Maintaining Productivity While On the Road

A good number of location-independent individuals are now freelancing their way into their own fields of expertise. From consultants to writers, traveling while working is considered a blessing by the majority. The challenges of working on the road often include unstable Internet, lack of office equipment, too many distractions, and serving clients with different time zones as yours. Below are handy tips proven to make you stay at the top of your freelancing form while you find yourself at bus terminals, train stations and airports.

Charged Up!

Delayed flights or getting stranded in some exotic land is not uncommon for the wandering freelancer. Anticipate these not-so-desirable occurences by making sure your mobile communication devices (e.g. phone, laptop) are all charged up. Furthermore, do yourself a favor by tagging extra batteries for those gadgets that your freelancing life cannot live without. A solar-powered charger may just save you from losing your high-paying clients. You do not want to be stuck in an airport for five hours with a client deadline to boot.

Pack Light and smart, too!

This tip may be quite hackneyed but it still holds true for those who would want to enjoy the road rather than make a big fuss over their luggage. The same applies to location-independent employees.

Avoid last minute packing by compartmentalizing your luggage such as having a kit for toiletries and another for gadget accessories such as extra card readers and a spare cord for your laptop. By packing light and smart, you save yourself the hassle of tracking down bags and luggages that house unnecessary pieces of clothing or accessories. It is also best to make use of clothes that are fast-drying as well as items that are multi-purpose.

Print it Out

If possible, carry a print out of hotel reservations, flight tickets and driving directions. You can never tell when your GPS will fail you nor you’ll find yourself stuck in a rural area with poor mobile phone reception. You do not want to lose a client just because you wandered around a city for hours without knowing where exactly you’re heading.

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About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Consultant of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

Attracting and Retaining Employees through Competitive Pay Scales

One of the critical human resources responsibilities is to maintain a competitive and yet content workforce. To achieve this goal, the organization must create a compensation program that is broad enough to encompass the needs of all categories of employees. It must be reviewed and adjusted regularly to ensure that they can hire and retain exceptional personnel.

To be able to establish a competitive salary scheme, here are three basic HR strategies to consider:

Analyze and Evaluate Jobs Objectively

Job evaluation is a strategy to analyze each position and compare it with other jobs within the company. This is the key to establish a fair package because the management will be able to distinguish who has greater responsibilities, accountability and exposure to physical hazards. As a result, they can assign positions to different levels with a corresponding pay structure.

Implement a Salary Benchmarking Plan

Salary benchmarking is a method of comparing salaries of positions across companies in the same industry. The gathered information determines whether the employer is overpaying or underpaying its employees. It's usually done through DIY surveys, availing services of HR consulting firms or using paperless, web-based tools.

Assess Company’s Financial Capability

The benchmarking results let the company know its compensation status in the market. If the business is prosperous, the management can choose to carry out a scheme that is above the mean to attract outstanding employees. Otherwise, they must focus on promoting other strengths of the company to maintain its desirable image in the industry.

A good employee compensation package has been proven successful in addressing excessive work-related stress, in stimulating employee motivation and in encouraging higher level of achievement. With these benefits, the tips above are definitely good ways of nurturing the most valuable capital of the company.

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About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Consultant of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

How to increase your bottom line using Invoice Factoring

Business is too tight these days. As many companies are closing their doors and leaving behind uncollected AR (Accounts Receivable), it is noteworthy that some startups and small businesses are seemingly thriving. While product differentiation, excellent customer service, organizational competitiveness, captured niche market, and effective management may rank among the success factors in these companies, however, the most common underlying factor is having an efficient AR collection system.

