vital part of operating any business in 2017 will be keeping up with the ever-changing rules and regulations that are put in place to ensure fair business operations.

What will be the top workplace compliance issues in 2017?

One of the most significant benefits to our ever-increasing access to technology is the ability to enhance our productivity exponentially. Think about it: the average student or employee now has access to better and more efficient tools and technology than multibillion dollar corporations had 15 years ago!

Whether you're learning a new language or working to improve your performance on the job there are tons of affordable applications that can help you get more done in less time. The end result of better productivity for students can translate into better jobs when they reach the workforce. For the employee, these tools can help you achieve higher wages and better job security.

Here are a few of our favorites productivity apps that you can start using today:

Productivity-Boosting App #1: RescueRescueTime

RescueTime is a powerful tool that gives you the ability to track and analyze how you spend your time when you sit down at your computer. It’s easy to install and runs in the background while you’re working and tracks how much time you spend using applications and spending time online. Once you've gathered a few days’ worth of information you take a close look at where you are spending too much time and take action to fix it.

The results can be quite eye-opening. For example, you might be shocked to discover how much time you are actually spending on social media or reading news sites every day. Even if it’s a ridiculously conservative 2 hours per work day, that adds up to 40 hours per month! Even if you slashed that number by 50%, imagine what you could get done with 20 more hours in a month. RescueTime has a simple free version as well as a paid premium version that allows you to block websites and track several additional data points like the time you spend away from the computer.

Productivity-Boosting App #2: FocusBooster

FocusBooster is an application that uses the Pomodoro technique in order to maximize your productivity when performing mentally demanding tasks. It's fairly simple to implement: you simply start the timer in the application for 25 minute increments and focus on the work at hand until the timer goes off.  Then you take a short break for 5 to 10 minutes and allow your mind to relax and start the timer again after the break. Studies have shown that this method helps prevent mental fatigue, improve recall, and reduce errors when performing information related tasks. FocusBooster is one of the easiest Pomodoro technique-based applications to get up and running and is absolutely free.

Productivity-Boosting App #3: Google Drive

For the information worker on the go there might not be a better application suite and than Google Drive. This is one of the most popular secure cloud-based storage applications available, allowing you to backup your photos, videos, and documents in a snap. You get a whopping 15 GB of space for free and as long as you have access to the Internet you can collaborate with other workers and update your documents anywhere in the world that you are. All it takes is a tablet, computer or smart phone and you’re off and running!

Access to Google Drive also allows you to use Google's office-based applications and export them in the appropriate format. So even if you don't have access to Microsoft Excel, you can create a spreadsheet in Google Drive and export it to XLS format and send it on to your boss or coworker.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Global Leadership Summit in London, 34% of business leaders claim that half of their company's full-time workforce will be working remotely by 2020. Clearly, applications like Google Drive will help drive productivity in a huge way for workers who will not be tied to a single workstation in the future.

Evernote is an outstanding application for productivity that allows you access to your notes across multiple devices. You can take snapshots of websites, clip important passages and create bookmarks on the go…and then access them from anywhere in the world. You can also create reminders and even hand write to-do lists and upload them to your Evernote account for later access.

The days of taking notes on a yellow legal pad and hauling it around with you are over. One of the biggest benefits to Evernote is the fact that you can organize your notes and ideas and search through them based on keyword tags. This is an essential time-saving app for students and workers alike. Evernote has both a robust free version and an even more advanced paid version at a very reasonable $10 per month.

This is a flash card style program that helps you improve memorization. Many students love to use Anki for language learning because it's fast and effective for repetition based memory techniques. Medical students, engineering students, and other populations that need to memorize a wide variety of formulas and concepts have all touted the benefits of Anki for years. You can create your own “decks” of cards to learn specific concepts or choose from a wide variety of shared ones that have already been created by other users. Anki is a free application that can help you boost productivity in a big way.

