Employee Management Archives

Remote On-boarding For Your Employees In 2023

The onboarding process is the very first impression that the newly hired candidate has of the company. This impression plays a major role in building their trust and giving them a head-start on the rules, regulations and work culture of the company.

An onboarding checklist allows the manager to ensure that all aspects of the process are taken care of. Right from introducing all new employees to the existing staff, and setting up their workspace to communicating with them and giving them a brief about their roles and work expectations, onboarding is a multifaceted process.

In this article, we will go through the challenges of employee onboarding, applications that assist in providing a smooth onboarding experience and tips for conducting a remote onboarding process in 2023.

Challenges of Employee Onboarding

Employee onboarding is a crucial and multidimensional process, that comes with numerous challenges. Some of the main challenges faced by newly hired employees are:

A Feeling of Seclusion

Since the current team has members that already know each other, it might come up as a challenge for the newly hired employee to gel with the team. This issue might not appear significant but it has a major impact on the productivity and working of the new employee.

Getting delayed responses

On one hand, where communication is the key to a healthy and successful workspace, at times it becomes difficult for the manager to respond to every employee. While the existing employees are accustomed to handling matters in case of delayed response, for newly hired employees it becomes a challenge and creates space for confusion and chaos.

Getting familiar with new tools

For an industry, every company might be working on similar products but their work setup and work technology might vary from one another. There are numerous instances where it becomes difficult for the newly hired employee to get a hang of the tools and technology used in the office.

Apps for implementing a smooth onboarding experience

With the current pandemic situation, companies have switched to remote onboarding. On one hand, where this seems complex, on the other hand, there is a plethora of applications and software that are there to assist employees and managers in having a better onboarding experience.

Here are some tools and applications that will assist you in the remote On-boarding process.

Zoom: One of the most used platforms in this pandemic, Zoom allows the team to conduct video conferences.

Slack: It is a professional space where the employer can create channels and manage coordination with the team.

Greetbot: GreetBot assists in guiding and welcoming new employees to your Slack workspace.

Juntrax: It is an all-in-one cloud-based PSA & HR software for SMEs globally

Checklist for Smooth Remote Onboarding

Here are some of the best practices that you must include in your onboarding checklist to ensure a smooth onboarding process-

Don’t wait for the first day

Instead of waiting for the first day to give a head start to your newly hired employee, get them started beforehand. Address the distinction between onboarding and orientation. You can make use of platforms like Slack and Trello to switch to soft copy documentation that can be referred to in future. This will not only save time on the first day of their work but will also give them a precursor to the responsibilities and tasks they are about to encounter.

Give early access to tools and software

Adapting to new technology and tools is among the most common challenges that are faced by newly hired employees. Instead of delaying access, give your employees early access along with credentials and a briefing about the technology used in the office. This will give them time to engage with the system and raise their queries, confusion and concerns.

Make announcements for new additions to the team

When a new employee joins the company, it is important to ensure that they gel in with the existing team. In order to familiarize both the new hire and the existing employees, you can send our emails across the company or drop a message on your team groups. You can even make the introduction fun and engaging by conducting ice-breaking sessions where employees ask fun questions to each other and gain a better understanding of their colleagues.

Send over customized gifts

Remote onboarding has created a void in physical human interaction. One can recollect days when the newly hired employee was introduced in person and the joy you felt in building a connection. Despite the barrier created by Covid-19, you can convey your wishes through customized welcome packages like a coffee mug o a T-shirt or a welcome letter from the CEO or the manager. This gives the employee a sense of affection and belonging to the team and the company. It also builds a healthy and positive image of the company.

Regularly check in with new hires

As discussed earlier, communication is the key to a healthy and successful workspace. It is important to regularly check in with your new hires and assure them that no question is insignificant. Allow them to reflect on their work, monitor their progress, give constructive feedback, and encourage them to communicate their questions and challenges to their manager.

CONCLUSION

With the pandemic, the corporate industry learned a lot and found new ways to sustain their businesses. Remote onboarding is one of the many modern practices that will stay on trend even after everything is back to normal.