Invoice Factoring has emerged into one of the best AR collection systems or alternatives for companies that are going through an exponential growth or are having cash flow issues but they cannot obtain immediate funding elsewhere. If you are a startup or a small business owner, here are three compelling reasons why you need to embrace accounts receivable factoring to increase your bottom line:

Smart way of managing your Accounts Receivable

Why be hard on yourself? Why spend time worrying because you placed all your eggs in one basket, that is, investing on a few major accounts, when you can be guaranteed of collection. When you partner with an invoice factoring agency, you are in effect relieving yourself of the angst and anxieties of when and how to collect your AR. It is smart business management in all sense of the word. Also, it gives you the capability and opportunity to operate in a prompt, effective, and efficient manner. And you can…

Spend more time selling

This means, you can channel all your energies and resources to getting those sales and inking those project contracts. More sales, more revenues, and more collection. But of course, the latter is no longer a part of your major concerns because it has been taken care of by your business partner –the invoice factoring company that you have engaged solely for that purpose.

Selling is the lifeblood of your business. I believe that it is an obvious cliche worth stating. There is no greater joy for any entrepreneur when you can sell with the assurance and confidence that you will be paid. Not only that, you can also extend a longer credit line to your customers. This means lesser risks on your end, and you can fire up the furnace to get those products sold and those services reached your target market without worrying about collection afterwards.

Streamlined Operating Cost

Many startups and small businesses are still enslaved by the idea that invoice factoring is for the big boys only, the corporate giants who can afford the perceived monumental fees. But that was decades ago. Before, invoice factoring is the common alternative for financially struggling companies to bail them out from a worsening cash flow. But lately, this financial technique is widely being used by smart financial managers for long-term financial planning, healthier cash flow, and for business expansion. Why? It is because the rates for invoice factoring are competitive compared to other conventional funding methods or business loans. More so, compared to taking your time to go out and chase your debtors, invoice factoring is cost effective in many ways.

Increased Bottom line

I can actually think a plethora of reasons why you need to use invoice factoring. But suffice to say that, it will definitely increase your bottom line. When you get your AR on time all the time, spend more time selling, and lowering your operating costs, this could only mean increasing your revenue and profits as a direct result.

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About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Consultant of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

The Mobile Employee

Credit: Infographic by Enterprise mobile consultants at [x]cube LABS

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About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Consultant of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

Impact of Social Networking Sites on Recruitment

Social Networking Sites Changed the Way we do things

With just over 1.43 billion social network users in the world (an increase of 19.2% from 2011), it looks like that social networking is still spreading over the four corners of the earth. With sites first appearing around the late nineties with networks such as sixdegrees.com, no one could have guessed just how big social networking was about to become. Although Six Degrees closed down in 2001, that was not before it was sold for $125million and raked in a total number of 1,000,000 active users.

Unsurprisingly, the fluctuation of networking sites have come and gone over the years. Where once powerful Myspace was worth around $500million it was sold to the likes of Mr. Justin Timberlake for a total of $35 million in 2011. However, with behemoth sites such as Facebook (current estimated worth between $75-100 billion) and Twitter ($10 billion), there’s no end for social networking on the horizon and the popularisation of such sites are only set to rise in the near future.

It is their sudden and blistering emergence onto the world market that means we still don’t fully understand the full impact on what social networking has had on our lives our just where it will lead. Unsurprisingly, social networking is now affecting the recruitment industry with surprising results; thanks to a recent survey which interviewed 300 randomly selected employers, we can now just catch a glimpse on the impact that social networking is having on the recruitment industry and the people who are applying for jobs all over the world.

More Employers Use Social Networking Sites in their Recruitment

Out of the 300 employers that were interviewed, it was found that 47% had viewed a candidates social networking site only moments after receiving an application and did so to save their own time. Another 27% viewed a candidate’s networking site after an initial conversation and 15% after a detailed one. All in all, the survey found that a massive 91% of employers had used social networking to screen potential employees. Out of all the sites, 76% had used Facebook, 53% had used Twitter and 48% had screened their candidates on LinkedIn. For the people out there with all their party photographs from university and the last weekend, a quick page viewing could be a career halting decision. Thankfully however, we have the statistics to discover just what happened once the employers had screened the candidates, and what happened next.

