Super SEO Solutions, The Impact of the Gig Economy, Will Your Employees Quit This Year and Other Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know

20 Things Small Business Owners Need to Know.

 

1—The Gig Workforce is Filling a Void in the Tight Labor Market

How impactful is the Gig Economy? Very, according to a first-of-its-kind study from the ADP Research Institute which puts the spotlight on the gig workforce. The Illuminating the Shadow Workforce: Insights into the Gig Workforce in Businesses, shows that while innovation and technology are transforming the way we work, they are also impacting why, when and where we work.

Today

the research shows that this changing composition of the workforce has significant talent management, budget and compliance implications for businesses of all sizes.

The ADP Research Institute identified two worlds of gig workers in organizations. The independent contractors are often hired for their skillset on a project basis. These skilled, tenured workers tend to be older, highly educated and choose to work on what they enjoy.  Indeed, 30% of independent contractors are aged 55 or older. For some, their gig work is supplemental income to their retirement savings. The second includes short-term W-2 employees who are younger, less educated, have a lower income, and are typically working on a seasonal or on-call hire basis.

“It is clear there is a fundamental shift in the workforce as innovation continues to transform work, increasing the demand for skilled workers,” says Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute.

Key Findings

• Gig work is growing: From 2010 to 2019, the share of gig workers in businesses has increased by 15%, with both short-term workers and independent contractors equally contributing equally to the growth. Gig work will continue to grow, further impacting workforce dynamics and forcing companies to optimize talent management and workforce strategy.
• Every industry relies on gig workers: Recreation, construction and business services are the top three industries utilizing the gig workforce.
• Contract life is a choice: More than 70% of independent contractors say they are working independently by their own choice, not because they can’t find a “traditional” job. Most seem happy with gig work and place a premium on flexibility as a driving motivation behind their decision, over financial security or benefits.  In fact, 60% of them say they’ll continue to work gig jobs for the next three years.

Gig work is not sporadic: More than half of these contractors work for the same company for 12 consecutive months just like any traditional W-2 employee.

• Earning potential is similar to a traditional worker: The average income for employees working for 12 consecutive months is similar, whether they’re an independent contractor or a traditional employee.
• Millennials and Gen Z gig it their way: Gig workers under the age of 34 view themselves as traditional employees, perhaps reflecting the shift in the workforce. However, the prospect of health insurance does not appear to change their job behavior. In fact, 74% say they would continue to work as an independent contractor, even if they lost their current health insurance.

Yildirmaz says, “While the term ‘gig worker’ has seamlessly integrated into our vernacular and culture, there has been no real data-driven insight into the gig workforce in the enterprise space.”

To see , including all data and insights, please download the report here.

 

2—Super Bowl Styled SEO for Your Business

Guest post by Todd Mittleman, Digital Media Director at Moxē

Did your favorite team win Sunday’s Super Bowl? Statistically speaking, odds are your  favorite NFL team didn’t make it to the Super Bowl this year. And chances are you didn’t win your Fantasy Football League either. One of your friendly rivals did and now they have earned the bragging rights for a whole year. It’s not as if you didn’t invest the time into picking the right players off the waivers and monitor the sports news for key insights. You tried, but just didn’t get the results you hoped for.

The same may be the case with your website.

If you’re like most, you probably spent more time with your Fantasy Football lineup than you did optimizing your website. Not to worry, here are some ways you can optimize your marketing lineup to improve your performance next year…or next quarter for that matter!

The key to a great marketing campaign is the same as it is with your football team. You need both a great offense and a great defense.

