Business Christmas wishes: What entrepreneurs ask Santa for?

Business Christmas wishes: What entrepreneurs ask Santa for?

November 09, 2020

Business Christmas wishes

Christmas is time for miracles. And if there ever was a year we needed miracles (in bulk), this would be it. 2020 has been hard for everyone, whether privately or professionally. So if it takes Elves and red-nosed reindeers to make 2021 better and easier, then prepare the sleighs – we’re taking mail to Lapland!

Us adults, teach our children to believe that some fat guy with a beard living in the North Pole could make their wishes come true if they’re nice year around. So this Christmas, we asked entrepreneurs to unbury their belief in magic and write a letter to Santa asking him to come down the chimney and help them turn their business wishes for 2021 into reality.

Jump directly to:

 1. Doing business in person

 2. Dependable delivery times

 3. Longlasting economic prosperity

 4. $20k for marketing

 5. Employee morale booster

 6. Few months of stability

 7. Stop me from micromanaging

 8. Lift the travel restrictions

 9. 3 Ikea Kallax shelves

 10. Slow down time

 11. Piano in the office

 12. More hours in a day

 13. Smooth growth and a beach house

 14. Bring my team together

 15. Ability to do work unencumbered

 16. Keep the housing market steady

 17. Peace on Earth

 18. Let me be the gift

 19. New space for work

 20. Expansion of my business

 21. Polaroid camera for every family

 22. Cheer up the naughty kids

 23. AI assistant to organise my time

 24. End the bad copy

 25. Chance for prosperity

 26. Make me a better employer

 27. Bigger commitment to diversity

 28. Influencers to review my product

 29. Justice

29 entrepreneurs ask Santa to grant their wishes

We received (and forwarded to Santa!) hundreds of Dear Santa letters. Some of them made us laugh out loud, others brought a tear or two, but all of them returned our faith. Faith in miracles, goodness, humanity and good thought.

Whether Santa manages through bureaucracy to obtain travel permits is unsure. But what is sure is that if small businesses stick together and collaborate, together they can find stability and prosperity again.

So let’s see what business Christmas wishes entrepreneurs have this year.

Doing business in person

Dear Santa,

This year, all I want for Christmas is a well-distributed vaccine. As you travel from house to house around the world, if you were able to vaccinate everyone, that would be perfect.

I’ve been very, very good, yet I cannot stand to avoid coffee and lunch and office meetings, nor to stay away from conferences, for much longer.

Regardless of the wonderful technology your elves have created and supported through this time, all I want is to be able to have real, in-person conversations again as business is much, much better when I can develop and sustain real friendships with current and prospective clients.

To let you know how sincere this is, I’m actually Jewish, but at this point, I’m asking everyone for help!

Thank you in advance, and my warmest regards to Mrs. Claus,

Judy Brower Fancher, Founder of Brower Group, Inc

Dependable delivery times

Dear Santa,

All we want for Christmas is dependable delivery times and schedules from our postal carriers. We sell millions of crickets every month to caring reptile owners. These owners love their pets! And they depend on our crickets and roaches arriving on time. Otherwise, their bearded dragons or leopard geckos can lose critical nutrients. 

We understand how challenging your job is during this pandemic, and can’t thank you enough for helping people stay safe by bringing them their essential resources. But please don’t forget about the caring pet owners who need live crickets and roaches to feed to their beautiful pets.

Sincerely,

Jeff, Engagement Officer at Critter Depot

Longlasting economic prosperity

Dear Santa

I wish for a period of Economic Boom that lasts for the remainder of my adult working life. And that’s not to say I wish for the good times to end for our children’s generation. In fact, as a caveat to my wish (if the rules of a Dear Santa letter will permit) I would add that any future economic downturn be short, small and swift. As an economist by trade, I know there is a need for all things to be cyclical, but this year really does seem to have capped off an unprecedented period of rubbish.

If you could dig deep into your Santa bag of tricks and wonderment and make it so that the American dream can still be a reality for all, then I solemnly do swear to be a very good boy. Not just for this year, but for every year you make my wish come true.

Thank you Santa, in the era of Trump, COVID-19, Brexit and the death of James Bond – this really will help.

Chris Panteli, Founder of LifeUpswing

$20k for marketing

Dear Santa,

Thank you SO much for the unexpected (but much appreciated!) early gifts! I was pleasantly surprised when so many ideal clients reached out to the firm so soon, and I was even more pleasantly surprised to already experience growth in such a new business!

While the organic growth that we have experienced has been great, I would REALLY appreciate a Christmas gift of $20,000 for our marketing budget so we can reach even more of the entrepreneurs and businesses that we are so very passionate about helping achieve exponential growth! 

I’m sure this seems like a big ask (though of course, nothing is too big for you!) but as you know I’ve been very nice AND your gift will certainly be supporting a great cause. 

Thanks again, Santa (and thanks in advance!). 

Shakera Thompson, Business and Intellectual Property Attorney at TKA Law Firm

Employee morale booster

Dear Santa,

This Christmas, I would like nothing more than a dose of employee morale booster. If you could pretty please sprinkle some of your Christmas magic on my employees to improve their attitude and give them a shot of energy, it would be oh so appreciated. 2020 has dampened their Christmas (and business) spirit and they need a little cheer this holiday season.

Working from home has been tough on my team of 10 tight-knit employees, who are used to seeing each other in person every day. Quarantine, Zoom call fatigue, and work-from-home isolation have taken their toll on my employees’ typical go get ’em attitudes. So if I could ask for one Christmas gift, it would be some employee morale. 

Thanks, Santa.

Sincerely,

John Ross, President & CEO of Test Prep Insight

Few months of stability

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year, I would like some stability. I hope it’s not too much to ask. I don’t even need a whole year of stability, just a few months in a row, where I can plan for the future with a reasonable expectation of what is coming next! 

I can deal with kids under foot for homeschool, I can deal with an election, I can even deal with a global pandemic. I can change travel plans and I can take all my meetings over Zoom. But, please, just a little bit of forewarning, the ability to plan ahead, and perhaps not having every possible challenge arriving at once would be wonderful. 

Oh, and if you think I’ve been naughty, a lump of coal is perfectly suitable, just, please don’t give us another year like 2020! 

Yours in gratitude,

Mark Coster, Owner of Web Design for Businesses

Stop me from micromanaging

Dear Santa,

This year, please give me the power to resist the urge to do everything myself. When I first started my digital marketing business, I had to wear many hats and do it myself. But now the company has grown, and we have a wonderful team who are exceptionally good at what they do. So please give me the power to let go and let them do their jobs so I can focus on the big picture.

Josh Imhoff, Owner of Always Relevant Digital

Lift the travel restrictions

Dear Santa,

I bet you consider yourself something of a travel expert. Making it around the world in one night is no easy feat, after all. Maybe you can help me and my company, in that case. You see, we’ve been struggling a bit because of the (necessary) travel restrictions from COVID-19.

We want everyone to be safe, but the RV parks and campsites we support are losing business. So if you could give us a viable end to the COVID threat and the return of domestic travel at full strength, I would be incredibly appreciative.

If not that, I wouldn’t say no to a bike.

Ravi Parikh, CEO at RoverPass

3 Ikea Kallax shelves

Dear Santa,

For Christmas, this year could you not bring me any more board games? I have literally every Kickstarter board game known to man and it’s going to be a flood of cardboard when they come in.