Out of the 300 employers, 61% of them rejected the candidates once that they had viewed their social networking websites. 11% were rejected because of inappropriate photographs, another 11% because of inappropriate comments and 10% were rejected because they were seen to be taking drugs on their profiles. Of course, the latter is probably not something that you or I may have difficulty hiding, but we all have photographs where we are found in questionable situations. Setting a privacy setting on your Facebook or Twitter may be a good solution to this.

Interestingly, and the highest reason of rejection out of the lot; 13% of employers rejected candidates because they were found to have lied about their qualifications during their application and were exposed through their social networking page.

Of course, the news isn’t all bad and there can be benefits to owning a well-kept social networking page.

Out of the employers, 68% of employers had hired applicants after viewing their social networking pages. Impressively, 36% had hired because they found their candidates to be creative, 33% because the candidates had shown good communication on their pages. Interestingly, another 24% of employers had hired because they found that the candidates had accidentally omitted a qualification or an award from their curriculum vitae.

Our Take

It is always recommended to keep your social networking page clean and interesting if you are a candidate. For employers, it is also interesting to know, besides the social networking resources, that there is also powerful software out there that is available that can aide your employment search such as Recruitment Software with CIPHR.

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About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Director and Virtual CEO of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

Transforming Corporate Culture

How do organizations make a name for themselves, get a lion share of the market, and racked in billions on net revenues? Should they do it the Toyota way by creating a rigid Total Quality Management System (TQM)? Or should they do it the GE way by having a Visionary CEO who will take them to new heights like Jack Welch did in his heydays? Or should they do it the Apple way, by not listening to what the market says and instead create a product that the market will love like a cult?

No. Although they could try any of those approaches and probably succeed, but they missed the crucial element –corporate culture. Different approaches but what made them succeed is the underlying culture behind the way they do business.

Corporate Culture Defines Organizational Success

If at any rate your organization has adopted any of the business models I have mentioned above, it is perfectly okay. Besides, these corporate giants showed us a better and proven ways of doing business. However, before you exhaust your resources into getting into their moulds, look within your organization and see what you have that makes you different and competitive. More often, you will be surprised to see that the values you try to espouse are your edge. These values determine the kind of corporate culture you currently have or would like to have.

Those 3 giants turned into household names because of the corporate culture they imbibe. And I believe that’s what defined theirs success, what made them conquer their market, and what made them weather economic crisis after the other.

Corporate Culture Matters

Corporate culture is inherent in any organization. It matters. Lisa Jackson and Gerry Schmidt, both corporate culture experts and co-authored, “Transforming Corporate Culture: 9 Natural Truths for Being Fit to Compete,” were right when they said that that culture is not something you build, it is there when the company crawled out the belly of its startup mother or its founders’ novel ideas. What makes it a reckoning power for any organization is when you transform it into a competitive edge. I believe Jackson and Schmidt put it bluntly,

Culture is in the eye of the hurricane: The calm, powerful, centered ability of your organization to win in the Darwin game. Culture is what allows you to be in enough alignment to adapt quickly, build sustained growth, and compete in a global economy (even when you are local).

Corporate Culture is Key to Organizational Competitiveness

It is observable that more and more organizations these days are focusing their business strategies from relying on tangible resources to the intangible such as developing values, creating reliable knowledge bases, management systems, strong brand and a mission-centric organization. Apparently, this has been brought into light by highly competitive and successful companies who have embraced a culture where everyone in the organization are adapting to changes, putting emphasis on creativity, transparent communications and shared values. This is not an overnight phenomenon. These organizations invested time and efforts in creating this kind of culture.

This is what Jackson and Schmidt argue in their book, that,

Culture transform through a deposit of very specific and consistent actions, over time these deposits are like compound interest: They exponentially foster an environment in which the business can thrive and grow.

Indeed!

While that is easy said than done, the underlying impetus to drive an organization to excellence in the way they do and produce things for their customers is creating a corporate culture that embraces values that are supportive of their business objectives.