Here are some tips for your business that are guaranteed to score a touchdown:

Strong Offense

1. Optimize on-page SEO: This includes things like writing unique keyword-optimized Title Tags and Meta Descriptions, Canonical tags, and a comprehensive XML sitemap.
2. Generate quality content: Use content that speaks to your key benefits and be sure you incorporate high search demand keywords that relate to your product or service.
3. Add Quality CTA’s: Direct your visitors to take a desired action such as filling out a form or calling. Tie it into an incentive like “Call us for a Free Consultation.”
4. Use 301 Redirects in any redesign: A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect. It tells the search engines that you’ve moved and what the forwarding address is. By default, a basic redirect is generally a 302 (temporary redirect). Or worse it may not redirect at all and that generates a 404 Error Page. Try to redirect old pages to their corresponding new page rather than throwing everything to your home page.
5. Competitive analysis: Review what your top competitors are doing. Look at the sites linking to them and see if there are similar opportunities. Are there any conversion strategies that you can implement or improve upon? How are they presenting content and value propositions?
6. Establish strong KPIs: If you’re not measuring goals for your website, how can you gauge success? Things like visitors, calls, form completions, sales, revenue, bounce rate, and page speed can all be measured. Create a historical reference document so you can see what your best time period was and use that as the benchmark to return to and go beyond.
7. Reduce form friction: Too many fields can reduce the number of forms completed. Make it easy for people to get to your form and fill it out. Try a landing page with a form on it to shorten your conversion funnel.
8. Leverage positive PR: A great way to accumulate relevant quality backlinks if from positive PR campaigns. These are also great places to get the word out to your target audiences to do business with you. These articles can occasionally displace your competitors within the search results.

Strong Defense

1. Secure against cyber threats: Keep sensitive information safe by using strong passwords, update software and plugins. Use up-to-date anti-virus software and be on alert for phishing schemes and email attachments.
2. Create backups, regularly: Make sure your hosting company is maintaining regular backups of your site. If you work on the site, keep backups on your computer as well. Once in a while you might find yourself needing to go back in time.
3. Upgrade to HTTPS: If you haven’t done so already and your site is still at a HTTP address, it’s time to migrate to HTTPS. Chrome warns visitors that your site is unsecure before they allow anyone to click over.  A security cert is cheap to get and, in some cases, can be free from your web host. Don’t forget to update your email signatures and as many backlinks as you can.
4. Disavow spammy backlinks: If your website has managed to have a bunch of spammy links get attributed to it, you can disavow them within your .htaccess file or similar site admin area.
5. Monitor your page speed: Don’t worry about speeding tickets. Instead, feel the need, the need for speed. Slow sites can hurt your rankings.
6. Monitor your reviews: Encourage happy customers to review your product or service on Google Reviews, Yelp, eBay, Amazon, and other review-type sites. Respond with a thank you, and work to resolve negative reviews.
7. Acquire similar branded domains: The last thing you need is for a customer to mistype your overly clever domain name and end up on a competitor’s site.
8. Watch out for spam in your blog: Left open and unattended, these are breeding grounds for link spam and online graffiti.

At the end of the day, making it to the playoffs and potentially the Super Bowl takes some hard work, perseverance, and commitment. Having the right teammates to help you achieve your goals, whether it’s a touchdown or sales lead, is the game plan for success!

 

3—2020 Talent Trends Report

As automation continues to disrupt the world of work, upskilling and reskilling will be key to evolving the competencies of workers in order to complement technological innovation, according to the 2020 Talent Trends Report just released by Randstad Sourceright.

2020 Talent Trends Report Key Findings

Internal Mobility: 47% of companies will be increasing investments in their internal mobility programs in 2020, up from 39% in 2016. In Randstad Sourceright’s 2019 survey of talent, 31% of working professionals say their ideal employer should offer career progression opportunities.

Automated Talent Acquisition: 71% of C-suite and human capital leaders say that technology has made the recruitment process simpler and more efficient for them, and 72% believe that technology is helping them make smarter hiring decisions and 81% say talent analytics play a critical role in sourcing, attracting, engaging and retaining talent.

Digital Insights: 47% of employers are investing in predictive analytics for talent, and 54% are investing in digital specialists to support HR. In Randstad Sourceright’s 2019 research, 60% of working professionals also say they would have more job opportunities if they possessed broader digital and tech-focused skill sets.

Workplace Culture: While 60% of employers say digital transformation was moving too quickly in 2019, that number fell to 45% this year, signaling that businesses are adapting their cultures to drive their digital shift. This is evidenced by the fact that 77% of talent leaders reported acquiring more digital skill sets to expand their reach and open up business opportunities.