Productivity tools empower the student and employee of today in more ways than at any time in history. The applications listed above can help you learn languages faster, get more work done in less time, prevent mental fatigue and organize your information more efficiently. Imagine what you could do with just 20% more time in a day? What could you accomplish? If you start using applications like these then you will soon find out!

5 apps that can help boost your productivity

No matter what industry you work in, Australian employers are responsible for providing staff with a safe workplace, free from hazards and health risks. If you run a company or organisation, it’s important that your business is compliant with current workplace safety laws and regulations, to promote a safer workplace and ensure the safety and wellbeing of your employees.

Failing to comply with health and safety regulations can not only put your staff at risk, but can also result in severe financial implications, as well as damage to your company’s reputation.

An example of this can be seen in a recent case where Essential Energy was convicted and fined $300,000 following the death of an electrical worker at Bulahdelah, NSW.

Essential Energy receive fines for employee’s death

Earlier this year, SafeWork NSW, the state’s workplace health and safety regulator, charged Essential Energy with a breach of section 32 (1) of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), for failing to comply with its duty under section 19(1) to ensure the health and safety of workers.

A company employee, aged 47, was fatally electrocuted while carrying out his work, in an incident which “could easily have been prevented” according to Executive Director of SafeWork NSW, Peter Dunphy. 

During SafeWork NSW’s investigation, it was found that Essential Energy was aware of the risk of keeping the top conductors energised while workers removed the bottom conductors, however the company chose to keep them energised for service delivery reasons. This led to the staff member being electrocuted, resulting in his death.

Invest in workplace safety training for all staff

Tragic incidents, such as the one above, should and could have been avoided. Many workplace accidents, injuries and fatalities can be easily prevented with proper compliance methods and an appropriate investment in workplace safety training.

Considering the potential loss in productivity, legal expenses, fines and insurance arising from a workplace incident, workplace safety training is well worth the investment.

With WH&S compliance training, you can increase staff awareness of potential hazards in the work environment, as well as educating individuals on correct reporting procedures and policies. 

Through the use of workshops, online courses and e-learning training modules, you can make sure staff are properly engaged in workplace health and safety, while reducing the risk of accidents, injuries and hazards for your organisation.

If you’re an employer looking to invest in workplace safety training, Go1 SafeWork can make this process a whole lot easier for you and your staff.

We have compiled a course package containing some of the top workplace health and safety courses available through e3Learning, to make it easy for businesses to improve their workplace.

You can make your training process quick and easy with this convenient package containing 3 online safety courses that every Australian business needs – and best of all, this package is available completely free.

Covering a range of topics, the Go1 SafeWork package provides the training that you need to get your team up to scratch and help improve workplace health and safety for your organisation.

Through this package, you’ll be able to educate your team on the following important WH&S topics:

By making the safety of your workplace a top priority, you’ll be showing your commitment to the safety and wellbeing of your employees. You’ll also have peace of mind knowing that your business is compliant with Australian laws and regulations.

As Peter Dunphy, Executive Director of SafeWork NSW, said when discussing the Essential Energy tragedy, “every worker should return home to their family at the end of the working day.” Enrol in Go1 SafeWork’s free online courses and get started on creating a safer workplace for your staff.

Why workplace safety training is essential for your business

We recently talked about why it’s so important for organizations to develop an effective onboarding program, to increase employee engagement, allow new hires to reach their full productivity faster and reduce staff turnover rates.

A good onboarding program should provide a new staff member with practical, easy-to-use tools and training to transition smoothly into their new job. Research has shown that an actively followed onboarding plan will allow an individual to reach proficiency in their new position up to 30% faster than the typical transitioning manager.

The way that you bring new team members on board also says a lot about your organization as a whole. It’s not just new hires who are keen to nail that critical first impression – today’s companies are realising the importance of welcoming new hires in an engaging, productive and creative way.

If you’re interested in developing an effective new onboarding program, or making positive changes to improve your existing processes, we have some simple guidelines to help you out. Read on for our top tips for creating a successful onboarding program.

We all know that first impressions really do count. 