Instead, this year could you send me 3 Ikea Kallax shelves so that I have room in my apartment to store all of them. Otherwise, my girlfriend has threatened to leave me if I don’t stop leaving board games everywhere.

Bryan Truong, Founder of GameCows

Slow down time

Dear Santa, 

I’m writing to you as a business owner in need! What I really want this Christmas is only a small ask and since you and I both know magic is real, I’m sure you’ll be able to provide.

What I want for Christmas is the ability to slow time.

Things are going really well with the business, but unfortunately, the days are far to short to get through my to-do list. So, I was hoping you could share some of your magic that you use every year to slow time to get to all the houses in one night. I don’t mind giving it back on Christmas Eve but for the other 364 could I please borrow?

Bethan Wright, Director at RED Digital & Events

Piano in the office

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year I’d love a piano in the office! Before we moved offices earlier this year, we had worked in an office with a bar and an old honky-tonk piano next door. For our staff Christmas party last Christmas the team spent the whole day getting merry on eggnog singing a mixture of Christmas carols and rock ‘n roll classics. 

Having spent the last few months in and out of the office, I honestly can’t think of a better way to lift team spirits and bring in 2021.

Jack Kelly, Owner of Sharpshaft

More hours in a day

Dear Santa,

This won’t be your typical request. I don’t need an Xbox, and nobody’s taking a cruise this year, least of all me. 

What I want might be beyond the scope of your elves, but if you could see your way into giving me a few extra hours a day next year, I’d be much obliged.

You see, Santa, I’m a one-woman shop. I’m busy making cats around the world happy with my cardboard box playhouses. But I’m also emptying the office wastebasket, and doing Quickbooks, and fixing the postage printer.

I love packing boxes addressed to my cat customers, and I’m doing it all day long, all by myself. But what I really need is a few more hours to design some new things for my kitty friends. I’ve got some great ideas, Santa, that I know cats will surely love. But I need a few more hours of daylight. And maybe a few more hours of sleep.

Sincerely,

Dawn LaFontaine, Founder of Cat in the Box

Smooth growth and a beach house

Dear Santa,

Rona’s been naughty enough for us all so I think we deserve a little something extra this Christmas. I only want 3 things (4 if you’re feeling particularly generous):

  1. A high-functioning executive assistant who is trustworthy, brave, hard-working and forward-thinking
  2. A strong executive team to help drive growth
  3. I could really use some investors so that I can hire more staff and expand this empire

Bonus: It’s been a long year and I’ve been faithful to stay quarantined in the house. How about a beach house with full staff for like 3 months? I just need a change of scenery to reset and help keep me inspired. Plus, it would be nice to not have to cook and clean every day.

I trust that you’ll come through with the goods. Thanks, big guy!

Merry Christmas,

Talia Boone, Founder & CEO of Postal Petals

Bring my team together

Dear Santa,

Crazy year, huh? So, this Christmas I would love to see my team for one final year-end bash! I haven’t seen many of them since March and God knows we could all use a release. Now, I know the logistics of this are tough since I am only giving you a few weeks to bring 70+ people together, all of which reside in different states and countries across the globe, each with their own travel advisories, mask mandates, and self-quarantine orders. What is CT’s gathering capacity for Phase 2.1 anyway? Or is this Phase 3 now?

Eh, the more I think this through, the more complicated it sounds; let’s just push this off to the Spring. In the meantime, I guess it’s kind of nice having the office to myself where I can sneak away from my kids and just take a nap on the couch anytime I like.

Stay safe out there,

DJ Haddad, CEO of Haddad & Partners

P.S. Cookies aren’t very COVID-friendly so I left sanitizer on the table instead.

Ability to do work unencumbered

Dear Santa, 

Surprisingly, the one thing I want for business Christmas isn’t lower taxes. It is the ability to do work unencumbered. You see, down here away from the isolation of the North Pole, we’ve got this new, highly contagious virus. Do elves catch colds? Many businesses are in peril from being severely restricted, and many businesses have already failed. 

So, if you could do us a solid, use your jolly magic to create a vaccine, and get us back doing what we do best, you’ll have a much shorter naughty list next year. Be sure to strap on an N95 mask before you fire up the sleigh on Christmas Eve. Your age, and weight probably make you high risk. No offense. 

Mike Falahee, Owner of Marygrove Awnings

Keep the housing market steady

Dear Santa, 

All I want for Christmas is for you to help struggling homeowners and tenants find the means to stay in their homes, keep their families safe and prosper with all of us. Please keep the housing market steady as we are all preparing for a crash with a wave of foreclosures coming our way next year. 

I really just want life to return too normal even though we don’t know what the new normal will be. Give us the opportunity to build our business to the level where we can donate our time and money to help others who are not as fortunate.

Thank you,

Shad Elia, Owner of SE Homes

Peace on Earth

Dear Santa,

I know it’s a bit cliche, and maybe not within your power, but we really need this so I humbly request: Peace on Earth.

We’re politically divided. Financially struggling. People are lonely. We don’t need more stuff. (We tried that and everything broke.)

Can you help us connect with each other and be a community? Can you help us give generously, even if we feel like we don’t have much ourselves? But also not overextend and not try to do too much?

Maybe, more than anything, we need your help to create inner peace and realize our unique offerings. And that doing our part can be done and can be enough.

Your reindeers seem to have it pretty together. Can they teach us about working together even though we’re very different? (And maybe some reindeer rides for fun, but only if they’re not too tired.)

With Gratitude,

Kerri Feazell, CEO of Concurrent Productions

Let me be the gift

Dear Santa,

Please remind the world, that now more than ever, you need an event planner to guide you with planning an event. Santa, I know that their event may not happen until 2021 but we have to start finding locations now. All of those events that I pushed into 2021 are taking up a lot of space already, and bringing in a new event means more competition and more time in finding availability.

Father Christmas, don’t they know that it’s my business that is going to be the ones that save them when there is a fire? It’s my job to be there to protect them from hurricanes, economic disasters, and even a pandemic. It will be my responsibility to work the venue and all of the vendors to find a new date and dramatically reduce any fees that would normally be associated with something like this. 

Kris, let me be the gift that companies and couples so badly need! 

Text or call when you are ready to pick me up in your sleigh to then drop me off at the CEO’s office.

Keith Willard, Owner/Designer at Keith Willard Events

New space for work

Dear Santa,

You know we’ve had a difficult time defining naughty and nice. There’s always been a little grey area there for me. But this year I think we can both agree I’ve been really nice. Even when Covid turned me into a small business owning, teacher, school counsellor, and lunch lady, I maintained the nice side.

All I want for Christmas this year is a new space to work. You’ve seen the business growing so fast this year and it’s time for a shop of my own to build, paint, and create in. Nothing fancy just four walls and some heat.

A space just for me that I can escape to. You know, when my lunch lady duties are over for the day.

Many blessings to you,

Stacy Verdick Case, Owner of Peony Lane Designs

Expansion of my business

Dear Santa,

As a business owner, I am writing to you to wish for the expansion of my business. I am planning to hire more employees especially the ones who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. A lot of people are still suffering. The government has extended their help but the efforts are not just enough for everyone.

A lot of people need a stable and regular job to meet their everyday needs. I have managed to keep all my employees but I would love to give others a chance. If given the chance, I promise to help as many people as possible in every way that I can.

Chris Norris, Managing Editor at SleepStandards.com

Polaroid camera for every family

This year has gifted us a new perspective on life, history is being made, so let’s make the life of future historians easy by printing out our memories – so future generations know the good, bad and ugly moments from every city, town and village across the world.

