Tag: virtual assistant services

business management

3 Reasons to Outsource Recruiting

Genean

Recruiting and hiring are crucial parts of any business, you need to make sure you are hiring the right person for your company.

Maybe you are struggling to fill a specific role, or you have a lot of positions to fill and little time, or you just can’t afford to hire an in-house recruitment team. Whatever your reason is, getting outside help will help you get the job done effectively and efficiently. 

Whether you are a small business or a larger one outsourcing – recruiting means your team can get on-demand support. 

So how can outsourcing the hiring process benefit your company? 

First of all, it can save you money. How, you ask. Just like many freelancers, external recruiters are only helping you when there is a need. Compared to a full-time in-house employee, this can save you a significant amount of money.

Recruitment costs can also include advertising, online job boards, tools, and software. The costs can add up. When you outsource, you only have one cost to worry about – paying your external partner.

Secondly, outsourcing saves you time. Hiring can take up a lot of your time. Writing the job description, advertising, sourcing, vetting, following up, and interviewing are all time-consuming tasks. By delegating the entire process or parts of it, to an experienced recruiting freelancer or recruiting agency, you are saving time. 

When you know a professional is focusing on these tasks, you can use your time to focus on other important parts of your business, like scaling up. You can save a lot of time on some tasks where you don’t have the expertise (e.g. sourcing) but still participate in interviews where your point of view is valuable or be part of the final interview after an initial vetting interview. This gives you the best of both worlds: control over the process and saving time. Win-Win.

Thirdly, you can accelerate the hiring process by outsourcing because the external recruiter is focusing on finding you the right candidate. Finding the right candidate can sometimes take one to two months! Now, what if you are growing quickly and need to hire many new employees at once? This can become an all-consuming task. Outsource! External recruiters can effectively and efficiently advertise, source, vet, and interview candidates for you. What if you are hiring for a completely new role within your company? Outsource to an experienced recruiter who has hired for this role before. Utilize their expertise for efficiency and effectiveness.

When you choose to outsource, not only are you taking the hiring duties off your shoulders but also the shoulders of other employees or departments. This means that you and your co-workers can fully focus on what you do best and not spread yourself too thin.

Generally speaking, outsourcing certain tasks of your business to qualified experienced freelancers or agencies will save you time, money, and stress. To learn more about outsourcing for your business, reach out to Life By Design Virtual Solutions. www.lifebydesignvs.com

 

business management

Office Wellness

Genean

The start of a brand-new year is upon us. Many of us are starting the year off with renewed goals of health and wellness. This is not just about losing a few pounds, hitting the gym a little more or watching what you eat. This includes overall well-being and that involves those who you work closely with. Your employees and co-workers. 

So, what can leaders like you do to support your co-workers? Here are four ways you can make 2023 the healthiest year yet for your team.

  • Create a “people first” work environment. Work-life balance, that’s all we hear about these days. Well, there is a reason why. People are realizing that the past workaholic culture of the United States just isn’t sustainable. Hustle culture is being replaced by a work culture that respects and nourishes its employees. So make sure you are evolving along with an evolving work culture. How? Offering flexibility and compassion whenever possible can help reduce work-related stress. Realize that your team has family and friends that are important outside of work.
  • Ask how your team members are doing. When was the last time you actually inquired about an employee’s well-being? Physical and emotional. Setting up a time to check in and discuss how you can support them will help each person feel seen and cared for. Make sure to carve out time beyond your regular working meetings. Even a short conversation can make a big difference. 
  • Encourage teamwork. Research shows that collaborative problem-solving leads to better outcomes. People are more likely to take calculated risks that lead to innovation if they have the support of a team behind them. Working in a team encourages personal growth, increases job satisfaction, and reduces stress. It’s the foundation on which successful businesses are built. 
  • Recognize and celebrate wins! Recognition is an important driver of psychological wellness. Taking the time to recognize good work will make your people feel appreciated. This also incentivizes employees to continue to work hard and reinforces the impact of all they do. Doing so builds camaraderie, acts as an incentive for the next round of work and reinforces the teamwork you’ve already built. A little bit goes a long way. 
  • As more research and evidence are released surrounding the links between mental health and happiness and productivity in the workplace, it’s important to ensure you’re actively cultivating a space and culture where employees are motivated to come to work get the job done.

Interested in what we do at Life By Design Virtual Solutions? Reach out here www.lifebydesignvs.com to talk to one of our trained freelancers. 

photo of people near wooden table
business management

How To Get Your Team On-Board With Your Systems

Genean

If you have read our previous blog,  Why You Must Have Systems In Place, you know how important they are for your business to continue functioning while you deal with life outside of your day-to-day business operations. And you know, life will happen whether you want it to or not. 

So, what do I mean by “systems?” Systems are the procedures you have in place to keep your business running. Think of it as standard operating procedures (SOPs) you give your employees as checklists so they can implement them, even without training.

You implemented these systems or hired someone (hello! Hire a VA to help!) into your business for better functionality so that you don’t have to be the only person to run your business. But there can still be problems. 

Businesses can experience a few pain points surrounding SOPs.

  1. You don’t have systems in place in the first place! Go back and read the blog mentioned above. 
  2. Your employees aren’t following your systems because they don’t want to.
  3. Your systems are so out of date, your staff doesn’t use them because they are no longer effective or efficient. 

So what can you do to ensure that your staff follows the systems you put into place?

First of all, make sure YOU are using these systems. As a leader, you must commit and lead by example. It trickles downhill!