Transforming Corporate Culture: 9 Natural Truths for Being Fit to Compete

Here’s the hard reality, business is changing. As technology evolves so quickly, and so is the way of doing business. Yesterday’s effective business models do not scale today. The key is transforming your culture to compete. Jackson and Schmidt have written a powerful book that encapsulates effective cultural interventions that work. They drew from their wealth of experience helping organizations find their competitive winning identity.

Drawing their case through parsing nature’s natural way of growth and evolution, the book, Transforming Corporate Culture, proffers that developing culture within the walls of the organization takes the same process. Extracting nine lessons from nature and using them as a tool for diagnosing organizational and business issues, and highlighting stories and experiences from CEO’s, they have aptly demonstrated that creating a competitive corporate culture is key to any business success.

Indeed, change is inevitable and that an organization can’t fight it. If it needs to survive the Darwinian credo of competing in the market, it has to evolve into a superior organization through its culture for culture is a power to be reckoned. Thus top management and their teams need to understand what culture is, how it drives competition and how to reshape their organization's ability to dominate their industry; exceed their revenue goals; find better ways of serving their customers; and allowing their employees to participate in making these into realities.

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About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Consultant of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

Can an ERP Save your HR Department?

Is your HR department more disorganized than a 19-year old college student too busy playing God of War to care about his homework? Don't know whether the holiday hours, work schedules or pension benefits are in effect? It might be time to fully automate your business with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system!

ERP systems can work with all facets of your business to make sure that your business processes are smooth and in tip-top shape.

So what exactly IS ERP?

ERP takes all of the management information, both external and internal and integrates it through the entire organization, including the finance department, the customer service department, the marketing and tech support department, the manufacturing department and the sales and service departments. Putting all this information into a big database, ERP can help any industry

ERP Systems, generally speaking, have four main features:

1. An integrated system that does not require upgrades, because it's constantly being updated in real- time (or close to real-time).
2. A database, common to all departments, that can effectively run all the applications needed.
3. A look and feel that is consistent for all the modules used.
4. The system can be installed without comprehensive application installing or data integration by the IT department.

What components of HR can be helped by ERP?

Practically all of them! HR's job is made that much easier since an ERP system can:

1. Ensure all payroll is accurately put into the system.
2. Ensure that employees are properly trained.
3. Ensure all benefits are accrued properly.
4. Enable the HR Manager to see that the 401(k) balances are applied to the correct employees.
5. Show who was recently hired and the proper pay rate to give to him or her.
6. Keep Diversity Management up-to-date . This ensures that departments are diverse enough to allow inputs and outputs from people from multiple backgrounds.

What are the specific components of an ERP system?

ERP systems generally consist of features such as: Customized Reporting, Workflow Management Internet access (for the purpose of gaining information and document management).

Some people are talking about "Best Practices". Should I be concerned?

Best Practices are the software's way of agreeing with the vendor's ideologies on how to run the company's business processes effectively. As such, complying with these regulations actually becomes easier when an ERP system is implemented. If your company does electronic funds transferring, such as through Paypal, ERP systems actually help facilitate that because they can effectively be coded into the system and be shared among multiple businesses.

Does ERP take a long time to implement?

Yes, but it's worth it. The average amount of time for a business is 14 months and requires 150 consultants. Because of the fact that ERP requires multiple and considerable changes to all the policies and practices, ERP services consist of three different items: Customization, Consulting and Support. Your actual implementation time will vary based on a number of factors, including but not limited to: The size of the business, the willingness of the employees to accept the change and exactly how expansive the scope of changing is. Small companies could see this program done in a month or two, whereas large and multi-national corporations could take as long as a decade.

Does ERP only help the HR Department?

Not at all. ERP is a total overhaul of the way the entire business is run and with information available to all the networks of the organization, you can easily see all facets of business, from accounting all the way up to upper management, being run quicker and more efficiently.