Challenges and Solutions of Managing A Remote Workforce

Challenges & Solutions of Managing A Remote Workforce

Introduction

Sometimes, if you’re lucky enough to have a team of remote workers on your side, it’s easy to forget that they might not be in the office with you every day. They may work at home or abroad, but ensuring your remote workforce is up-to-date and efficient can still be challenging. This blog post examines some of the issues organizations face and how they’ve successfully overcome them.

Although it is possible to have a 100% remote workforce, many organizations choose to keep some staff in an office environment. It’s important to consider what aspects of an office location you value, such as physical presence and co-communication, and how those values can be used more effectively with a remote workforce. A mixed-model force enables certain positions within your organization to be remote while others remain on-site. For example, customer service jobs are often well suited for situations that require constant contact with people and can be performed from home. However, designers, developers, and managers benefit from being in the office as they often need to collaborate or communicate with other professionals.

Even though remote workers can be at home or abroad, they can still communicate efficiently through virtual conferencing or video calls. When developing a remote workforce, it is essential that each team member feels included in the process and engaged in projects, even though there might be a lack of physical interaction. Teams must retain open lines of communication, even using technology to help them feel like part of the bigger picture.

Also Read: How Workflow Automation reduces employee burnout and stress?

There is more!

There are many factors to consider when deciding on a remote workforce. Not only are there the apparent factors about what is easier for certain positions, but there’s also the challenge of maintaining morale and productivity, as sometimes workers can feel left out of the decision-making process. Having a structured method of communication leads to a pleasant experience for employees while creating an atmosphere that gives people a voice in decisions that impact their daily tasks.

Despite these challenges, you can still reach high productivity levels with your remote workforce if you decide on how important it is for your organization. Work may be distributed more efficiently using virtual offices and team collaboration platforms.

Challenges of managing a remote team and how to overcome them

Communication:

Communication is an essential aspect of a remote workforce. You need to establish a healthy and trusting relationship with each team member. For a successful remote workforce, engaging and aligning the entire group through effective communication is vital when making decisions.For this, use efficient software like Juntrax’s project tracking so that all company members are on the same page.

Team Disagreement:

Sometimes, not everyone will agree on specific issues, leading to team conflict. Differing opinions should be addressed. However, it’s crucial for you as an organization leader to understand where people are coming from and work through the issues together.

Remote Workers:

Many workers struggle when traveling to another time zone or environment, making it hard for them to stay productive at work. Discussing any issues with the involved workers and collectively resolving them ensures that every individual’s voice reaches management.

Integrating Remote Workers:

Making sure you integrate your remote employees into the workplace is vital. They will often feel left out of meaningful discussions and decisions. Ensuring your inclusion of remote workers in everyday tasks and projects will boost their sense of appreciation and motivation.

Management:

Managing a remote workforce can be challenging, especially as a manager. You might need help communicating with your employees in person. Finding a system that works for everyone involved and makes for an efficient and effective workflow process is essential.

Allocating Sufficient Work:

Managing a remote workforce can be difficult because it can be challenging to find work or tasks to complete. More hectic when they’re not physically present in the office with you. Short assignments or core tasks are better than having no work at all.

Networking:

You will need to establish a strong network for your organization. Especially when remote workers may need to move locations or travel abroad on business.

Team-Wide Communication and Conferences:

Remote workers may only be able to attend some meetings and conference calls, leading to some teams feeling isolated. Especially when their team members don’t even know they’re working remotely.

Lack of Team Cohesiveness:

Managers can feel like they can only keep part of the team together regarding decision-making.

Working Hours:

Working hours can vary depending on the worker and their location. This implies the need for extensive communication to establish working hours. Therefore, you can use time-tracking software to handle working hours and leave quickly and efficiently.

Also Read: What Is Timesheet Management Software?

Juntrax (Cloud-based software) incorporates the following features, empowering a smooth workflow and optimizing the best tools for remote workforce management.

Automated project tracking
Virtual meetings
Time tracking & invoicing
Easy timesheets & leave management.

Book Free Trial now!