 

4—Gen Z’s Unexpected Characteristics

EY released its proprietary Gen Z Segmentation Study highlighting unexpected characteristics about the generation. Gen Z is not as social media obsessed as many think. While 84% of Gen Z’ers have a social media account, they use it more for communication than for posting like older generations. The top reasons Gen Z use social media:

• • 80% use it to connect with family and friends
  • 72% use it to satisfy boredom
  • 41% use it to stay current on news
  • only 22% share opinions through social sites

Similarly, Gen Z’s political views may be surprising. While many assume younger generations lean left, in fact 39% describe themselves as moderates, 28% as liberal, 25% as conservative and 8% as “other.”

It’s important for businesses to understand the diverse Gen Z population. The report looked at various aspects of Gen Z’s life, including different groupings within the generation, their values and their parents.

Additional Key Findings

Highlighting the diversity of the generation, the research shows Gen Z consists of the following five groups. The percentage shows how much of the generation each group represents:

• 1. Stressed Strivers (35%): high achievers, driven by a fear of not being good enough
  2. Big Plans, Low Energy (18%): expect to do well and make money, but aren’t necessarily willing to put in the effort
  3. Carefree Constituents (16%): the definition of “go with the flow”; may not drive change, but will be the ones who adopt it into the mainstream
  4. Authentic Activists (16%): motivated by the obligation to save the world — and the fear of what will happen if they don’t
  5. Secluded Perfectionists (15%): focused on being the best, not for money or accolades, but for the love of what they do

Learn more here.

 

5—Will Your Employees Quit this Year?

Only 33% of employees plan to stay at their jobs this year, compared to 47% who said the same last year—according to a new report conducted by Achievers, an industry-leading employee voice and recognition solution. Its 3^rd annual Employee Engagement & Retention Report reveals up to two-thirds of employees surveyed could be headed for the door this year. The likely culprit? Disengagement. In fact, just 19% of employees surveyed consider themselves “very engaged,” while 14% are fully disengaged. Even the 32% surveyed with “average engagement” are open to new job opportunities.

Achievers’ Chief Workforce Scientist, Dr. Natalie Baumgartner says, “Our data shows a substantial portion of today’s workforce already has one foot out the door. This is a huge shift from what we found last year: that despite disengagement, 65% of employees were planning on staying at their jobs. Employers must take immediate action to reverse these feelings of underappreciation and disengagement. If they don’t, the risk of turnover and underperformance in 2020 is immense.”

More key findings from Achievers’ report include:

Leadership is falling flat on culture-building

• The perception of leadership’s commitment to culture and employee experience declined, with only 23% of employees surveyed stating senior leaders are “very committed” or have “more than average” commitment, compared to 31% who said the same in 2019.
• 33% of those surveyed believe leadership is “minimally committed” to culture and employee experience. This raises serious concerns as it’s up by 7% from 2019.
• 12% believe leadership in their workplace is “not at all committed” to culture and employee

Absence of recognition is a top driver of turnover, after pay and career growth

• “Lack of recognition” (19%) is a top-three reason why employees surveyed are looking for or considering leaving their jobs, after compensation (52%) and career growth (43%).
• 82% “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed they wish they received more recognition at work, and another 30% of employees feel “not very” or “not at all” valued by superiors.
• When asked how their company or manager is at recognizing them, the top response given by employees surveyed was just “okay” (40%) and nearly one in every five employees say their company or manager was “horrible” at recognizing them.

Employees are leaving because they (still) don’t feel heard 

• 90% say they are more likely to stay at a company that takes and acts on feedback, but when asked how good their company was at soliciting feedback, 15% say they’re “horrible” and 43% chose the second lowest grade—just “okay.”
• When it came to actingon feedback, 23% say their employers are “horrible” and 44% say they’re just “okay.”
• Of those who said their employer is “horrible” at acting on feedback, 44% plan to look for a new job, compared to the 28% of those who call their company “awesome.”

To learn more about the survey results and how to improve company culture to drive engagement and retention, download the full report at this link.

 

6—Cybersecurity Trends of 2020

BSI Cybersecurity and Information Resilience center of excellence forecasts five key trends across the cybersecurity landscape for 2020.