Secondly, make sure the information for your system’s processes is accessible! Where can your staff find your system’s processes? Are you using a specific software? Do they have log-in capabilities? And does your staff understand all your system’s processes and procedures that you put into place? Are you sure?

Thirdly, if you are implementing new systems for your business make sure that your entire team is involved in the roll-out. 

How do you do that?

  1. Collaborate. Work together to problem solve. Use your team’s expertise, skills, and workflow knowledge to fine-tune your systems. 
  1. Train. Make sure the whole team is available for group training sessions. This might be a great time for some team-building fun as well.
  2. Survey. This is an efficient way to collect honest feedback, opinions, and responses from employees. 
  1. Revise. Use what you learned from surveying your employees to improve your systems and make necessary changes.
  1. Clarify. Make sure everyone is on the same page and answer any system questions your team may have. 

How do you keep your team engaged in following the systems you put into place?

  1. Use your processes and procedures in the daily management of your company.
  1. Regularly review your processes. 
  1. Accountability. This is not only pointing out when someone is not doing their job correctly but also rewarding them when they are. Make sure your consequences and rewards are clear and consistent.

Using these strategies together will ensure that your team follows the systems that you have in place and will continue to do so in the future. 

One of the services we at Life By Design Virtual Solutions offer is to help create and implement systems in your organization. If you are interested in learning more about systems/SOP please reach out to us at https://lifebydesignvs.com/.

business management, process management

Why You Must Have Systems in Place

Genean

Life happens. Whether you are going to have a baby, there is a death or illness in the family, or some other unexpected issue that will pull you away from your business, life does indeed happen.

So it’s really important to have systems in place for your business.

Without systems in your business, you are the business. This means:

  • The business needs you to get things done.
  • This makes it difficult for you to scale up.
  • It also makes it difficult for you to take time off.

With systems, you can step back, delegate and your business will still run without you.

What do I mean by “systems”. Systems are the procedures you have in place to keep your business running. Think of it as standard operating procedures you give your employees as checklists so they can implement it, even without training.

Systems should be set up for the activities that you use to run your business.

If any activity is required to get things done in your business, it should have a system. 

Getting systems in place may seem like a daunting task at first, but believe me, it’s better to have them in place BEFORE something happens, that way your business can keep on functioning while you deal with real life situations. 

Where to start.

  1. Write down what roles are required to get things done in your business.
  2. Write down the tasks that these roles need to perform.
  3. Document the procedures, create checklists or videos that show how these tasks can be done.
  4. Specify the tools and software that are required and how they are useful.
  5. Identify the handover points between tasks done by different roles. Document these as part of the systems.
  6. Test the systems and refine them as needed.
  7. Explore opportunities for automation.

Loom is a great tool to use for explaining systems. We use this tool at Life By Design and think it is a great way to show your team processes. You can make short explanatory videos for processes you follow in your day to day work. That way, if someone needs to step in for a day or two, there are instructions to follow. 

You might also want to consider hiring someone to help you get everything in place. They can be your processes’ guinea pig if needed, help type up processes and give insight on instructions that need to be clarified. 

So, not only are systems imperative for you to personally be able to step away from your business from time to time, but they also prime your business for sale or to scale up. Getting systems in place has GOOD benefits. 

Life By Design Virtual Solutions is a team of experts when it comes to building systems and standardization of your business. Reach out with any questions, we would be happy to help. 

business management

Women’s History Month: Celebrating Women in Business

Genean

“A confident woman, a woman who truly knows her worth and her power, is a force to be reckoned with.”

– Mandy Hale.

We, at Life By Design Virtual Solutions, a proud, woman-owned and women-run business. So, it’s only fitting to highlight that March is Women’s History Month.

Since 1987, we have honored women during the month of March for the contributions they have made toward history, culture, and society. We are honored to recognize those who have successfully challenged the discrimination women face as entrepreneurs and as members of the paid labor force.  Women have always worked hard, but often their work has been undervalued and underpaid. Times have changed. 

Women entrepreneurs challenge the discrepancies that women face in the labor force every day by driving innovation and technology and placing small businesses on a global competitive playing field. Now that is something to celebrate!

Women-owned businesses employ 9.4 million people in the US according to Business Wire publication ( shorturl.at/hnvT1 ). That is 13 million new businesses and 9.4 million employees! Incredible! This means that women are fueling the economy and the economic impact is undeniable. According to CNBC (shorturl.at/swzPR), women-owned businesses generate an annual revenue of $1.9 trillion. There is no doubt that women-owned companies are performing better than they have at any other time in U.S. business history. Exciting News!

The number of women-owned businesses has increased by almost 3,000% in the period 1972–2018 (shorturl.at/bcxFS). It’s important to mention that women-owned and minority-owned businesses were only tracked starting in the year 1972, but this new data shows not only the remarkable impact women entrepreneurs have on our economy when it comes to creating jobs and generating revenue, but also the growing role of women-owned businesses in our communities. 

As Michele Obama says, 

“No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.” 

The US ranked one of the top global powerhouses for female entrepreneurship according to CNBC (shorturl.at/vACFP). The global pandemic has affected women in business at disproportionate levels. This has led women business founders to look for new ways of working, including tapping into new business opportunities and switching up existing models, like going digital. 

One of the reasons women are leading the pack in new business, is the way they are approaching how to actually run a business. Many women are putting a focus on work-life balance, respect, collaboration and compassion for their employees.  The Future is Female. There is no looking back. 

“Success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.”

– Michelle Obama.