Three Project Strategies Your Company Must Follow To Succeed.

Project tracking is a good idea for any project or goal. It is essential to know how much time you’ve spent on who your teammates are, what the project is about, and how many hours it will consume. Project tracking helps you plan for the future when you know what needs to be done and when. It also lets you keep track of feedback from your clients or other people involved in the project so you can stay current with their requests and needs.

There are various ways to make a project chart like this: pencil and paper, Excel spreadsheet, Visio diagrams, or even just an Excel scatter plot chart that needs to be tied down in a neat grid format. However, none of those solutions are as versatile or portable, and none can be accessed with a wide range of devices and operating systems. To make the most of your project tracking needs and get the most use out of your time, it’s best to use a cloud-based platform that can be accessed anywhere at any time. But before hopping in, let us understand what project tracking is and how it has made lives easy.

What is project tracking?

We’ve often seen the question, “How do you know what project to work next?” and we have the answer. Project tracking is a system that helps us prioritize projects by allocating our time and resources only to have one project at a time in progress. This means that you can track both revenue and expenses every week, which calculates how much money is left in the budget so that we can then determine how much of it should be allocated for future projects with similar or better profit margins. This allows you to see what projects will yield future profits and which are not worth pursuing any further.

Project tracking helps us keep track of budgets, deadlines, and the general status of each project so that we can be aware of what’s going on at any given time. It is important to note that you should track your project’s financial information and find a way to track the project’s time spent and errors and bugs in the website/app. This will give you an accurate account of how much time and resources were spent on each project, how much money is left after all expenses are paid, and how much profit was made from all of these projects. Before reading the strategies, let us take a quick look at the benefits of project tracking.

Benefits of project tracking:

Time management:

This is one of the most critical aspects of project tracking. If you track only a few projects simultaneously, it’ll be easy to manage the amount of time allocated for each project. Tracking dozens of projects at a time manually could be tedious and time-consuming. There can be chances of many projects overlapping, mainly impacting the workflow.

Time assigned to different projects:

Some tasks are more critical than others; tracking how much time we devote to each one will help us figure out which ones are worth doing first and which we should focus on next

Accurate P/L:

Analyzing accurate P/L is the foundation of any business, and project tracking helps us know what each project could make in revenue. If you know how much time and resources are spent on each project, deducting the profit percentage from the time and resources invested will be easy.

Accurate expense:

Accurate expenses are also crucial for a business’s operation. As mentioned earlier, costing out each project aids in assessing the profit generated from the invested time and money. Analyzing the time and money invested enables the determination of each project’s profitability.

Savings in the long run:

Calculating profit margins for various projects assists in determining future budget allocation for similar projects. Additionally, it aids in budget monitoring and adherence to financial boundaries established by the CFO or assigned team member overseeing business expenditures.

Budgeting:

Project tracking helps us determine the best way to manage finances and budgets, especially when they are in flux or under constant change. This can happen when a manager changes or if different business areas need more funding. Even though some managers prefer to keep costs down, this sometimes puts other parts of the company at risk.

Trend analysis:

By tracking multiple projects, we identify profitable endeavors worth pursuing further and those not yielding profits. Analyzing trends helps determine project costs in time and resources, providing accurate profit vs. expense breakdowns.

What is the best way to track projects?

Over the years, we have found that there are different ways of tracking projects. The key is to consider what stresses you will be under and how much time you want to allocate to each project. You can do this by using different types of project tracking tools. For example, Zoho, Scoro, Juntrax, Monday.com, etc., are fantastic tools. The advantage of each software is that they have different functionality. For example, with Juntrax, you can list all the active projects, their team members, billing rates, and tasks on one screen.