So, a polaroid camera for every family, please.

My biggest business wish is that our digital memories don’t die with our hard drives and are properly archived in print.

Sue Kennedy, Owner/Photographer at Sue Kennedy Photography

Cheer up the naughty kids

Dear Santa,

I know you’re going to take really good care of the nice kids this year, and I’m hoping that together we can do something for the naughty kids this year as well.

My biggest Christmas wish this year would be that instead of giving naughty kids coal… you would deliver to them one of the inspirational coffee mugs from our store.

Just imagine how wonderful it would be if those children woke up every day in 2021 feeling positive, hopeful, and like they matter. Maybe just maybe, that would be the support that they need to do good things in 2021 and make it onto your Nice list next year.

With Love,

Chris Cade, Founder of The Miracles Store

AI assistant to organise my time

Dear Santa,

This year I would love to get an AI assistant who would be able to organize my time properly. I tried doing it myself but I started making a lot of mistakes due to the work overload. Since it’s never fun when you miss a deadline or skip an important call, I tried hiring a virtual assistant a few times, but the communication was challenging and I had to double-check each time that the information was properly received. 

For this reason, I would love to have some type of AI support that won’t be affected by the work pressure and, most importantly, won’t overlook anything on my agenda.

Malte Scholz, CEO of Airfocus

End the bad copy

Dearest Santa,

My biggest wish this year is to gain your help in annihilating boring copy. Okay, that sounds kinda like it would put me on your naughty list, but hear me out – boring copy sucks!

It’s the sleep aid we never needed and destroying it will lead to awesome things – like meetings that don’t double as soul-sucking vortexes and ad copy that doesn’t trigger dormant narcolepsy.

You’re essentially creating world peace here.

Warmest cocoa and softest cookies,

Rosh Smunt, Founder and CEO of The Disrupters Circle

Chance for prosperity

Dear Santa,

My colleagues and I had an awesome business time last year because we gained many new customers Santa, we worked voluntarily, and just like you, we helped people who needed our special attention. We didn’t even complain about the bad and rude behaviour of some customers. We have always heard from our parents that you bring good items for anyone who does good to others. We have always been good to our customers and want to serve the community. Here is a wishlist that we want to share with you. Please put these in your sleigh and bring these for us:

  1. We need a chance to become mentors for the next generation.
  2. Continuity of journey to serve our customers.
  3. Courage and motivation to help our community.
  4. Most of all, global peace is what we need the most, Santa.

Santa, I want to ask for other business entrepreneurs who didn’t perform well in the current year and are really worried because of their financial crisis. They are in the utmost need of your good luck and prosperity gifts so that they can also plan better strategies for their business.

Dear Santa, thank you in advance for bringing useful resources and tools for the year 2021.

Best Regards,

Damon Routzhan, Founder & CEO at https://concretecandles.com/

Make me better for my employees and customers

Dear Santa,

This is Robin. I’m 38 years old and have my own business in San Francisco. I always wanted to be the best version of an entrepreneur so I started practising it at a very early age. You know, when I was in high school, I sold supplies and worked with my friends to do decors for various parties. 

It took almost ten years for me to become a professional and run my own retail business. I have more than 30 employees in my business, and I am grateful because they all are so cooperative and hardworking. I want to do more for my employees and customers; I want you to bring unique ideas and strategies that benefit my employees and customers. Next year, I want to start a mental wellness programme for my employees.

Dear Santa, I’ve put together all my wishes. Promise me that you’ll bring cookies and my favorite milk chocolates too. If you don’t mind, please leave chocolates and cookies at my doorway. I’ll wait for your arrival.

Sincerely,

Robin Brown, CEO at Vivipins

Bigger commitment to diversity

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year, I want for more companies to have a real commitment to diversity and recruit from HBCUs. More specifically, I want law firms to endow scholarships at HBCUs and CEOs from companies to guest lectures at HBCUs. I want this to be the generation that deals with the past and doesn’t kick the can down the road any longer

John Crossman, CCIM, CRX, CEO at Crossman Career Builders

Influencers to review my product

Dear Santa,

This year, I would like to build relationships with some of the main communications influencers and have them review my product. We are now reaching the point where we need to scale up in order to remain competitive. Having word-of-mouth recommendations from some of the top experts in our field would increase our reach and bring us even more clients. 

Therefore, my biggest wish for 2021 is to get these influencers’ contacts and start building relationships that will eventually result in strong partnerships.

Best,

Stefan Chekanov, CEO of Brosix

Justice

Dear Santa,

One of the greatest opportunities of my life came when I had the chance to pitch my startup Cheekd on an episode of Shark Tank. But that day has also put me in the crosshairs of someone who watched a re-airing of that episode in July 2015. 

Two years later, that same individual named me in 3 back-to-back lawsuits that have cost nearly $150,000 to defend. I’ve done everything in my power to keep my business afloat over the last decade but I just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel while continuing to fight this battle with a complete and total stranger whom I still have no idea what looks like to this day. 

What do I want from you this year? I want justice.

Lori Cheek, Founder and CEO of Cheekd

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33 unique ways on how to make employees feel valued

33 unique ways on how to make employees feel valued

33 unique ways on how to make employees feel valued

November 06, 2020

How to make employees feel valued

A good leader should always know how to make employees feel valued and inspire a positive atmosphere at the workplace and make the workplace a stress-free zone. Sometimes, it’s not even about spending money on lavish gifts. In fact, in such cases, employee satisfaction is only bought, and you can bet that it’ll be short-lived.

When discussing how to make employees feel valued, money plays an important role, but it’s the feelings that are crucial. Hence you have to use your emotional intelligence.

Luckily, we have made an extensive list of all the creative ways to show employee appreciation and it is all in one place – below. So now lousy bosses have no excuse for making their staff feeling undervalued, not reading this article and not trying to be better bosses.

Jump directly to: 

 1. Go the extra mile

 2. Let them keep the products they review

 3. Employee appreciation cards always work

 4. Create a Gratitude Wall

 5. Give them space to breathe

 6. Praise their good work with notes

 7. Treat them family dinners

 8. Buy them food

 9. Get to know them

 10. Give them responsibility

 11. Strategic employee appreciation

 12. Take them out for a lunch

 13. Celebrate your employee’s work anniversaries

 14. Offer them career growth opportunities

 15. Half-day KICK meetings

 16. Personalized rewards

 17. Internal awards ceremony

 18. Announce an employee of the demi-month

 19. Surprise them with unexpected presents

 20. Organize team days out

 21. Set up a reward system

 22. Don’t forget the remote workers

 23. Shopping spree raffle

 24. Help them with their financial pinches

 25. Virtual get-togethers for the best employees

 26. Annual office party with posh giveaways

 27. Create a #you-are-awesome Slack channel

 28. Maintain a corporate greenhouse

 29. Give them cash for home office equipment

 30. A special appreciation letter 

 31. Appoint a Fun Ambassador at the office

 32. Set a table with essentials

 33. Gift them time

 34. Conclusion

33 ideas to show employee appreciation and inspire satisfaction

When focusing on how to make employees feel valued, it is vital to make sure your employees feel recognized and heard. Employees cherish thoughtful gifts and they want to have a voice within the company, they don’t want to be taskmasters. They want to feel valued and needed. Understanding their needs and developing systems that showcase that appreciation is key to employee appreciation. 