Have you ever started at a new job, excited for your first day, only to find yourself without a desk, or without a computer even, and feeling more than a little lost? It’s not a good feeling and will most likely make you want to turn around and walk right back out the door.

Make sure you have a clear workspace set up for your new team member before they arrive, with basic stationery items and any other tools that could help them in their role, such as copies of organisational charts, relevant contact details, corporate style guidelines and so forth. And while it may sound less important, small thoughtful gestures such as providing new hires with their own company coffee cup, branded water bottle or T-shirt show that you’ve taken the time to warmly welcome them into your team. People notice and appreciate these kind actions and attention to detail. 

If you’re a manager or supervisor, always take the time to greet new employees in person and introduce them to the entire team—whether or not they’ll be working with each directly—so they can feel part of the group and more at ease in their work environment.

Also, have HR and payroll communicate with your new team member before you welcome your new team member on board. According to Aberdeen Group, 69% of best-in-class organizations begin the onboarding process before day one. This way, new employees are able to better focus on the job at hand, rather than wonder about how and when they’ll be getting paid.

There’s a lot more you can do to help new employees learn about their position and the organization than just sending them to a one-day orientation course to read over corporate documents.

As iCIMS suggests, “teambuilding activities such as office-wide scavenger hunts, group creative exercises and new hire breakfasts all contribute to the overall onboarding experience and aid in the assimilation process.” As well as serving to welcome new staff to the group, managers and team leaders will also be able to observe how their new employee communicates and engages with other staff, while participating in group activities. This can be useful when managers are deciding which projects or tasks to assign new team members and can even impact potential promotions or relief opportunities. 

You can also make onboarding more engaging for individuals by making sure you tailor the process to each new staff member. Personalize and customize the onboarding process by including details that are specific to each person’s job description and team.

When developing your new onboarding program, ask your current employees what they like about working for the organization. These are things you want to make sure new hires know about – even the ‘small’ sounding factors are important in contributing to a positive organizational culture, so make sure

Leaving new hires to fend for themselves is an approach taken by many companies. Unfortunately, this approach, with its ‘sink or swim’ mentality, can have negative impacts for the organization, resulting in high staff turnover rates and poor organizational culture.

Quality training, conversely, can greatly improve job satisfaction and productivity in new recruits. Make sure your onboarding program includes relevant and effective training methods for new employees to learn their jobs. Provide information on how you plan to train and develop staff throughout their employment with your company, so new team members know the importance you place on their professional development.

It’s also a good idea to assign a company mentor for each new employee, to provide on-the-job training and support. Choosing a mentor from outside the new employee’s department can help them to “further develop interpersonal relationships and give them a different perspective on the various components of the organization and how they work collectively to achieve success.” 

Use an LMS to Create Your Onboarding Program Online

As Lisa Sterling, chief people officer and executive vice president at Ceridian, says, “as everything goes digital, so should your employee onboarding.”

Using a Learning Management System such as Go1's online training platform for your onboarding program is an effective choice for organizations because of the convenience and ease of use. It’s also a more cost-effective solution, allowing you to save money on in-class trainers, as well as any facilities hire and travel expenses. Using a good LMS for online training can reduce training expenses by more than 50%, saving your organization both time and money.

With the Go1 platform, you can use your own onboarding content to create a perfectly customized onboarding program for your new hires to complete online. 

If you’d like to know more about successful onboarding, Go1 also has a number of e-learning courses which you can easily enroll in and complete at your convenience.

The online course Employee Onboarding is ideal for HR professionals, business owners and anyone involved in hiring employees. It will provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to design a successful employee onboarding program to train new employees effectively and efficiently, setting them up for higher success and performance in their new roles.

Tips for creating a successful onboarding program

Earlier this year the Go1 received a Microsoft Hololens to allow us to start working on adapting training through augmented reality. Although the Hololens is still only available as a developer version, we have recently been taking it along with us a a number of conferences over the past few months to give the general public a chance to experience the future of learning, and try out the Hololens for themselves.