1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Attacks: A report by LastPass highlighted that last year 57% of global businesses adopted MFA, compared to 45% in 2018. While this indicates a growing uptake of MFA in 2019, it also means attacks against MFA will inevitably rise.

Stephen O’Boyle, Global Head of Cybersecurity and Information Resilience Services at BSI says, “MFA is a method of authentication developed to add an additional layer of protection for users, and while we have seen a positive roll out in 2019, we expect to see attackers increase their attempts to bypass it. One such example is what we call a ‘9am attack’, whereby the attacker attempts to login at around 9am local time of the user. The end user arrives at the office, and when logging on, gets a prompt on their authenticator app to approve; if the attacker has it timed correctly, the user approves and inadvertently grants access to the attacker.”

“This along with other targeted attacks, such as Evilqinx (a man-in-the-middle attack framework used for phishing credentials and session cookies) or SIM swapping (at its most basic level, when a hacker convinces your phone carrier to switch your phone number over to a SIM card they own), will become more prominent this year. Provided that phishing attacks remain a ‘high return and low risk’ proposition, they will continue to be attractive to attackers. Organizations must have the capability to detect and react to advanced attacks in order to keep their clients, employees, and information secure.”

2. Third Party / Supplier Risk Management: Managing supplier risk effectively has been strengthened by a number of new directives and regulations which have wide reaching effect, including the Network and Information Security (NIS) directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While companies are following ISO/IEC 27002 Information technology—Security techniques—Code of practice for information security controls and ISO/IEC 27036 Information technology—Security techniques—Information security for supplier relationships to improve their ability to manage risks and are substantially increasing their security control, the risks relating to supplier relationships will continue to expand in 2020.

O’Boyle explains, “Supplier risk management allows organizations to identify, assess, manage, and treat supplier risk. This year businesses will need to further enhance their solutions when it comes to reducing risks associated with third party management. This includes processing of information, outsourced system development, integrations, configurations, and hardware product provenance. Doing so will allow them to be in a better position from a security perspective to achieve their objectives and meet their compliance requirements.”
3. Ongoing Privacy Assurance: Globalization and the relentless advance in technology mean that privacy safeguards are necessary to ensure the protection of the fundamental rights of citizens. The need to adopt a principles-based privacy program to establish a rights-centered approach to controls will be further required this year as enforcement of regulations, such as the GDPR, are progressed—in 2019, 134 fines were reportedly issued under the GDPR equating to over €417 million.

“Many organizations have realized their compliance requirements under GDPR; however, new and evolving global legislation, such as Japan’s Act on Protection of Personal Information (APPI), Brazil’s Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD), Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) mean that an organization’s privacy compliances continue to evolve. These global requirements must be considered based on a company’s global reach and their data jurisdictions,” says O’Boyle.
4. Advanced Hacking Techniques: Mature security organizations often attribute significant human and financial resources to their cybersecurity programs. In 2019, many industry security teams were tasked with proving the value of the company’s security investments. In addition to certifications such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), ISO/IEC ISO 27001 Information Security Management Systems, and SOC 2 (Service Organization Control 2), companies began conducting Purple Teaming exercises, where Defenders (Blue Team) are pitted against Attackers (Red Team) to determine the effectiveness of their defense capabilities and this will expand in 2020.

“This technique provides a truly effective view of attack susceptibility and defense capability in a close to real-world attack scenario. The benefits to organizations are extremely valuable as defenders gain attack experience in a safe scenario environment, deficiencies are highlighted, and opportunities to improve identification and response capabilities are advanced through process improvements and monitoring system tuning. We will see more companies adopt this approach as part of their annual assessment activities this year.” says O’Boyle.

5. Cloud Security—Zero Trust Networks: As cloud adoption grows and organizations begin to truly accept the ‘death of the perimeter,’ the Zero Trust model will rise to the fore. Security measures for protecting organizations beyond the traditional firewall will proceed to improve and conditional-based access considering device enumeration, certificates, location, biometrics, and user secrets will become the norm for protecting organizations leveraging cloud first models.