Go the extra mile


Make your company environment
safe and inclusive for all. Make sure your employees feel comfortable in expressing their concerns to you. Always be open to feedback. Work hard at building strong relationships by checking in regularly. Create a safe environment for employees to connect. Team building activities are a good way to get employees together. Lastly, provide support and understanding through offering solutions or just being available to listen.

Jonathan Bass, the Chief Executive Officer and Owner of Whom Home

Let them keep the products they review

In our various online businesses, we use a lot of freelancers through platforms like UpWork, TextBroker, and Freelancer, particularly for content creation. Sometimes these great people complete a lot of work for us over time and become full-time employees. 

We can show our appreciation by sending them the best products to review. As one example, they can photograph and write a review about a 10-gallon fish tank, and then they can keep it and use it themselves. Often they can also then come back and update the review with further thoughts on the product’s durability and long-term use. In our experience, they consider being able to keep awesome products as an exciting benefit and reward for good work.

Daniel Morris, Owner of PetNPat

In our various online businesses, we use a lot of freelancers through platforms like UpWork, TextBroker, and Freelancer, particularly for content creation. Sometimes these great people complete a lot of work for us over time and become full-time employees. 

We can show our appreciation by sending them the best products to review. As one example, they can photograph and write a review about a 10-gallon fish tank, and then they can keep it and use it themselves. Often they can also then come back and update the review with further thoughts on the product’s durability and long-term use. In our experience, they consider being able to keep awesome products as an exciting benefit and reward for good work.

Daniel Morris, Owner of PetNPat

Employee appreciation cards always work

Cousins Subs has a robust employee recognition strategy. In meetings with restaurant general managers, Alan Lundeen, Senior Director of Talent Management, calls on them to be recognition detectives. Then on Tuesdays, Lundeen brings in a stack of congratulations cards and each store manager is asked to take some back with them and give a card to someone they want to thank. Cousins Subs also hands out employee birthday cards as well as wow cards, given for high performance or going above and beyond.

Kathryn Kazan, PR Manager at Cousins Subs

Create a Gratitude Wall

Ask the team to fill out a quick survey, naming colleagues they are grateful for and writing a sentence on why. You can submit multiple responses. Just make sure everyone has a couple of gratitude cards each. Then have someone compiled these in a PowerPoint deck to showcase. If you are onsite, even better, print them out and put them up in a high traffic area like above the printer. 

It is important to appreciate your employees, but it also feels great to be the one giving thanks and bringing a smile to a colleague’s face.

Samantha Roberts, Talent Associate at Global Health Strategies (NYC Office)

Give them space to breathe

Giving employees a shout out, gift card, or free food/drinks is easy, but what employees really crave is flexibility. During the pandemic, employers have gone in the opposite direction by investing in employee monitoring software to spy on their remote teams. This is also known as the perfect recipe for distrust and dissatisfaction. 

Your employees will feel appreciated when they finally have breathing room to get their job done when it works best for them. Employees should be given the ability to work when they want and where they want, especially given virtual work platforms that can help teams stay connected regardless of time or location. Trust your employees enough to let them manage their own lives and schedules. You’ll be amazed at how appreciated they feel.

Peter Jackson, CEO of Bluescape

Praise their good work with notes

Employees want two things to be of value to their mission and to be heard. A manager’s job is to acknowledge these things. I find writing small notes that I leave for my staff recognizing their good work or their ideas can be helpful. But even better is when I stop by and have a conversation with them about the impact that they’re having or an idea that they brought to me and how I’d like to implement it. 

That type of engagement may not feel like traditional appreciation but helps motivate and tell the employee that you are engaged with them, which is a form of acknowledgement and appreciation.

Priya Jindal, Founder of Nextpat

Treat them family dinners

It’s their family whom they will most likely want to celebrate small and big victories. Whether it’s their kids, husbands, and wives, or friends whom they consider as family, or support system, we make sure they get to feel appreciated and vital too in one’s excellent performance. 

When celebrated alone, victories are no fun, which is why we find this appreciation token effective to relieve them from stress and allow them to bond with their loved ones even for a night. It’s these people who continue to support and push them, especially during their rough times. After all, they are their rock, and what makes someone love someone or something else more is when they learn to value and appreciate the people who are close to their hearts.

Willie Greer, Founder of The Product Analyst

Buy them food

People love food, so why not buy everyone doughnuts or pizza so they can enjoy their day with a happy tummy. Not only are you buying them food but you are also strengthening and building relationships within your employees while giving them the feeling of being appreciated.

Daniel Snow, CEO and Founder of The Snow Agency

The concept of employee appreciation has been around for a while, but the pandemic has put a spotlight on the ideas that businesses have chosen to execute.

One such idea has been mobile food delivery, including convenient options like meal kit delivery for one person

Our business has many young families who’ve needed to adapt to being teachers overnight on top of delivering a fully productive workday. One way we’ve enjoyed showing our appreciation to employees is by treating individuals or teams to mobile lunch deliveries to their homes. We’ve also opted to send fresh fruit and veg boxes.

Dane Amyot, Managing Director of bountiXP

Get to know them

Get interested in their current reality. It’s not about creating a happy hour activity for the group but facilitated in some cool virtual way. It’s about knowing how your employees’ personal life is ACTUALLY going, make it safe for them to open up. Ask about their family’s fears and concerns. Figure out how this job connects to their personal life and how that personal life has changed. See if you can have more impact on things that really matter.

William Schumacher, CEO and Founder of Uprising Food

Employees feel appreciated if you engage with them in some way. Know something about them, their kids, dogs, partner’s names. Hobbies, passions, and dreams if you can.

When your greatest asset, your employee, has done good work, look them in the eye and tell them. No email, text, or call is ever as valuable as a face to face acknowledgment.

Letting them know you value them enough to make the time for them, as well as knowing their dog has been unwell, leaves your employees feeling a million dollars. And, you feel good too.

Laura Horton, Founder of Hound101

Give them responsibility

Our number one way of making employees feel valued is not money, perks, time off or other extras. It is just giving people responsibility. Providing employees with as much responsibility as possible boosts engagement, helps them grow, and also speeds up the process of determining if they will be a good fit in the longer term. Obviously, you need to recognize their innate capacity and level of experience, but err on the side of providing more responsibility rather than less and you’ll be surprised with the results.

Rick Wallace, Founder of Tackle Village

From experience, I have found that the best way to make employees feel appreciated is to involve them in company decisions. It can be something as simple as choosing a new uniform or what brand of coffee to use in the office. When they feel they have a voice they feel appreciated.

Ahmed Mir, Founder of Sip Coffee House

Strategic employee appreciation

This is a two-step process.

Step #1: Catch someone doing something good (effort also counts). Be specific in describing the behavior. For example: “Yesterday, when speaking with the customer, you really let him talk about what was important to him. That was incredible”.

Step #2: Name 3 specific reasons why this behavior is important. For example: “This makes a big difference because the customer really felt that you care about him, this will make him more connected to our company (1). Also, he will like us so much that he may recommend us to customers (2). And lastly, knowing that this is how you take care of our customers makes a huge difference for me personally, because I know I can fully trust you, and focus on other areas of the business (3)”.

Many people find it easy to come up with 2 reasons, but the 3rd one is the one that makes the real difference. It forces you to spend more time and energy on what the employee did well, and makes them feel truly appreciated.

Dr.Eyal Ronen, Co-Founder and Director of Sensemakers

Take them out for a lunch

In today’s world of constantly expecting something of monetary value to reward a job well-done, it might be nice to go a little old-school. If you are currently working in the office, as a way of thanks, take an employee out for lunch. This also offers you time to explain just how helpful they have been, and to inspire them to keep doing so in the future.