Some of the most common ways businesses use are:

The Pomodoro Technique: One of the most popular time management techniques, it is also one of the easiest to implement. It involves working for 25 minutes and taking a 5-minute break. It is perfect for those who have a lot of tasks to do in little time, with no stress or pressure to perform. This will make you more productive, and it’s straightforward to follow.
The Eisenhower Matrix: If you don’t like the Pomodoro Technique, this technique is proper for you. The Eisenhower Matrix analyses your tasks and places them on a matrix. This way, you can mark the priority level as high, medium, or low. The objective is to get important things done first. This matrix strategy is appropriate for those who have many tasks but are under pressure to complete them quickly.
Henry L. Gantt designed the Gantt Chart, enabling a comprehensive view of project management. Utilize this chart for small projects within set timeframes, aiding in stress-free and efficient tracking.

Also Read: How Workflow Automation reduces employee burnout and stress?

Three project tracking strategies to get more Business

Tracking projects is necessary for any professional services company. There are many approaches to this, with varying levels of complexity and functionality. To help teams stay organized and avoid late-night story time, here are some strategies:

Workflow automation:

Workflow automation is a game changer in achieving project efficiency. Rather than manually creating tickets for every task and monitoring each access’s progress. Ticket automation can save time and create a more efficient workflow.

Workflow automation can take many forms. JIRA is a bug-tracking software that enables the creation of workflows. This can come in handy if the project has multiple teams and members. Juntrax has timesheets to monitor projects and keep records of time taken by employees.

Mobile Application:

It is necessary to have a mobile application to track time and projects quickly. Having a dedicated mobile application will increase productivity, as you can easily access the system anywhere without a laptop. It is a perfect solution for all the people working remotely to connect with the teams. It also keeps all members on the same page. Employees can easily track due dates and update timesheets for you to glimpse easily.

Effective communication:

One significant contributor to a successful business is efficient communication. Especially today when companies follow a new hybrid model. Everyone must be clear about the goals and responsibilities of the business. Accessible communication is possible when you have the right tools to support it. Tracking tools help a lot in bringing transparency to the company. You will save time and energy with the right tools regardless of your project management style.

Choosing a platform is another challenge. Plenty of free services are available if you have a few projects at once. However, if you have more than one ongoing project at a time and are doing actual work for profits. It’s worth paying for the service. Juntrax’s services are free of cost if you are a small-scale company with less than ten employees. Apart from this, Juntrax is a one-stop platform for all your business needs. You can create timesheets, manage workflow, generate payslips, create automated invoices, and manage onboarding all in one place.

How Workflow Automation reduces employee burnout and stress?

Are your employees on the verge of a meltdown? It may be time to take steps to reduce employee burnout and stress. Burnout is a real problem in today’s highly competitive world, affecting workers in all industries and at every level. Without professional intervention, employees who are burnt out can experience physical exhaustion, irritability, inability to focus on their work, self-blame for not being good enough at work or some other inadequacy, decreased satisfaction with life and job, depression, or anxiety disorder. But what if we say that workflow automation could be the best way to reduce burnout and stress?

You can help reduce employee burnout in two ways: by changing how you manage your staff or by providing them with training. Her is a simple way to understand.

How to reduce employee burnout and stress – the management solution

If your staff works long hours, get them to work fewer hours. In a workplace culture where employees are expected to work long hours without question, it can be difficult for managers to break the cycle. But if you can persuade them to work fewer hours, you’re helping your staff avoid burnout and protecting your company’s bottom line by reducing costs.

Encourage staff to take more breaks during their working day. This will help reduce their stress levels and improve their concentration and productivity when they are working. But don’t let staff take their breaks too often or for too long – if they do, those breaks will become part of the problem rather than the solution.

Promote a workplace culture where employees feel comfortable asking for help when they need it. For example, if someone is struggling with stressful issues at home that are interfering with their performance at work, allow them to talk to someone confidently and get professional advice on how to deal with the problem quickly and effectively.

As a company grows, so does the workload. This can lead to employees feeling overworked, exhausted, and burned out. Workflow automation software is viable for a company looking to reduce employee burnout and improve workplace efficiency.

Can Workflow Automation software help reduce employee burnout?

Workflow automation software effectively removes some of the burdens off employees’ shoulders; it can increase company profitability with less downtime. Workflow automation software improves employee engagement and the types of systems you might need before implementing workflow automation software for your company. Finally, it might take your team before efficiency improves after implementing this system into your work environment.

