Tips for strengthening peer relationships at work

Here are some creative ways that will help you to strengthen peer relationships at the workplace:

Recognition awards

One way to build camaraderie between teammates is the creation of a custom award to honor employee achievements. Recognition programs can boost individual confidence and company morale. There are many different types of awards that can bolster teamwork. First, peer-to-peer recognition allows employees to vote for who they think most deserves appreciation and celebration. Also, team awards honor whole groups and departments, not just one person. Consider the following award categories for your own organization.

• Customer service award
• Employee work anniversaries
• Business anniversaries
• Company value award
• Leadership award

Team building

Team building is important for making staff bonds stronger. Employees can improve their self-awareness and collaborative skills by getting to know how to best work with others. Also, these exercises can often be fun and encourage teammates to create special memories together. Consider organizing brainstorming sessions, completing personality quizzes together, and going on team-oriented excursions like escape rooms and scavenger hunts.

Fun events

Joyful occasions are essential for employees to connect and enjoy their time together. Also, breaks like these help employees stay productive by avoiding burnout. Different kinds of events include award galas, birthday parties, and trivia games. Also, these occasions can be hosted virtually to include remote teams. With the help of modern technology, global teams can connect and feel closer in an instant.

Professional development for groups

Professional development opportunities can be tailored for teams to share experiences with coworkers. Staff members can connect with each other while refining their skills. By involving more staff members in development options, the whole team can grow without leaving anyone behind. For instance, deserving employees can attend a conference together. Other opportunities include shadowing executives and continuing education. 

Corporate wellness programs

Corporate wellness programs help an organization’s people stay healthy and happy. By supporting physical and mental health, these initiatives help employees feel happier, healthier, and more productive. Also, focusing on well-being can help create a stress-free workspace for employees. Examples of offerings include gym membership stipends, nutritional classes, and subsidized counseling. By making each employee stronger, a team becomes more engaged and communicative. Collaboration and teamwork can drastically improve when everyone feels their best.

Team incentives

Personalized rewards can help individuals grow, while team incentives motivate a whole group. By creating interesting competitions and enticing perks, organizations can encourage greater accomplishments. Also, staff can learn how to work together and inspire each other. It’s important to choose incentives that appeal to your team. For example, rewards may include tickets to special events, gift cards, added paid time off, and other company benefits.

Thank-you notes

Whether hand-written or crafted online, thank-you notes to coworkers show sincere appreciation between peers. These messages can be given to new hires, veteran employees, executives, managers, and more. Also, letters and cards can make great additions to corporate gifts for any occasion. When writing thank-you notes, it’s important to write for the individual recipient. Personal messages show that people care about their relationships and go the extra mile to make someone feel valued.

Communication and listening

Clear communication and active listening are crucial for any workplace. When people are heard and respected for their ideas, they feel like they can trust others more. This trust is the basis for flourishing workplace relationships. Consider conducting an employee survey or creating time each day to hear staff ideas and concerns.

By giving people the opportunity to share, leaders are given the chance to listen and to find possible breakthroughs for their organization.

Mentorship program

Designed to connect staff members, a mentorship program is great for bringing team members closer together. Also, a mentoring initiative can help new hires establish connections at work. It can be tough being new, but a program like this can help encourage belonging. Lastly, employees can be paired up based on common interests, passions, experience, and more depending on the goals of the program.

Conclusion

To help figure out which relationship-building tools to use, consider the goals and capabilities of your business. From there, you can experiment and see what helps bring about the best results for your peers. With consistency and adaptability, any company can strengthen relationships and reach new heights.

Tested preparation tips for filing your taxes

Here are some of the best tax preparation tips to help you sort out and file your taxes this year.

Deciding on a tax preparer

Asking your friends and advisers (such as a lawyer you know) for recommendations is an excellent way to discover a tax preparer if you don’t already have one. But even with a recommendation, you must perform an interview to select the ideal candidate. And we will start you off with some tax associate interview questions.

Tax associate interview preparation tips

Verify with your potential tax preparer that they own a preparer tax identification number (PTIN) showing they’re approved to prepare federal individual tax returns. 

An ideal candidate should have a sound understanding of finances and significant previous experience preparing taxes. Candidates with poor time management and interpersonal skills shouldn’t be considered.

Tax associate interview preparation tips

Verify with your potential tax preparer that they own a preparer tax identification number (PTIN) showing they’re approved to prepare federal individual tax returns. 

An ideal candidate should have a sound understanding of finances and significant previous experience preparing taxes. Candidates with poor time management and interpersonal skills shouldn’t be considered.

1. Can you explain the procedure you follow when onboarding a new client?

Displays the candidate’s experience and expertise when assessing the client’s tax needs.

2. What methods do you employ to reduce taxes?

Demonstrates how the applicant works to reduce the tax burden of their clients.

3. Could you list a few of your completed tax research projects?

This question demonstrates prior job experiences and training.

4. Have you ever dealt with an upset customer?

This inquiry can help point out positive customer service skills.

5. What accounting software have you used to perform tax services?

Here, the candidate can show proficiency with the relevant tax preparation software.

Essential tax preparation tips

When you hire your tax preparer in Las Vegas, they may seek information from you or ask you to complete a questionnaire. Preparation will help you get through the process quickly and easily. Even if you do your taxes, the steps below will help you get organized.

By the end of January, gather all the tax forms you’ll most likely receive in your annual tax records. These records highlight your income and deductible expenditures. Make sure you have everything organized before turning in your report.