If everyone is still working from home, have a quick meeting and explain the same points. However, you’ll have to send over a gift card to cover lunch. Or, if you’re still working in the same city, some creative people I know have sent over a delivery service so that they can still have lunch (virtually) with an employee. Really… how cool is that?

Alice Ray, Founder of Know Your Chickens

Celebrate your employee’s work anniversaries

It’s uncommon for companies to do this, mostly it’s just the employee who remembers. As such, celebrating work anniversaries (especially milestone ones) is a great way for the employer to show genuine appreciation for the work that the employee has put in.

It doesn’t have to be lavish as well. A simple cupcake or a team effort of appreciative notes is great, as long as the day is remembered and the employee is recognized as a valuable part of the group.

Anna Nielsen, Marketing Director at Our Good Living Formula

Offer them career growth opportunities

My best idea for employee appreciation is career growth opportunity offers. From experience, I think most driven employees prefer rewards in the form of additional knowledge. When you give employees new resources to expand their horizons, this will provide them with opportunities to take on projects even outside the scope of their usual duties.

Doing this has brought about positive and noticeable work results in my organization, employee interaction also got better thereby creating an improved workplace culture.

Employee appreciation at its best means giving employees a sense of purpose at work. At the end of the day, appreciation comes in many forms, and organizations shouldn’t expect perks or bonuses alone to convey the meaning. However, companies that strive to practice appreciation consistently will stand out.

Manny Hernandez,  Founder and CEO at OMNI, INC

Half-day KICK meetings

Every six weeks, we run half-day ‘Kick’ meetings; standing for Knowledge, Innovation, Collaboration and Kudos, to celebrate and recognise those who have gone the extra mile.

Encouraging public recognition is not only an important part of keeping team members motivated, but also boosts feelings of being emotionally and socially valued.

It’s very important for staff to feel visible, acknowledged and also confident of their place in the business. I’d recommend this approach to any business leader who wants to give their team a boost, while also improving communication and mental wellbeing.

Carlene Jackson, CEO of Cloud9 Insight

Personalized rewards

We all appreciate it when others take the time and effort to get to know us. When your company wants to show appreciation for a specific employee, engage team members to find out more about that person.

One of our employees was celebrating her 5th work anniversary. Our HR department talked to her colleagues and learned that she loves doing different art projects with her seven-year-old daughter. Our gift was a pottery class for the two of them. She was touched and later showed us pictures of mugs and bowls they created together.

Personalized recognition is an excellent way to make your employees feel truly valued and unique. This kind of appreciation has a tremendous impact on the motivation and loyalty of your staff.

Dorota Lysienia, Community Manager at LiveCareer

Apart from being a professional, each of your employees is a unique personality with passions, hobbies, interests, etc. The message is simple — to keep your employees growing professionally, make sure they are fulfilled as personalities.

For this, pay attention to employees’ preferences. As an example, you can customize your birthday/seasonal corporate presents. Your accountant is crazy about Italian cuisine? Present them a cooking class certificate!

Be ready to meet your employees halfway and they’ll exceed your expectations. For example, if your employee aspires to learn French but doesn’t manage to fit it into the work schedule, allow them to shift hours when they need it. Corporate parties and team buildings are important, but your attention to employees’ personalities is priceless.

Olena Herasymchuk, Content Manager at cloudprinter

Internal awards ceremony

At the end of the year, we hold an impromptu internal awards ceremony for the team and award each team member a small gift in recognition of something amazing they did. This could be from closing a deal to showing kindness to a fellow teammate when needed, or putting a smile on everyone’s face by telling the best jokes! 

It’s our way to show our employees that no matter their position and missions, we acknowledge them, support them and are proud of them. One’s success is everybody’s success as we work as a team. It’s important for us to shine a light on each and every one of our employees!

Sukhi Jutla, Co-Founder & COO at MarketOrders

Announce an employee of the demi-month

One week is too short, one month is too long, but a recognition every two weeks is just right. The key is to have some kind of a symbolic mascot, toy, or an item that encapsulates the team’s spirit and what it stands for. You want it to be an inside joke of sorts and thus making the object all the more prestigious and valuable. Complement this with a gift card ($50 will do) to the person’s favorite store and restaurant and voila, you have a recipe for a marvelous team bonding and appreciation experience.

Bonus: The current winner gets to nominate the next one, thus making the process all the more grassroots and organic.

Peter Bryla, Community Manager a ResumeLab

Surprise them with unexpected presents

The way I show appreciation to my employees is not always by giving monetary incentives. I noticed they feel incredibly ecstatic when they receive unexpected presents. I know it feels great to think that someone put some effort into getting you a gift. I keep a list of what they like. I don’t announce when to distribute what I prepared – it just happens, like a big surprise on a regular day.

Steve Johnso, Owner of www.bootmoodfoot.com

One of my favorites is what I call “Suprise Appreciation.” Once or twice a month, I will pick someone who has done an exceptional job with some aspect of their work. I do this irregularly, so employees never know when it is coming. Then I task the rest of the staff to create positive notes for the recipient and decorate their desk or their tech truck while they are at lunch or leave for the day. I purchase a surprise like flowers, balloons, or a stack of their favorite candy, etc. 

It’s a small, relatively inexpensive way to show appreciation, but it always makes the individual feel good, and it builds team camaraderie and even usually feels great on those days.

Laura Fuentes, Operator of Infinity

Organize team days out

At Wicklewood, we always have team days out. Recently, we hired a boat on the Thames and everyone took the day off work to relax and socialize with one another. Between driving the boat, jumping into the water, and tying the boat up at the docks, it was a really unique and fun team-building exercise. It was a great opportunity for everyone to get to know one another on a personal level and unwind outside of the office.

Another unique angle we take at Wicklewood to show how much we appreciate our team is our “Quilt Days”. Every team member gets a quilt day once a quarter when they can call in at the last minute and take the day off to relax at home with one of our cozy quilts from our latest range. It’s a small gesture but sometimes people just need a day off to recharge.

Rosie Axford, Co-Founder and Marketing Director of Wicklewood

Set up a reward system

We use a reward system in our company to show our appreciation for each accomplishment being made by our employees. In this system, each employee would be given points for each task that would be completed. The points differ depending on how big the task or the project is. Upon collecting these points, employees can use it to redeem rewards like free products from the company, gift certificates, a day off, a paid vacation trip, or paid leave.

Oliver Baker, Co-Founder of Intelivita

Every staff member may assert tasks of their preference and, upon completion, would collect the point values correlated with the tasks. For something ranging from an extended holiday and work-from – home days to company-paid continuing education, these points could be redeemed by team employees at a workplace bonus site. One thing is to value workers in a way that makes sense to you, but the gamification tool we used allowed individuals to be valued in a way that was most important to each worker.

David Meltzer, CEO of East Insurance Group

Due to the new WFH scheme being implemented, the company is saving quite a lot and we are planning to give back to our employees by giving a raise to those employees who deserve it. We plan to have it by conducting a performance assessment to each employee by the end of the year and those who would be selected would be compensated using the funds that are allotted for this plan.

Aaron, Founder of TestPrepGenie.com

Don’t forget the remote workers

About 25% of the staff worked in the NYC home office and the other 75% worked remotely, causing them to feel left out of company events. Whenever the firm took onsite employees out (happy hour, dinner, cruise) they compensated the remote employees with a gift from Snappy. Snappy costs about $7/month per employee, and allows the employee to choose from dozens of theme-related items – Cinco de Mayo, LGBTG, Birthday. 