Earlier this week we had our Hololens down at Work 2.0 in Sydney when Alexar stopped by the Go1 booth to have his first augmented reality experience, and discuss how this exciting new technology can be used to train and educate people with Go1 co-founder Vu Tran.

You can watch the full video of Alexar's experience as live streamed on Periscope below:

Earlier this year, we did an in-depth review of the Hololens and how it can be used for training students and employees.

"As an entry point to the augmented reality market, this is mind blowing. A lot of the things that are still a touch clunky at this stage will very easily be resolved, and the first consumer versions of this product, which is yet to have a release date, is likely to be an affordable and eye-opening look into the future of human interaction that anyone can afford."

We are very excited about getting this technology into the hands of as many people as possible over the coming years, and if you are at an event with Go1, make sure you come try it out for yourself!

VIDEO: Go1 and The Microsoft Hololens learning experience

Investing in compliance training online is one of the key steps we recommended recently for building a better compliance program for your business.

If you’re looking to update and improve the compliance processes within your organization, moving your training online is a great place to start.

Taking this step has a number of benefits for both your employees and your bottom line, saving you time and money while making the process easier and more engaging for staff. Let’s look at these benefits in more depth.

Save time and money on compliance training

As we’ve said before, compliance is a combination of time and money – it doesn’t work without an appropriate investment of both of these factors. And you no doubt want to get the best possible return on that investment.

Carrying out compliance training online reduces the amount of time your employees spend in the training room, and for most organizations we know that time equals money. With e-learning, particularly if you’re a large organization, or have staff across various locations or working remotely, online training will save you a significant amount of money compared to face-to-face training by an instructor, as well as travel fees, venue hire and printing costs.

In fact, using a good Learning Management System for online training can reduce training expenses by more than 50%. Moving your compliance training online can also reduce the risk of your organization receiving penalty fees or fines, saving you further money in the long run.

Make compliance training easier for your staff

These days, online training courses are available for all areas of compliance, making training incredibly easy, convenient and effective for your staff.

With e-learning, employees can log in to their relevant training courses or modules from anywhere in the world, from the convenience of their home or office. Staff won’t need to attend all-day training lectures, meaning they can keep their focus on their work responsibilities and maintain their productivity without interruption, until choosing to log in.

While you can easily train all staff, right across the board, from an online portal, you can also customize each individual’s training materials, making it a more personalized and worthwhile experience for each user.

As a recent article by Game Effective says, with online compliance training, “employees know that they are getting relevant information that pertains to their position, and that increases the value of the compliance online training experience.”

Improve employee engagement with compliance 

You’ll also be providing staff with a far more engaging user experience by moving your compliance training online.

Instead of having team members attend long-winded lectures on compliance issues, employees will have access to targeted online training activities and modules based on their job duties. As a result, they’ll be more motivated to learn and actively participate in training on these subjects.

People also retain more information when the subject matter is made more engaging, making e-learning more effective than the traditional modes of delivering compliance training, such as workbooks, assessments and training room scenarios.

Using up-to-date training modes and interesting, relevant course content is beneficial for your company’s organizational culture, particularly with new hires who have just started and are going through compliance training as part of their onboarding or orientation.

Use an LMS to deliver your compliance training

Using a Learning Management System such as Go1's online training platform to create and deliver your compliance training gives you access to customizable reporting, engagement tools and analytics.

This allows you to easily track staff progress, see how each team member is going with the content and whether they may need additional direction, assistance or further resources. You can even use your own compliance content with the Go1 platform, creating a fully customized program for your employees.

Maintaining and updating compliance training content is also simple, as administrators can simply log in to their online compliance program, make any necessary modifications or changes to the course materials, then deploy the updated compliance training to all staff, in all locations.

To find out more about compliance, before moving your training program online, you might also like to read through our previous articles on this subject:

Why You Need to Spend Time and Money on Compliance

Get Started on Better Compliance for Your Business

Benefits of moving your compliance training online

Proper procedures may be the foundation to a successful customer experience, but they are nothing without the group of people who are performing them.