• Make a folder for every expense category and list your expenditures by category.
• You don’t need to keep track of the receipts if you use the regular deduction.
• Find copies of last year’s tax returns for comparison.
• You can get all the tax forms you need for your tax return from your tax accountant, tax software, or the IRS.
• Effective tax reporting requires details about who files the form and is covered by the tax return.
  

Whether you prepare your own taxes or engage a professional to do it for you, organizing your records beforehand will reduce your workload and save you money in the case of a hired preparer. Moreover, the earlier you begin, the more quickly it should go, and the sooner you’ll be able to move past the procedure for another year.

When do we need to file our tax returns?

For expatriates navigating tax obligations, understanding nuanced options such as the SFOP application process can markedly ease the stress of filial compliance, especially if you’ve fallen behind on submissions due to foreign residency. It’s crucial to seek detailed guidance on eligibility and methodical steps to follow, ensuring compliance without incurring penalties.

Your federal individual income tax return is typically due on April 15 of each year if you file according to the calendar year, and your tax year ends on December 31. You must file your return by the fifteenth day of the fourth month after the conclusion of your fiscal year – if you utilize a fiscal year (an accounting period that ends in a month other than December). The due date is postponed to the following business day if your deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.

If you failed to file your federal tax return by the due date, ideally, you filed Form 4868 or made an electronic tax payment to obtain an automatic six-month tax extension to October 17, 2022. However, you had to take action by the original return tax day of 2022, which in most instances has been April 18. 

Keep in mind that an extension doesn’t automatically extend your tax deadline. In addition, when asked about a late tax payment, you may have to pay interest, late fees, and financial penalties.

How much does it cost to prepare taxes?

According to a survey by the National Society of Accountants, the average cost of preparing taxation forms using Form 1040 for 2020 was $220 when the standard deduction was claimed and $323 when itemizations were claimed.

Track your taxes online

You do not need to worry about what happens after filing your tax return. You can register for an IRS online account to check your progress and refund. Once your account is created, you will be able to log in and get information about your taxes, as well as your balance and any payments you owe. You can also enter a request to get notifications about changes to the status of your account (such as when the return has been processed).

5 steps for motivating your employees

But, how can you make sure that your employees are putting in their best efforts? Here you can learn about the 5 best ways to do this.

Provide inspiration

An inspired and informed employee is a motivated employee. Think of yourself as a teacher aiming to find new ways for his students to get motivated. Part of your education is to encourage them to find motivation in different places, but also offer them inspiring examples.

If you don’t have many ideas, there are plenty examples of essays that you can access and share with them to get them inspired. You can find a sample of essay to share with your team on this page with hero essay examples. This is a great source of papers that will give your employees a creative boost. Learning about successful people and situations is useful in many ways. For starters, it makes people want to try harder to achieve great results. It also gives them a lesson that success is based on work, which is the best motivational push you can find.

Keep your employees up to date

You can’t expect people to work hard for your company’s goals if they don’t know what you want to accomplish, do you? If they don’t know how far they’ve progressed or how much more work they need to put into this, how do you expect them to be motivated to work hard?

One of the best ways to motivate your team is to keep them informed. Be as transparent as you can possibly be. Surely, you can’t share all information with everyone, but you can definitely try and keep them on track with what’s going on in the company they work at.

If your goal is to be a great boss then schedule informational meetings regularly to tell people about their progress, give them examples of good work being done in the company, and to acknowledge their great work. 

Ask them about their pain points

Trying to figure out what your employees struggle with is very counter-productive. You might have some good guesses but very often, employees struggle with things that you will never guess. Why not ask them instead?

A good leader gives his team a voice. Your team should feel comfortable coming to you with concerns and problems. So, open your door to them and make them know that they can tell you about your pain points.

Of course, it is not enough just to listen. You must also take action to fix the problems of your team. If they experience trouble with other employees, the equipment, or the work, you should take the necessary measures to fix this for them. Stress at work is the biggest motivation killer these days so make sure that your pay attention to your work culture and strive for stress-free work enviroment.

Don’t just wait for your team to come to you. Those meetings that we mentioned come very handy in this – you can use them to ask your team if they are experiencing any troubles.

Leverage gamification

Gamification in the workplace has increased greatly in the last few years. There’s tons of research that shows how useful gamification is in making people more engaged, productive, and motivated. On average, an employee is 60% more productive if gamification is used in the workplace.

Games are a great way to relax, boost your creative process, and train your brain. If you pick the right set of games, games that can help your team have fun while doing something productive, this will make them more engaged and motivated to work for you. 

When people play, this boosts their dopamine level and makes them happier. That’s a great thing to introduce in a stressful office. Whether you offer them games to make the work more interesting or the opportunity to relax with games when they feel overly stressed, this might just be the best way to keep them productive.

Train your employees

Don’t expect the people you hire to have all the qualifications they’ll ever need to work for you. You’ll get new equipment that they don’t have experience with. There will be new, improved ways to do the work that boosts efficiency and make the work go faster. If you want your team to work at their best, you must provide them with proper training.

It’s not just about teaching them how to do their job better. You should provide your team with regular training to keep them happy and motivated. Employees want to boost their skills and get higher in their careers. This is why most job seekers these days look for companies that offer growth opportunities and training. 

When you train an employee, you aren’t just teaching them how to work better for you. You are also helping them work on their professional development and build skills that will help them succeed more in life. This is bound to make a person more motivated to do their work.

Conclusion

As simple as these five things sound, most companies don’t implement such tactics to motivate their employees. If you’ve skipped on a step or two from this list, focus on making this happen as soon as possible. Keeping your team motivated is a sure way to get work done faster and better, and it will also help you reduce employee turnover.