Remote staff looked forward to the email from Snappy notifying them they could choose their gift. All employees received that same email for other milestones — project success, birthdays, anniversaries. 

I’ve talked to several employees who’ve moved on to other firms and they tell me that what they miss most was the Snappy gifts that made them feel like they were an important part of the team. In addition, those gifts — thermal coffee mugs, weighted blankets, essential oil diffusers — still remind them of good times at that firm. By the way, this firm earns five out of five stars on Glassdoors reviews, so it must be working.

Laura Handrick, Contributing HR Professional for Choosing Therapy

Shopping spree raffle

My favourite method for this was to set up a sort of ‘shopping spree raffle’ where staff could earn entries for completing their tasks to be entered into a draw. Each month a few people would win a ‘shopping spree’ and be given an amount of money to spend, then we would take them to the local mall and let them spend the money within a short time frame.

The rules were loose but they had to purchase 1 item for themselves, 1 small item for their team, and the rest was up to them. After it was done, we would take them back to the office to share their small item with their office and that way everyone felt like they received ‘something’.

Andrew Cunningham, Founder of DailyPest

Help them with their financial pinches

Most of the guys that work for me are loyal, hardworking, blue-collared type of folks. They are the definition of what you look for when hiring. However, when it comes to money, they don’t always make the right financial decisions. 

We came up with the ‘We Care Program’ as a way to show that we support and appreciate what they do for our business. We emailed all of our guys and said when they find themselves in a financial pinch to reach out to us and let us know what’s going on. It not only gives us an opportunity to coach them up and assist them but an opportunity to show them that we care.

Myles Daniel, Owner of Sell My House Fast

Virtual get-togethers for the best employees

Showing appreciation to employees is such an important part of a company’s culture. The best thing you can do to show your appreciation, especially given what a crazy year we’ve had, is without-a-doubt a warm virtual get-together for your best employee and their remote family and friends, filled with love and laughter. 

What we’ve done at Offsyte ourselves includes sending a private virtual ramen and sake tasting class for the people we are really thankful for, with the ramen and sake kit delivered to them and their remote family before the live class. We’ve also helped many other companies plan such events, including Google, Apple, Dropbox, Netflix, etc. There are many virtual events with delivery on Offsyte that are perfect for this occasion, including blind wine tastings, mixology classes, boba tea workshops, and more.

Emma Guo, Co-Founder and CEO of Offsyte

Annual office party with posh giveaways

This year, the company I am working for is planning to have a virtual annual office party. The company announced that it is going to give away luxurious gift cards, gadgets, and other prizes as a way to thank employees who stayed with it despite the crisis. We are also about to invite a celebrity to our virtual party and our employer announced giving 2022 all-paid trips to Europe. With this, I think this is a kind gesture from our company to appreciate us.

James Bullard, Founder of Sound Fro

Create a #you-are-awesome Slack channel

One of my favorite ways to show employee appreciation is with a #you-are-awesome channel in Slack. In this channel, any team member can give praise or shout outs to any other team member. 

For example, recently our sales manager posted a note about a successful sale by one of our sales reps, and a marketing team member gave a shout out to an operations team member. The reason this channel is so effective for employee appreciation is that it is peer-to-peer, which means it tends to provide recognition and appreciation for the kinds of contributions that may not be on a managers radar. After the praise goes up, everyone else piles on with emojis to cheer the team member on.

Michael Alexis, CEO of TeamBuilding

Maintain a corporate greenhouse

Showing appreciation to employees would be through a theme of health and wellness, by maintaining a corporate greenhouse. Employees would choose a vegetable, herb or fruit they love, and they would plant it in the greenhouse with their associated name. The greenhouse contents would be nurtured by employees supported by trained horticulturist volunteers. Webinars would educate on how each plant type grows and is cared for. 

That information would align to a corporate message of overall wellness, and programs reinforcing the importance of making good health choices. Employees would share in the harvest from the greenhouse, by getting a care basket with a card and recipe suggestions for its contents. The card would say ‘From our greenhouse to your table’. We care for our people, our environment, and our health!

Jenn Drakes, Founder of ICANNWORLD INC.

Give them cash to buy home office equipment

The Covid-19 lockdown happened and suddenly everyone in our performance marketing company had to work from home. This was a situation that no-one had really prepared for and raised all kinds of issues over suitable working spaces and equipment. 

Our staff gets a benefit to spending on travel and wellness, but we quickly changed that to allow them to spend the cash on home office equipment instead. So they used company funds for all manner of chairs and tables and laptop stands, to set themselves up for comfortable home working. 

We also sent them boxes of healthy snacks, fresh fruits from a local farm, and a tasty takeaway, just to keep their spirits up as the pandemic wore on, and to help the local food economy.

Mario Cacciottolo, Branding Manager at Blexr

A special appreciation letter to employee for outstanding performance

Send a letter of appreciation to the employee’s house, but don’t address it to them. Address it To the family of [NAME]. Detail the employee’s contributions. Describe the difference their work has made in your life, the lives of your clients, and the lives of their co-workers. Speak directly to the family, like this: “I’m sending this letter to tell you about the incredible work your Mom’s been doing and to thank you for sharing her with us….”

Be detailed and celebrate that employee. This gesture costs nothing and will feel truly special. Remember, effective appreciation is not about a gift, it’s about people feeling noticed and valued.

Joe Mull, M.Ed, CSP, Speaker, Author and Commitment Consultant

Appoint a Fun Ambassador at the office

One of the best ways to truly show employee appreciation is to provide them with a fun work environment. By providing a fun work environment, employees are excited to go to work rather than just clocking in and can’t wait to clock out.

There are actions you can start taking TODAY to encourage fun and employee appreciation in your workplace and create an open, creative, and collaborative environment.

One great way to implement more fun and appreciation is to appoint someone in the company (or on your team) as the official Fun Ambassador.

This person would be responsible for championing your “fun roadmap” or establishing a “fun culture blueprint” on an ongoing basis. This position should be someone who is positive, upbeat, and who others look up to.

If you want to implement things like monthly work parties, an employee recognition system, or a team-based hiring process, your Fun Ambassador would make all that happen in your company.

Rebecca Binnendyk, CFO (Chief Fun Officer) and Founder of Fun Outta Life Mentoring & Coaching

Set a table with essentials

I show appreciation to my 9 employees by *setting up a table once in a while with a “Take What You Need” sign.

The table has Advils for when they get headaches, Kit Kat bars if they need a break, printed Starbucks barcodes for free coffee, a calendar to schedule a day where they can bring their pets to the office, and earplugs for when they need some do not disturb time. This is my simple way of showing that I listen to their needs and their hard work is always appreciated.

Valentina Lopez, Co-Founder of Happiness Without

Gift them time

When I found out that one of our employees is working overtime to achieve the goals, I was surprised. First of all, I investigated why is this person taking so much time to do some tasks? I found out that his work efficiency is quite good but the task itself was unpredictable. Finally, he achieved the goal and it was huge for us. To appreciate his efforts, we gave him a paid one week off from work. 

We do gift bonuses or gifts, but sometimes just gifting Time to someone matters more than anything else! That time was well spent with friends and family. He was very happy.