“Cloud services are key targets for attackers with password spray and credential stuffing attacks as examples of methods used to gain access. Companies who progress their cloud journey without adequate Identity and Access Management tools and processes will soon find themselves subject to compromise. Those with limited monitoring in place can expect attacker persistence to remain for extended durations,” said O’Boyle.

He concludes: “We are seeing the next phase in cyber threats, cyber-related regulations, technological evolutions, and specific solutions within these trends, looking beyond the stalwart and ever-present security risk of inadequate patching. Defense preparation must remain high on the agenda for 2020 across all industry sectors including finance, the public sector, transportation, food, and healthcare. Organizations need to prioritize and address their cyber and regulatory efforts this year and opt for a deeper level of assurance across the board at all levels. Doing so will ensure that everyone has a greater understanding of the cybersecurity landscape and that their information resilience is enhanced across the organization.”

You can review the full whitepaper here.

 

7—Amazon Stores Helps Small Businesses Grow

New research from IDC reveals SMBs selling in Amazon’s stores are growing—quickly. Small businesses that sell in Amazon’s stores are 2.5 times more likely (46% versus 18%) to have seen revenue growth of 25% or more in the past year than those not selling in their stores. Only 3% of those selling in Amazon’s stores saw flat or declining sales growth, compared to 20% of those not selling in their stores. Overall, 94% of SMBs selling in Amazon’s stores say they’ve experienced some growth in the past year, compared to 66% of businesses who are not selling in their stores.

You can learn more about this in this blog post.

 

8—Wells Fargo Expands Financing for Diverse Small Businesses

The Wells Fargo Foundation just announced its providing $17.4 million to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the U.S. to accelerate the growth of diverse small businesses and job creation in local communities. As part of the foundation’s Diverse Community Capital program, Wells Fargo’s grants will fund new efforts to speed access to capital, launch mentoring programs, expand geographic reach, and help sustain more than 50,000 local jobs.

“Empowering small businesses is a direct and impactful way to stimulate job growth,” says Brandee McHale, president of the Wells Fargo Foundation. “Wells Fargo’s Diverse Community Capital program lifts up underserved small business owners with financing and important technical assistance. By working with CDFIs, we can reach into neighborhoods to find those entrepreneurs who want to build a legacy for their families and the wider community.”

Wells Fargo will collaborate with these CDFIs, local banks with a social mission, during this investment round:

Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, Atlanta, will launch a new collaboration with Morehouse College’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center for diverse entrepreneurs and expand an existing in-house development program for women entrepreneurs.

Community First Fund, will expand its lending work in north Philadelphia, increasing the capital available to primarily African American and Latino  small businesses by more than $13 million.

Grameen America will expand its microlending program in Los Angeles and open locations in Fresno, Calif.; San Antonio; and Dallas to enable diverse low-income women entrepreneurs to start or grow businesses with the goal of investing in over 6,000 new businesses and supporting 6,700 jobs over three years.

Houston Business Development, Houston, will deploy more than $3.25 million in loans over three years by introducing Credit Builder, Fast Track and Express Loans in the Houston area to help expedite access to finance for entrepreneurs.

LISC will increase the total volume of lending to diverse small businesses in South Los Angeles and  the Far East Industrial Corridor of Indianapolis by providing enhanced credit for entrepreneurs in need and growing the size of its available loan capital for underrepresented small business owners over the next three years.

Opportunity Fund, based in California, will launch an Inclusive Lending Platform, with a goal of originating more than 16,000 loans and investing more than $600 million in minority-owned small businesses through 2022.

Raza Development Fund, Phoenix, will enhance its services and technical assistance for diverse entrepreneurs in South Phoenix with a focus on larger-scale loans for growth-stage companies.

Started in 2015, the Wells Fargo Diverse Community Capital program is a five-year, $175 million commitment to empower diverse small businesses in collaboration with Opportunity Finance Network.