In sum, ERP is a comprehensive modernization of the way the business is run. Any department, from HR to Sales, can see prospective benefits in the long run with some short-term sacrifices. ERP is a good idea for a business that wants to see items ship faster, employees working more effectively and inventory being better accounted for.

This is a guest post by Steve, a recent graduate student living in California who has an expansive background in accounting. He has worked for multi-state companies which have implemented ERP from JD Edwards managed services where he had the opportunity to speak to several consultants about how ERP implementation can be done in a way that accommodates both the business and its employees.

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Doing Your Best With a Desperate Workforce

Today's business start-ups are faced with the honest fact that the current job market is unprecedentedly diluted. Millions of Americans are in need of work and millions more are struggling to attain the professional goals they set out for themselves through education and hard work. For fresh entrepreneurs this is both a blessing and a curse. Many talented individuals flood the system ready to be picked up and given a chance, yet finding them through the thick of non-qualifiers is no easy task.

Once they are hired, the modern workforce continues to present its own set of challenges on account of the dire economy and its affect on individual lives. The following are good ways to not only do your best for these sorts of workers, but to also ensure they don't make it any harder for you to start a successful business:

Get a Great Healthcare Plan

Peace of mind goes a long way in the minds of new employees. Not only do they want to know they're performing well, they also want to make sure they can count on their job to help them take care of their families. The best way to not only win over terrific talent but also keep your workers content and therefore willing to work hard, is to provide a fantastic healthcare plan. Changes in healthcare law have given small business leaders every incentive to get worthwhile plans, providing tax credits to those that do.

Insure Against Flakiness

One downside to the job market floodgates being opened and having access to overly-qualified employees is that these kinds of workers are likely to continue to keep looking for work. Contractors and those hiring remotely especially ought to consider such options as the surety bond and sub-contracts to make sure that the work gets done. Small businesses can't afford to be late on delivery of goods and services. Whether it's in the design of your business structure or simply in writing, protect against flakiness at all costs.

When Possible, Accommodate Busy Schedules

Not every business is able to let their workers perform their tasks whenever it's convenient. But if you're an Internet-based business or some other enterprise with around-the-clock access to the means of production, it's wise to be willing to let office schedules go out the window so long as the work gets done. Too many families are juggling multiple jobs along with the schedules of kids and otherwise to always expect everyone to make it on time everyday. By making it clear that punctuality isn't a priority, you'll let your employees relax, and are sure to see positive results.

Hone Your Interview Process

If there's one certain learning opportunity for entrepreneurs in this tough economy, it's how to hire the right people. Timing is off the essence in running a start-up, so it's imperative that you find the right people as fast as possible. Chances are you're going to be interviewing at least six individuals for one position. Now, imagine the amount of resumes that means you'll have to be looking through. Figure out an efficient system, whether that's scanning every resume for red squiggles and keeping the ones that are error free, or creating an exposing series of questions for the 1-1 process.

Today's workforce is not the same as those of times past. Things are different. The world is working in a very different way. So will the workers, but if they're smart, so will the business leaders.

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About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Director and Virtual CEO of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

Key Benefits of Learning Management Systems For Businesses

Many business and organizations are responsible for maintaining skills and competence for a large group of employees. As a workforce grows in size, managing employee needs can become challenging, even for smaller businesses. Learning management systems (LMS) are thus put in place to help an organization manage its training programs, online events, classrooms, documentation, and administrative work relating to employees.

LMS Advantages

Organization and Regulation

Many companies can benefit from a learning management system. Modern systems can help provide a central repository for administrative tasks, and automate many procedures. Payroll can be used more effectively, as self-guided services can help many employees manage their own training and competency in an organization. Educational materials can be assembled to meet an individual employee's needs, based on competency testing.

LMSs can also be used for automated administrative tasks and human resource management. Modern systems are used in a variety of industries with regulation (such as pharmaceutical, medical, and financial services) to manage employee compliance training.