Adam Rowles, CEO at Inbound Marketing Agency

Conclusion

Managers need to stay on track with each employees’ development. It is up to the manager to challenge each employee with a steady pace of growth that is pushing them to learn but not at the speed of being overwhelmed.

Besides, executives need to make sure there is a visible opportunity to grow within the company. An employee should always have a viable position to be striving towards. It will motivate them to work harder as well as provide a visible success path within the company. 

Lastly, integrating core values into the company culture that support the team members and place value on their best interest as well as encouraging open communication and feedback.

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Talley – Revolutionising mental wellness as we know it

Talley – Revolutionising mental wellness as we know it

Talley – Revolutionising mental wellness as we know it

September 25, 2020

talley app

Talley is founded by Lara Cena, and an accomplished Business Analyst with 5 years of experience working in tech. Her continuous efforts to create a stance for women in tech-led environments led her to join the Women in tech Forum at 20th Century Fox and volunteer for women in tech-driven events such as Ada’s List. 

After going through a few traumatic situations in her personal life, Lara was inspired to create Talley. In 2016 after receiving a demotion at work and experiencing money issues and extreme sadness as a result. Within the space of a month, Lara realized her reference group could not relate to her issues, and that she couldn’t speak to friends or family for fear of judgment. She needed a platform where she could anonymously speak to people who had experienced what she was going through but couldn’t find any safe space where she could connect based on experiences.

Talley, the mental wellness startup and peer-to-peer therapy platform were born in November 2019. Talley helps communities discuss personal issues in a safe space where someone truly listens to them. Through Lara’s work and recent crowdfunding campaign, Talley aims at becoming a mental wellness application that people can turn to when going through emotional distress stemming from real-life situations. With Talley, people are connected to real individuals who have been through the same distressing experiences, and professionals well equipped to help.

Lara is a trained mental health first aider and has become a champion for mental wellness, through her work as Founder of Talley and her social media presence. She often speaks on the importance of mental health, as well as the need to help people become self-aware and take control of their own lives. As a result, she started the Vision Board Workshop, a non-profit workshop session series to help people assimilate their goals for the year ahead and put in actionable plans. 

This is only the beginning for Lara, as she is a woman on a mission to give back. She aims to do so not only through championing mental wellness but also female empowerment and tackling period poverty in the future.

How would you describe Talley to a 3-year-old?

As a safe space where you can go whenever you’re feeling like you can’t talk to family or friends about life situations you may be going through. At Talley, we connect you to other people who understand what you’re going through because they have been in similar life situations and you’re able to have anonymous conversations with them. They are basically there to listen, you can get an understanding of their experiences as well.

What is the story behind Talley?

The story behind Talley is my own experience: I went through a tough experience where  I felt like I couldn’t speak to family or friends. I was experiencing issues at work, with my finances and in my relationship, I felt alone in my struggle, and that was when I had an epiphany. I thought that it would be nice for people to be able to actually have an outlet, especially when they feel like they can’t or don’t want to speak to family and friends. Surprisingly speaking to strangers is quite easier than speaking to people very close to you sometimes, especially when you don’t want to revisit the issue over and over again.

How is Talley different from your competitors? What is your unique selling point?

Talley is different because we connect you based on experiences to other people who have been through similar life situations as yourself, so we’re not just connecting you to random listeners, we try to connect you to people who have close experiences to yourself. Empathy amplifies our experience as humans.

What is the most difficult aspect of running your own company?

The most difficult aspect I guess is funding, getting that funding hurdle, and doing it right. Also, for us at the minute a lot of the people who work with us are volunteers, so it is also about managing volunteers and people who are willing to give whatever time and skills they can – and it leads me back to the funding because if we had enough money we would pay people and would be able to get their full time. It’s a journey, but we’ll get there.

Tell us a curious fact or an anecdote related to Talley

Talley is run on a team of volunteers: we are a very tight-knit team, we’re like a family I guess. It’s so much fun, when we do our team meetings we start with a check-in and we do a checkout as we do on our TalleyTalks. Also, every two weeks we all watch a movie together and discuss it during our team meetings, it kind of keeps engagement – because we are a mental wellness community, the team’s mental wellness is paramount. It is important that we walk the walk we talk about. So, when we do our check-ins, our check-ins are not about the work we’re doing, it’s more about our personal lives, like how we are really doing, so it could be positive or negative as much as people are willing to share.

Talley is given $1 million, how would you spend/invest them?

I think if we’re given one million dollars, the first thing we would do is get full-time staff, pick a few people to work full time. We would also get our app up and running, and we would basically get more people attending TalleyTalks because they are very helpful, and we get so much good feedback every time.

Where is Talley headed now? What’s the next big thing you’re striving to achieve?

The next big thing for us after finishing our crowdfunding is the development of our application.

Connect and do business with Talley on Enterprise League

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Remote team communication: Using software to prevent misunderstandings

Remote team communication: Using software to prevent misunderstandings

August 28, 2020

Remote-Communications

Some people will say that now, we’re in the golden era of remote work. But anyone who’s ever worked this way knows well that distributed teams face many challenges on a daily basis.

Remote team communication is probably the toughest nut to crack.

When you struggle to get on the same page with your team, many things are likely to go off the track. Increased project costs and failure rate, longer task delivery periods and decreased productivity are only a few to name.

But worry not. Today, we’re coming to you with 9 actionable tips on how you can use software to improve communication in your remote team.

Where do misunderstandings even come from?

But before we get to the remedy, we need to assess the problem that bothers your team.

No solution applied will ever be effective if you don’t understand where the issues with remote team communication come from in the first place.

And there are at least six most common reasons for why misunderstandings happen between people who work from a distance.

Let’s have a look.

Reason #1: Your team tries to apply old ways to the new setting

Imagine this: you’ve got a task for your colleague. They work just a few steps away from you, in the same office. What you’re going to do, most likely, is to get up, approach them and delegate said task verbally.

Now, in the remote setting, there’s quite a bit of distance between you. Many companies try to replicate this “approach and delegate” method. Doing so, they end up on endless video conferences or call each other several times a day.

When you look at it from the side, it doesn’t make much sense to do so. Just because something worked in the office, it doesn’t mean it will work in the remote setting. Things once effective may now be your biggest time wasters.

And nobody likes daily calls anyway, right?

Reason #2: Your team has got no idea on how to get organized

If your team is new to remote work, then it’s likely you’ve got no idea where to even begin. Should you just get video conferencing software and call it a day? Do you need more tools? New processes?

Don’t beat yourself about it if you’ve got no idea how to organize your team’s work in the new setting. It’s not an easy task even for the seasoned remote workers.

That said, keep in mind that being clueless on how to organize things could lead to mistakes that kill effective remote team communication.

Reason #3: You’re bad at written communication

To limit the number of daily video calls, teams often turn to written communication as an alternative. From emails to chat rooms, the options are plenty.

Now, written communication is an art in itself. You may do excellent when talking in person and, at the same time, be horrible when it comes to conveying ideas through written messages.

The written communication sins are plenty: from leaving things out because they “go without saying”, to misinterpreting the other person’s tone (because we don’t hear it, of course).

And they might be the main reason why you and your team suddenly can’t get along.

Reason #4: Lack of shared working space

In an office, you share a common space where you see your team on a daily basis. Maybe you meet up in a social room. Maybe you’ve got a giant whiteboard where people pin their messages and add notes about projects.

With remote work in the picture, the physical office vanishes. And with it, the precious aspect of sharing your working space.