 

9—Win a Small Business Grant

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) just launched its 8^th annual Small Business Grant Contest. This year, the contest offers grants and services to 12 U.S.- based small businesses, distributing a collective prize pool of more than $250,000. Winners also receive FedEx Office^® print and business services credit to help support their small business. Plus, they’ll join a community of small businesses where they can get peer insights. The 2020 FedEx Small Business Grant Contest prize packages include:

• Grand prize: 1 winner of $50,000, plus $7,500 in FedEx Officeprint and business services
• Silver prize: 1 winner of $30,000, plus $5,000 in FedEx Office print and business services
• Bronze prize: 10 winners of $15,000, plus $1,000 in FedEx Office print and business services

Added to the contest this year, one of the winners will be recognized with the “Veteran-Owned Business Honor” as part of the company’s commitment to help U.S. military veterans as they transition to civilian life. And one of the Bronze prize winners will receive the “Entrepreneur Choice Award,” a distinction bestowed by the FedEx Entrepreneur Advisory Board, which is comprised of former grant winners and small business owners from around the country.

“FedEx is invested in helping small businesses grow and prosper and our mission is to help these entrepreneurs shine,” says Scott Harkins, senior vice president, Customer Experience Marketing at FedEx.

The 2019 contest garnered more than 1.3 million votes and attracted more than 13,000 candidates from across the United States.

The 2020 FedEx Small Business Grant Contest is open to U.S.-based for-profit small businesses that have 1-99 employees and have been operating for six months or more as of Jan. 28, 2020. To enter, participants must go here and enter your business information, (including your FedEx shipping account number), write a short profile about your business and upload up to four photos of their business or product, including your logo. While not required, participants also have the option of submitting a 90-second “elevator pitch” video to supplement their entry.

The contest entry period is open until March 2, 2020, with public voting to take place from now until March 8, 2020. Winners will be announced May 4.

 

10—Winning Town Gets a $500,o00 Main Street Makeover

The Small Business Revolution is on a mission to revitalize small towns, one small business at a time. Each season, America chooses the town and Deluxe and a host of celebrity experts give them the makeover of a lifetime—all part of Deluxe’s quest to put Main Street back on the map.

This season (season 5), Fredonia, NY was chosen as the featured town. The town and six small businesses in it will receive a $500,000 boost from Deluxe, Deluxe Chief Brand & Communications Officer Amanda Brinkman, and Ty Pennington, the  who lead the original Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Follow the transformation of Fredonia here.

 

Cool Tools

11—New NetSuite 2020 Release Enables Businesses to Grow

NetSuite 2020 Release 1 delivers global financial capabilities, new employee engagement features and new and enhanced functionality for an array of vertical industries.

Intelligent Cash Management allows businesses to link their bank and credit card accounts and automatically imports transactions and account balances from financial institutions directly into NetSuite, providing real-time access to cash balances.

Continuous Employee Engagement provides new insights into salary and experience data, allowing managers to make employee change requests with confidence. And the new SuitePeople Planning and Budgeting SuiteApp helps CFOs forecast growth with up-to-date employee data from SuitePeople HR and also eases setup, reduces manual data entry and includes necessary permissions to run saved searches.

Autonomous Supply Chain now provides intelligent predictions and simulations on transfer order risks and recommended actions that will proactively optimize your supply chain.

Optimizing Project Lifecycles. Improved tools and smarter analytics simplify management of project budgets. Organizations can now easily see how costs are impacted when adding and editing activities. Automated cost calculations help to increase accuracy while miscoded time or expenses can now be quickly identified.

Financial and Operational Excellence. Better revenue trace-through and an enhanced audit trail combine means improved visibility into how changes to subscriptions impact revenue, as well as more precise revenue recognition.

More Integration, Less Code. NetSuite 2020 Release 1 delivers plenty for developers, with numerous enhancements to the SuiteCloud Platform. The new SuiteApp Marketplace introduces a modern, consumer-like experience, native within NetSuite, for distributing and consuming SuiteApps.

These are just the highlights of NetSuite’s 2020 Release 1. For more specifics, read this blog post.

 

12—New Paycor Scheduling and Scheduling Pro Solutions

Human Capital Management (HCM) company Paycor recently announced its new Scheduling and Scheduling Pro solutions that enhance its Time and Attendance offering. Paycor’s solutions help organizations take control of labor costs as well as optimize staff to increase efficiency and productivity by simplifying and automating the processes for scheduling employees.