Flexibility

A LMS also makes it possible to support varying portability requirements, for different regulatory and site standards. In addition, training initiatives can be consolidated to work on web based platforms, allowing cloud-based storage for learning materials.

Collaborative Learning Environment

LMSs can vary in function, from systems designed for managing educational documents and training records, to cloud-based learning solutions that can be delivered over the Internet. Online LMS systems allow for collaborative learning environments, and can help employees learn with a mentor or other educator.

LMSs can be used to manage all aspects of an employee's documentation. Some service providers provide employee performance and expectations management solutions, which allow employee reviews, feedback, skills-gap analysis, multi-rater assessments, and succession planning. By using competency-based learning solutions, employers can quickly fill in learning gaps, and build the skill set of a group of employees.

Channel Learning

One of the largest upcoming trends in learning management systems is Channel Learning, where allied companies can share educational content and compliance learning materials with partner groups. By thinking outside of traditional corporate boundaries, employers and firms can improve the skill set of their workforce at minimal cost. Large companies with many divisions can create a central LMS, and allow general skill training sets to be used by all partner groups.

Many organizations and businesses suffer from high levels of redundancy in their learning plans and initiatives. By using a learning management system, redundancies in a training system can be incorporated into a single central learning plan. This allows businesses to reduce HR payroll costs, ensure a centralized compliance management system, allow for employee appraisals and reviews using a central standard, and allow performance benchmarking across a large number of groups.

Many learning management systems integrate elements of a talent management system. A TMS can help companies recruit new talent effectively, by creating a database to manage needs in an organization. Many businesses recruit talent based on an organizational hierarchy.

A talent management system can proactively identify areas in a company that can benefit from additional talent, based on current employee appraisals and reviews. Predictive analytics can forecast upcoming trends and needs, and can help a company bring on additional talent before it is needed.

If there are areas where a learning management system has detected weakness, a talent management system can help a proactively identify opportunities to improve a workforce through recruitment of additional talent. In addition, if a LMS identifies a surplus of human talent in one division, and a need for additional talent, TMS-LMS integration can help identify situations where cross training can effectively increase value for a company.

Companies are people: by managing employee skills, talent recruitment, and feedback programs, businesses can learn how to effectively manage their most valuable asset. As technology progresses, talent and learning management systems can help businesses of all sizes adapt to a variety of economic climates.

WHAT'S NEXT? Get your updates by emailor via RSS.Follow us on Twitteror like us on Facebook. Visit ourFREE Business Resourcespage.

About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Director and Virtual CEO of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

Is Your Organization Customer-Focused?

What does it mean to say an organization is customer-focused?

A customer-focused organization is one that truly understands the needs and expectations of its customers and focuses on going beyond just meeting them. Customer-focused organizations consistently exceed the expectations of their customers. There is recognition throughout the organization that customer satisfaction should be a bare minimum – not a goal to strive for. If you want to be recognized as an outstanding provider of customer service, then you – and everyone who works for your company – must consistently exceed the expectations of your customers.

How can companies develop customer relationships characterized by loyalty?

Providing satisfactory service is a given in a customer-focused organization. Exceeding the needs of customers – both in terms of quality of products and services and in terms of how they are treated – is what will cultivate customer loyalty. Think about it like this: A satisfied customer is one that did not experience dissatisfaction with your company. He or she might come back in the future, but might just as easily to go a competitor. Ask yourself this: What can you do to make sure that your customers want to choose to keep coming back to you time and time again? Those are the things that result in loyalty.

What can a company do to become more customer-focused?

• Treat employees with the same level of respect that should be shown to customers
• Train employees regarded what is expected and why the expectation is what it is
• Never lose sight of the fact that perception is reality when it comes to customer service
• Realize that customers must be the first priority
• Maintain an appropriate attitude of respect and professionalism
• Focus on determining customer needs
• Work on building relationships with customers
• Work proactively to prevent problems
• Practice effective problem resolution techniques when problems arise

WHAT'S NEXT? Get your updates by emailor via RSS.Follow us on Twitteror like us on Facebook. Visit ourFREE Business Resourcespage.