According to an article in Forbes Magazine, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for good service. A company might have an award-winning plan to ensure customer satisfaction, but if the employee assisting that individual is not up to par there is an automatic decrease in the chance of conversion.

Achieving greatness amongst your customer service team might seem tricky, but there are three key factors that can make all the difference:

Abiding by these basic ideas will help to ensure successful business practices, happy customers, and an effective customer service team that keeps things running smoothly.

When a business owner wants to improve their customer service tactics, they need to start from the ground up.  Choosing employees that exhibit certain necessary skills will allow them to best serve their customers.

Traits like adaptability and patience can make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. Not only is each customer different, but also every situation itself is unique. Employees that bestow natural flexibility will have the ability to appeal to a broader variety of personality types and needs.

Managers and owners should also look for team members with great communication skills.

In today’s modern world the digital contact portals available are extensive. Not only are customers calling businesses on the phone, they’re emailing and looking for live chat opportunities. The ability to clearly communicate throughout these different forms is essential to providing a positive customer experience.

Not only will your customers feel more understood themselves, they will also feel more confident about the information the customer service team is providing.

It may seem obvious to say, but knowledge is another key factor in excellent customer service. Guaranteeing someone who has had proper training and education is assisting your customers will help safeguard the company against potential issues.

In a recent Huffington Post article, an intriguing question was posed:

“Are your customer service representatives enabled to be the best they can be…?”

Hiring on team members with the right skills and capabilities is the perfect first step to answering yes to this question and achieving a great reputation for quality customer service.

Time and experience have shown many bosses that there is a direct correlation between happy employees and successful customer service. When a member of the team is being positively motivated on a regular basis, their desire to good work is exponentially higher.

In order to properly motivate employees, a business owner should look at things like:

Letting your employees know how much they are appreciated is a great way to provide motivation. All too often, business higher ups forget to convey gratitude for the work their teams are doing.

When a customer service employee is consistently putting forth a ton of effort but never being acknowledged, their drive to do more will quickly begin to weaken. High morale is key and it’s incredible how much a simple thank you can make a difference.

When a person is happy at work, that happiness will rub off on the customers, which will, in turn, positively affect sales.

Fostering a little friendly competition throughout the workplace is a great way to motivate your customer service team. Whether the award is a small bonus in their paycheck or a restaurant gift card, people love a challenge and a little good-natured competition will bring a sense of fun to the job.

Competitions provide goals that give team members something to work towards. They inspire dedication and increased efforts that will result in higher sales rates for the company.

Whether it’s nothing but raving compliments or a little bit of constructive criticism, the opportunity for a customer service employee to sit down with their boss is an invaluable chance for motivation.

Not only do these meetings provide a platform for feedback, they also offer the employee a chance to discuss any questions or concerns they may be facing.

However big your company is, taking the time out for a one-on-one chat with your employees allows you to focus on them and their needs. This will not only provide a fresh perspective for both boss and team member but will often encourage higher respect throughout the company.

When you’re trying to figure out how to get your customer service team performing at their best, one of the most helpful answers is to walk a mile in their shoes.

Taking the time out of your busy schedule to spend a day working in customer service will provide you with the firsthand knowledge needed to truly understand the work being done and the expectations of your consumers.

You will have the chance to interact with your own service equipment and products, which will unveil potential weaknesses in the system. This will help you determine what types of reevaluation and re-training may need to occur

Logistics aside, however, seeing your company from the other side of the counter will probably give you a newfound respect for the work that your employees do. As a result, your customer service team will feel encouraged by your own dedication to the work.

Improving Your Business’ Success from the Inside-Out

A high performing customer service team is a major key to successful business practices.

Your customer service employees are the face and voice of your company. Their happiness and effort will directly affect the number of successful customer experiences you see and will keep said customers coming back for years to come.