Workflow automation is a system in which work is ordered and managed. A workflow process could be defined as a set of related tasks that generate a value-added output with minimum errors or delays based on the given input. Workflow automation can execute repetitive protocol steps to make it more efficient. Workflow automation solutions can automate the entire design, implementation, operations, and maintenance process.

Benefits of workflow automation to employees:

Increased productivity

Workflow automation can automate repetitive steps of a process or task to create consistency and order among employees. It is designed to adjust quickly to anticipate future changes, resulting in greater employee efficiency and productivity.

Reduction of errors and bottlenecks

Workflow automation is designed to work with specific rules or parameters depending on the task. This helps improve the organization of steps that generate output, thereby reducing the number of errors associated with the given process. After consulting a software provider who knows your workflow operations, you may opt for a solution already customized for your company’s unique needs, thus cutting down costs and time spent on implementation.

Improved collaboration

Workflow automation software can track tasks, process data automatically, and integrate with other tools that may be required for effective implementation. In short, it simplifies the process and processes more effectively, making it easier for employees to collaborate. Increased collaboration among team members allows for a more efficient work distribution method between employees. This boosts productivity and improves overall employee morale.

Workflow automation software can automate tasks that need to be repeated or distributed among employees or departments. This helps reduce the time taken to execute the same study, which leads to increased employee productivity and efficiency. For instance, a job that needs to be submitted by an employee is automatically done by another employee on behalf of the first one. For tasks involving several steps involved in execution and where there’s a need for communication between employees working at different locations or with different roles/categories in place, decisions can only be made after going through these actions manually.

Also Read: Resource Forecasting in professional services.

How can workflow automation help reduce employee burnout and stress?

With the help of workflow automation software, one can reduce employee stress levels at the workplace. If a project tracking tool is used to manage different projects, all work can be done on time, and errors will not occur again. This has helped a lot in raising employee productivity and efficiency. Here are some unique ways by which you can automate solutions and reduce employee stress.

PROJECT TRACKING:

The benefits of using project tracking are it allows the manager to monitor all work progress simultaneously, keep track of progress and milestones against a project, and keep everyone aware of the project’s current status. With the help of a good project tracking tool, everyone becomes more aware of what is going on with the various projects in their department or the company as a whole.

TIMESHEETS:

The chance to save time, money, and energy – companies have bigger budgets and more free time than ever. They can invest in automation that will increase productivity and lower costs. Using an application like Juntrax, employees can report their hours accurately without worrying about documentation happening outside work hours. This also leads to less downtime when they set their schedules or take breaks away from work regularly, resulting in no frustration and seamless working.

ONBOARDING:

The way companies onboard new hires is evolving. It’s not enough to hire and send a person out the door with nothing but a forlorn wave goodbye. The push for more automation in the onboarding process is accurate because it leads to better results with less human intervention. It is the best way to increase success rates and reduce time spent on the process. Automated onboarding helps new employees move into their first day on the job. It involves sending employees’ profiles through an online portal and providing them with welcome documents, videos, etc. It’s all built around a CRM platform that includes automated recruiting, social media integration, professional support, and reporting capabilities. This relieves irritation and negligent management.

COMMUNICATION:

Communication is a tricky process. It’s challenging to engage with another person, long-distance or otherwise. Companies are looking for tools that promote effective communication by keeping the team members on the same page. This also allows them instant access to information and other members while increasing their chances of success.

CENTRALIZED DATABASE:

In a world where data stores are growing daily, cloud data storage makes specific tasks more accessible and efficient. Companies with large volumes of sensitive data can now access secure cloud storage that can scale up to meet demand when necessary. Storage allows team members in virtually any company to store their documents and files. Contacts and emails are all in one place. This reduces time wastage and promotes employee well-being.

Modern technology has made life easy, reduces time wastage, and generates more income. Technology has increased employee productivity and efficiency through well-designed workflow automation software. Juntrax provides integrated solutions to make your work life easy. We have timesheets, project tracking, and central contact management under one roof.