_____________________________________________________

This is another guest post by Mary G. White, M.A., SPHR. She is the Training Coordinator for Mobile Technical Institute and MTI Business Solutions, where she specializes in human resources, management, and marketing training. She teaches business training seminars in Mobile, AL and provides on-site corporate training and conference presentations throughout the U.S., as well as human resource management and public relations consulting services. She is also the author of 101 Human Resource Management Tips and 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips in the LifeTips book series.  Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Tips for How to Choose an Excellent Business Administration Degree Program

Nearly every four-year university offers a Business Administration Degree program; however, not all degree programs are created equal. Just because a college offers a certain degree program doesn't necessarily mean that it is a good program at that school. Many colleges are distinctly known for excelling in a certain area such as the University of Missouri for Journalism, the University of California-Davis for Large Animal Veterinary, and the Harvard School of Business for, obviously, business. While we would all love to have achieved the academic excellence to attend the Harvard or Wharton School of Business, it's not always possible. However, you can still obtain a great degree from a reputable program even if the program isn't as prestigious as Harvard. You just need to know what you look for. Before deciding on any university or college to obtain your business degree, you need to ask yourself 3 key questions:  

What Does the Curriculum Offer?

When it comes to entering a degree program, it is obvious that the education itself it of the foremost importance. Before registering with a certain school, check out their curriculum online first. A good business program, whether it be an MBA or BA, should always have a curriculum that offers a balance between accounting, management, and finance.  

Who Will Be Your Professors?

If the professors of a program you are interested in have never sat on a Board of Directors, owned their own firm, or sat as a CEO or CFO, then there is a good chance that they don't have the real life experience needed to teach you real world applications. For each program you are interested in do a background check on each of the professors listed in the department. Choose the program that has the greatest number of professors with the most professional experience. Not only will these types of professors better understand real-world business, but they will have also established more contacts in the business world which will offer you greater opportunities for networking and future job prospects.  

What Professional Services are Offered?

The job market has been particularly tough for recent graduates – even those graduating with MBAs. Make sure the business administration programs you are interested in offer a great career services department that gives personalized attention to each individual in the program. You will also want to see what percentage of students are actually being hired from each graduating class of that particular business program. If you find that the number is below 85 percent, then you may want to reconsider your interest.  

What Professional Experience is Available? 

Education alone will not get you a job after graduation. You will not only need a great education, but also a great resume under your belt. Check with each program to make sure that they are established with several businesses and firms around the area so you are able to obtain a great internship, and gain the work experience needed to begin a solid career after graduation.  

Is the Program Accredited?

As surprising as it may be, not all business administration programs are accredited, nor are all colleges and universities. Without accreditation, you are essentially paying for an education and donating your time for a degree that doesn't even count. Before even looking further into any program, you should always make sure they are accredited first by visiting the U.S. Department of Education's page. There is no reason to get starry eyed about a program only to realize that it isn't accredited.

Higher education is a definite investment of time and money. There is no reason to immediately rush into a decision when choosing a program. In this economic climate, you need the best education and professional experience a school can offer to obtain a career after graduation. Don't sell yourself short. Take the time needed to research each school thoroughly to make sure that both your time and money are well spent.

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About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Director and Virtual CEO of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

How To Avoid Making Bad Hiring Choices

In today's economic environment, mistakes are spotlighted much easier than ever before. To be successful, every approach has to be calculated and played like a chess game. This basic principal goes for the hiring process as well. You want the best people in every position, whether it's for your IT management or HR department.

Far too many people make really bone-headed decisions on those they hire for equally poor reasons. This won't fly in today's economy. It's an employer's market, but you have to think about a lot of things if you want to avoid making a hiring mistake that could end up costing your company time and treasure.