A company with a reputation for amazing customer service speaks volumes in the world of business and it doesn’t take much to get there. If you remember the three main topics mentioned in this article: capability, motivation, and understanding, you will be laying the groundwork needed to become a triumph in the customer service industry.

How to get the best out of your customer service team

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a nightmare for some and a blessing for others. For businesses, especially the human resources departments, understanding all of the new changes and compliance regulations can be quite a challenge. Failure to comply will mean large fines for companies—even if a company doesn’t realize it isn’t complying accurately.

“There’s nothing like getting a little experience under your belt, especially when it comes to complying with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But experience in this area is hard to come by,” said Natalie Burg of Forbes, in ‘What Small And Large Organizations Alike Can Learn From The First Year Of Annual ACA’.

The ACA is not only a landmarked health reform, it’s also unchartered territory for businesses when it comes to legal compliance and all that is involved.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), “The landmark health reform legislation enacted in March 2010 is designed to expand the availability of health insurance, reform the regulation of health coverage and restructure its delivery.”

ACA calls for expansion in health care coverages such as:

Employers that employ 50 or more employees are required to offer affordable and essential health care coverage to their full-time employees (employees that work 30 hours a week or more)

Provisions for insurance premium subsidies for certain low- and middle-income households (SHRM)

A mandate that individuals without health insurance through an employer or other source, such as Medicare, purchase it on their own or pay a penalty for not doing so (SHRM)

Establishment of state-based insurance exchanges—marketplaces where individuals can shop for and purchase health insurance (SHRM)

“The law also prohibits lifetime limits on coverage and arbitrary cancellations of coverage, and it requires that nondependent children up to age 26 be permitted to stay on a parent’s health policy,” said SHRM.

It took many companies and business owners by surprise when the ACA was challenged, yet found constitutional by the courts. “For most human resources and employee benefits professionals across all sized companies, the constitutional validation of the ACA by the Supreme Court was unexpected,” said ADA Research Institute. No more than 10 percent of professionals surveyed were expecting the Supreme Court to uphold the entire law. Consequently, companies may be behind in their ACA preparations.”

“It’s never been more important for employers to have clearly defined worker classifications. Incorrectly defining employees, contract workers and temporary workers has big consequences under ACA — especially this year,” Burg from Forbes said.

Employee classification may be one of the largest areas of confusion. If a company employs 50 or more employees, it is mandated to provide medical health insurance to its full-time employees. However, this can get tricky as HR reviews the employee list and may discount contract employees or others that may have worked more than 30 hours in a week.

Calculating whether an organization is subject to the employer mandate should be done monthly, and a record of such calculations should be maintained. Here are the steps:

First, calculate the number of full-time employees—those who are regularly scheduled to work an average of 30 or more hours per week.

Next, calculate the total number of hours worked during the month by employees who are not full time, and divide the total by 120. The result (rounded down) is the number of FTEs represented by the hours worked by the organization’s non-full-time employees.

Last, add the number of full-time employees and the number of FTE employees represented by non-full-time employees. The result is the organization’s total FTE employees.

Collecting and maintaining the correct data is another challenge area. ACA requires specific tax forms and other data to be turned in on a regular basis. The system is new and there are bound to be mistakes; however, it could take up to – and even beyond – 18 months after filing taxes for a company to be notified of a mistake.

“Simply put, don’t trust that your methods were perfect the first time around,” Burg said. The fact that you haven’t heard anything to the contrary yet doesn’t mean anything.”

It is recommended to check and recheck the data yearly for any mistakes or discrepancies. It is also a good idea for periodic checks and updates because of employee turnovers and changes of status.

“That shows good-faith effort to be compliant,” said John Haslinger, vice president of strategic advisory services for ADP. “Otherwise, you’ll probably do the same thing wrong for 2016, 2017 and into 2018. You could be looking at a multi-year penalty.”

Notifications to employees. The HR department will be responsible for letting employees (current and new) know about health care options, as well as marketplace insurance and how to obtain it.

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