Paycor Scheduling

Key features of Paycor Scheduling include:

• Develop templates for faster scheduling with reliable, error-free work schedules that can be edited at any time. Create templates, assign shifts and easily drag and drop shifts with just a few clicks.
• Maximize coverage by automating how and when employee breaks occur.
• Schedule employees via mobile device from any location at any time
• Ensure complete visibility and minimize missed shifts or late arrivals by sending notifications and shift reminders in real-time via a mobile device or by email.
• Optimize coverage availability by allowing employees to proactively set their availability.
• Provide insights into an organization’s shift hours and costs, cutting down on costly mistakes such as overstaffing.

Scheduling Pro

With Scheduling Pro, clients receive all the benefits of Paycor Scheduling as well as additional features:

• Establish scheduling rules by setting daily/weekly rules and creating minimum rest times.
• Empower employees to swap or trade shifts.
• Engage employees through self-service capabilities by allowing them to set their own availability and pick up or drop shifts.
• Schedule smarter and increase productivity by optimizing shift coverage based on job, department and location. Configure third-party work locations, auto-fill shifts and establish employee acknowledgements.
• Facilitate timely communication with work schedule updates and shift reminders sent via text or group chats.
• Budget planning features allow organizations to compare labor costs against needs in real-time, reducing overspending. Monitor schedules by shifts or jobs and establish daily budget caps to control labor expenses.

Paycor Scheduling is available for prospects and current clients that have Paycor Time and Attendance. For more complex scheduling challenges, prospect or clients can upgrade to Scheduling Pro. For more information, click here.

 

Quick Clicks

13—What exactly is business intelligence? RingCentral gives you the scoop.

14—Want to be a web designer? OnlinebizBooster tells you how.

15—Disaster Recovery: According to FEMA, 40% of small businesses don’t reopen after a disaster so we’re keen to raise awareness of this. Check out this small business Disaster Recovery guide from comparitech.

 

In the Workplace

16—Workplace  woes? According to Relying on Family, 44.4% of millennials say they want a new or additional job before having children. And most millennials expect their partners to work full- or part-time after having children. Only 12.3% of women anticipate being a stay-at-home parent.

Although more millennial men are able to take paternity leave than previous generations, nearly 40% still don’t have the opportunity.

17—Is career coaching valuable? A report from ZenBusiness says mentors were deemed more helpful for helping with career advancement (86%) compared to sponsors (78%) and career coaches (77%). Workers who sought help from both mentors and sponsors have the highest median pay ($52k), earning  $4k more than those only using a sponsor, $5k more than those only using a mentor, and $16k more than those who used neither.

Navigating the job market? Sponsors were deemed more helpful for getting a new job (39%) than mentors (29%).

18—Are Your Employees Bypassing Your Internal Firewall?

• 7% of employees have had to navigate around a company firewall in order to accomplish a work assignment
• 2 in 5 employees admit to accessing blocked sites at work
• More than 50% admit to accessing blocked websites frequently or always
• 1 in 4 employees report accessing a restricted site to work on a side hustle. Employees in their 20’s and 30’s are over 2x most likely to access blocked sites for this reason
• The top reasons employees bypass workplace website restrictions are for personal use during a break (81/6%), to pass time due to lack of work (52.2%) and to take care of small errands (35.1%)

19—Let’s Talk Finances. According to Porch, “How much money do you make?” and “How are you able to afford your house?” are the two most inappropriate questions you can ask another co-worker.

When  salary is brought up, over one-third of employees admit to lying about how much they earn. Slightly more than half of men answer questions about their finances, while about 60% of women divert the conversation.

Is it just taboo to ask or is it an HR Violation? 1 in 5 employees who were asked salary questions say it’s against company policy to discuss salaries.

20—Worried About Social Media? According to This Tech Hoarding from WhoIsHosting, 51% of employees are concerned their social media profiles will be used against them by their employers. And nearly 1 in 5 employees say they’re already experienced their social media profiles being used against them at work.

And, in fact, over 1 in 5 of those in a hiring position say they’ve denied someone a job due to their social media profiles.

Business stock photo by Dragon Images/Shutterstock