Bullet Point Hiring

Sometimes a candidate looks great on paper but just doesn't translate into real life. As you scroll down the list of bullet point accomplishments, the choices seems to be obvious. It's not uncommon because, after all, you're trying to fill a slot with the best possible candidate. But just because a job applicant looks good on paper doesn't mean that you should be softer on them because they “fit.” Many managers overvalue a narrow range of abilities and work-related experience and totally disregard a candidate that has far more long-term potential.

Overvaluing Presentation Skills

During an interview, an applicant is required to put their best face forward, but it's also important not to overvalue presentation skills. Sometimes people aren't the best during interviews. The economy is bad and many people want a job very badly. This can sometimes lead to nervousness and end up causing the person to make mistakes during their interview. The whole picture needs to be taken into account and any good decision is going to be based on all of the information and not a “gut” motivated decision.

Making Gut Decisions

This is one of the worst reasons to hire someone, but it's also the most common. Managers often go on instinct when they hire someone, but find out quickly after the person starts that maybe they should have thought a little more about it before making a snap decision. Avoid doing this and analyze any choice you make with logic, not feeling.

With all of that said, try not to fall back on preconceived notions about a person. This is usually arrived at within minutes, or even seconds, after a meeting begins. Doing so can often inform your eventual decision and have too great an impact. This is why it's best you use the tips above to make the best long-term decision that will help your company's overall strategy for success.

WHAT'S NEXT? Get your updates by emailor via RSS.Follow us on Twitteror like us on Facebook. Visit ourFREE Business Resourcespage.

About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Director and Virtual CEO of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.

Semantics is a Fundamental Element of Employee Motivation

People like to feel important. That bit of information is not just obvious, it's something you learn in HR 101. But people aren't idiots, either. Employees can smell a supervisor's insincere motivation a mile away, and while a pat on the back is always welcome, it doesn't do much to make an employee feel really special when it's obviously an effort to increase productivity. It's unspoken appreciation that does the most to motivate a person to excel at their work. Workers crave unassuming symbols of their importance.

Examples include the job title. It's something most companies don't care about beyond strictly practical terms, but naming the position correctly can make the individual who filled the slot feel like they're a necessary lever not a replaceable component. It all comes down to semantics, is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, symbols, and their particular influence on the human mind. It's overwhelmingly evident that the right words matter a whole lot when it comes to the response or reaction received.

There is perhaps no better example of the power of semantics like how they work in politics. Frank Luntz is the name you're probably most familiar with when it comes to the frighteningly varying results you can get when you choose different words and phrases to describe an unchanging idea or concept. Luntz famously encouraged lawmakers opposed to the estate tax to call it a "death tax" instead, which resulted in public opinion shifting towards their side of the argument.

If you want workers to do better, use the right words to project the right mindset. You can even go further than that, if budget allows, and invest in seemingly prestigious benefits for the worker. When it's time to replace office furniture order inexpensive "executive office chairs" for all low ranking staff. Traveling employees should be given first-class tickets even if the airline choice is second-rate for their employment rank. They'll never find out.

It doesn't have to be all smoke and mirrors either. Just simply remembering to hone your genuine appreciation to a point that allows for maximum employee self-satisfaction is enough, and you don't have to feel like you're manipulating the mind of someone else.

Mark Twain famously said of writing that "the difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between a lightening bug and a bolt of lightening." This quote also rings true to office semantics. Ho-hum words and perks can generate the energy of a lightening bug among your workers, but pick the right words, phrases, and symbols and you'll get lightening.

WHAT'S NEXT? Get your updates by emailor via RSS.Follow us on Twitteror like us on Facebook. Visit ourFREE Business Resourcespage.

About the Author

Nor Franco is the Managing Director and Virtual CEO of nextManager.net. He's a former corporate executive whose passion is bringing out the full potential of HR in Businesses. This time that passion is pursued through Virtual Management. He writes and blogs about his management views and insights here. Follow him on Twitter.