Suddenly, you lose all ties to your colleagues. You’re alone in your own home office. You’ve got no idea where others are and what they work on. To get an update on tasks, you need to get on a (yet another) video call.

It’s hard to communicate when most that you’ve got in common are spreadsheets you’ve shared online.

Reason #5: Unclear rules and undefined processes

It can be related to the fact you’ve got no idea how to organize the work of your newly remote team.

Because of their limited ability to quickly communicate on the changes, distributed teams have double the need of working according to strict patterns. When questions arise and you can’t immediately get in touch with the right person, processes and tasks get delayed.

Remote team communication suffers from lack of processes. Getting them right could solve quite a few of your problems.

Reason #6: Different expectations and habits related to remote work

Imagine the situation in which the team switches to remote work. They were happy in the office and collaborated well. Now, the manager, full of trust towards their team members, believes they are fully capable of getting around the new setting.

Meanwhile the employees, even though having the best of intentions, are lost in the situation and count on being guided.

This is an easy example of how different people can view remote work. Some people need more flexibility. They want to be trusted and left to work independently. Others, on the other hand, need guidance and a daily to-do list delivered to their inbox.

People are different. And if you don’t get the expectations clear on the table, you might end up with a whole lot of communication issues.

Using software to solve remote team communication issues

Now that you know what troubles your team most, let’s talk about the solutions.

Software is a wonderful addition to your workflow. There’s an app for practically any issue you struggle with, including:

  • Task distribution (project management software)
  • Time tracking software
  • Customer relationship management software
  • Online support software
  • Appointment scheduling software

That said, many of these tools share some common features that you can implement right away to improve communication in your remote team.

Let’s have a look at it step by step.

Create visual workflows

Visualization is probably one of the strongest tactics that a remote team should implement. The easiest way to get started is simply by using a Kanban board. This way, you can devote a column to every stage of your process and move tasks along as they progress. This way, you will easily see which stage has currently the busiest one and where more action could happen.

Not every process in your company can be visualized with kanban due to its complex nature. However, setting up a kanban board can encourage you to streamline and simplify some of the processes so they fit the project board. It’s an excellent way to get rid of some needlessly complex elements of your work.

Get into (extreme) details

If you go with a task assignment/project management tool, you’ll have plenty of room to describe what you want from your team. Use it to the fullest.

Include checkpoints, control lists, useful materials, examples, samples, templates – anything that your team can use to get the job right.

Think of it this way: you’re not in the office and you can’t look over your colleague’s shoulder to check the progress. Oftentimes, you won’t see the task until it’s delivered to you. That’s exactly why you want to offer sufficient information to get it done right from the get-go.

Pick the right communication channel

You and your team needs to agree on one crucial thing: your main communication channel.

It could be email threads, once-a-day video calls or setting up a chat room. You may also keep all the discussion to the comment section of your task.

Don’t be afraid to innovate and experiment.

Use task tags, deadlines and assigned Users

The majority of software you will pick comes with deadlines, tags and user assigning (if they don’t, they’re probably not good enough for you ). These are features we often underestimate in managing workload of our teams.

Meanwhile, by applying such simple filters you can easily see if your work is evenly distributed across areas, employees and deadlines. Depending on your software, it may take two to three clicks to understand if someone is overloaded or whether deadlines come too closely together.

Create knowledge base

It’s good to have an easily accessible knowledge base for all the processes and workflows you’ve documented and shared with your team. It could be a separate shared folder or a whole kanban board with different categories.

Consider setting up one to store everything that is important to your team – from your logo and mission statement, to process documentation and best practices for a variety of tasks.

Create templates

It’s going to be so much easier to stick to processes when you create templates for your workflows and tasks.

Most of the project management tools offer this option and if you don’t use it, start today.

It’s an easy way to include the roadmap, checkpoints and guidelines for your team without spending additional time on recreating their content.

Use appointment scheduling tools

Most teams use an appointment scheduling tool to arrange meetings and calls with their clients. But it’s a creative thing to do to use them to arrange team calls as well.

By choosing the date from a shared calendar, you can cut out the annoying shuffle related to picking up the date that works for everybody.

Use the task-related threads

Do your best to limit your task communication to one particular channel. If it’s a comment thread for the assignment, keep it there. If it’s a Slack chat thread – don’t move away from it.

Do this to avoid scattering communication across multiple channels and eliminate wondering where was given information or guideline shared.

Set up notifications and reminders

An important milestone approaching? Set up a reminder for your teammates to make sure they don’t miss it. It will land directly in their mailbox when the time is right.

Use notifications to keep your team in loop about the important changes to the tasks, workflow, processes, scheduled events and more. There’s plenty of options to do it – from integrations to email and your communication channels to simply using built-in options from your project management tool.

Final thoughts

Using software to improve remote team communication is one of the easiest fixes when you know what your problem is.

The options are out there and the decision is up to you which of the platforms you will go with. Don’t be afraid to experiment and test them out as you go. It may take a while before you find the right fit for your team.

Good luck!

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Custom corporate gifts by WLWYB that you will actually keep

Custom corporate gifts by WLWYB that you will actually keep

Custom corporate gifts by WLWYB that you will actually keep

July 29, 2020

Featured Member - WLWYB

Everyone knows bespoke corporate gifts, whether you received them in the past or gave to someone. Personalised business gifts are a great way to raise brand awareness. They can be motivational presents, thank-you gifts, or sales incentives when you’re right before the new product launch or store opening. Other occasions can be annual gifts for your clients and staff members, trade shows or an anniversary of a team member. 

With these corporate gifts your goal would be to motivate your colleagues during a team building, thank your business partners, clients and staff members at the end of a hard year, pull in potential new customers, raise awareness of your brand through a give away or a trade show.

Lighting pens and power banks are not cool

So let’s see what are the most common bespoke gifts that a company can give.

The kind of stuff that everyone received the past couple of years was a bunch of lightning pens, tote bags, mugs, power banks, pop sockets, notebooks, drawstring bags, keychain bottle openers, wine, chocolate. And which of these were memorable? 

Maybe you made notes with the pens in the notebook, you went shopping with the tote bags, you charged your phone with the power bank which broke after a couple of months but to be honest none of them were the best because of their quality or usefulness. 

And how much of them did you re-gift? Because that’s a thing. You always receive a bottle of wine, a box of soap or fondue pack that you’ll never use. The first though before being harsh is thinking of who can you re-gift it to and when? If you are not on a budget you might give tumblers, earbuds, a box of great quality cheese, a bluetooth speaker. But still, these are cliches.

Personalised business gifts that are entertaining

Being the Business Development Manager at a startup venture that is a player in the secondary market of LEGO gives the opportunity to work with B2B and B2C customers from all around the world where we offer bespoke LEGO kits. – Dorottya Fogel

The possibilities are endless; it only depends on whether you have a smaller budget or money doesn’t matter. 

Our knowledge that we gained in the recent years and the fact that we closely work together with well known LEGO builders gives us the opportunity to create for each and every project of ours a unique, personalised creation that inspires adults and children alike. Let it be an original sized city light poster with a logo of a company, a microscale furnished office HQ from several thousand pieces or personalised minifigures with the right outlook and tools for team members. 

We guarantee that the recipients of the gifts will spend much more time with their presents than an average gadget. 

So if you’re struggling with what to give whether you have a small budget or money doesn’t matter, that is a memorable, fun and the gifted would only give it away to their kid who will be happy as hell, I would suggest to reach out to us and we would be happy to build some fun thing together. 

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