5 Tips For Professionals Seeking An Effective And Healthy Work-Life Balance

Most professionals today lead an extremely hectic and stressful life resulting from the high level of competition and grueling work schedules they are expected to follow. For a short time, it was believed that the integration of technology in everyday business processes would make the life of professionals somewhat easier. However, even with the extensive use of the latest technology tools, most executives are still far from attaining work-life balance. This, according to leading organization development consultants in India, can eventually result in businesses losing valuable talent due to employee burnout. In addition, it may cause serious health and behavior issues for the professionals themselves. Discussed below are five tips that can help professionals avoid such situations by creating a healthy and effective work-life balance.

Schedule A No-Phone Time For Each Day

Mot professionals today possess a smartphone that enables them to easily access their email and work group chats at once. Over time, they gradually become habitual of checking their phones every few minutes for new emails and messages. This unknowingly adds to the stress of the professionals and makes them feel bound to answer even the most mundane emails and text almost immediately. Scheduling a no-phone time for a specific duration every day can help professionals to break this vicious habit and enjoy a little stress-free time at work.

Avoid Skipping Meals

Skipping meals is a common trait of professionals struggling to keep up with their excessive work-load. This trend is especially more prominent amongst professionals, who are constantly required to meet some deadline or the other. However, experts from companies offering people management consulting India are of the opinion that skipping meals regularly, affects the mental and physical well-being of individuals and reduces their performance and efficiency significantly. That is why it is advisable for even the busiest professionals to avoid skipping meals. In fact, they should develop the habit of taking regular breaks to freshen their minds and restore their energies.

Make Time For Family And Friends

Nothing acts as a better stress breaker for professionals than spending fun time with family and friends. Sadly, most people today are so wound up in their work, that spending time with family and friends seems like a distant dream. This can further add to their stress levels and make them feel detached and frustrated. Hence, it is essential for professionals to make time for their loved ones towards the end of each day. The best way to go about it is to start by small, i.e. by spending 15-30 minutes with their family every day. This time can then be gradually extended once the professionals learn to organize their time in a better manner.

Indulge In A Favorite Activity

One of the key aspects of developing a great work-life balance is for professionals to start participating in their favorite activity. This, according to experts from employee engagement consulting firms, provides professionals with a short yet relaxing getaway from their hectic schedules on a regular basis. Participating in their favorite activities makes them feel happy and also boosts their confidence in taking on various challenges. It also makes the mentally and physically fit and alert and emotionally rejuvenated.

Understanding The Challenges Of Women Leadership Development And Solutions For The Same

Over the past several years the focus of the business community is on minimizing the gender equality within organizations. The fact that a handful of Indian women have already made a mark in history by redefining corporate leadership, business landscape, and even the political arena has further fuelled this idea. However, for every successful woman, there are tens and thousands of others, who are not even given the opportunity to showcase their skills as a potential leader. In fact, the organization development consultants in India are of the opinion that the absence of a level playing field for most women in business organizations is a cause of major concern.

Getting To Know The Challenge

India is currently placed at the 87^th position in the Global Gender Gap Index and has only 27% of its female population as a part of its massive workforce, which is one of the lowest in the world. The good thing is that of this 27 %, as much as 11% of women are placed in top management roles within the major private, multinational and even state-owned organizations. Despite this, various researches have proved that the overall participation of women in senior leadership roles within the workforce is quite dismal. The most common factors that have been responsible for this limiting placement of females at the senior position are discussed below.

Societal Norms And Traditions : Women in India are expected to give topmost preference to their husband and their kids irrespective of the level of professional success they might have achieved. This often leads them to quit their jobs after marriage or the birth of a child. Hence business organizations generally feel uncertain about employing females in top management positions irrespective of them being more skilled and competent.

Bias About Capabilities Of Women Leaders : Companies providing leadership consulting services are of the opinion that most organizations are biased about hiring women for leadership roles. They feel that the top management within such an organization tend to have a more orthodox view about women having the capabilities and the competence to fulfil their responsibilities as a business leader. They doubt the ability of the women to make strong business decisions and take calculated risks to ensure the growth of the organization as a whole.

Ego Issues Of Junior Managers And Other Male Employees : Most organizations limit the growth of their female employees to prevent any ego issues in other male members working at similar positions. Moreover, being a male-dominated society, a majority of men in India are still averse to the idea of working under and taking orders from a female. Hence, business organisation take the safe way out by promoting male employees even if they are less competent.

Finding The Right Solution

The problem of gender disparity is a complex one and finding the right solution is not that easy. It is important to first eliminate the causes of this disparity and includes creating awareness within the society about women being as capable and as competent as their male counterparts. In addition, organizations need to adopt a skill-based growth system making it easier to promote females with the right expertise and skillset.

Key Concerns To Remember While Developing Social Recruitment Tactics

With the growing awareness about the benefits of using social media for recruiting top talent, social recruitment strategies are becoming an integral part of the hiring process of most organizations. In fact, a majority of leading organization development consultants in India are advising their clients to use focus on this new recruitment strategy to attract and hire the best talent. However, what the recruiters need to understand is that the social recruitment strategy is not just about posting information about prospective job positions across various social channels. In order to be able to exploit the full benefits of social recruitment, it is essential to consider the following key aspects while developing such a strategy.

 

Invest In An Effective Team

One of the key aspects of ensuring the success of any social recruitment strategy is to ensure candidate engagement quite during the early stages of initiating the process. Achieving this critical objective is possible only through an effective social recruitment team, with each member having a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the overall scheme of things.  They also need to be well aware of the social recruiting goals that their organization is trying to fulfil.

 

Select The Most Appropriate Platforms

The number of social media sites is increasing at a rapid pace. However, this does not mean that the social recruitment teams have to make use of all the available platforms to search for the best candidates. Rather they need to focus their efforts on using the few channels that are likely to provide the best results as per their needs. This is because every social media channel caters to a completely unique set of audience and uses a different way of communicating with them. Hence it is essential for the hiring team to carry out proper research to identify the most appropriate platforms for their social recruitment campaign.

 

Create An Impressive Job Posting

It is important for the recruiters to carefully consider the content of the job posting and ensure that it is not only impressive but also sufficiently informative. The recruiters need to have a clear understanding of the type of candidates they intend to attract through the job posting and especially the skills and expertise they are seeking. This information is essential to create the right job posting that leave a deep positive impact on the minds of the prospective candidates and might even stir some curiosity amongst passive candidates. The recruiters need to bear in mind that producing the right content is essential to sell the job amongst the best candidates.

 

Highlight The USP Of The Hiring Company

The experts from renowned employee engagement consulting firms stress on the importance of highlighting the “wow factors” of the hiring organizations during social recruitment. They advise the recruitment teams to create a list of company’s mission and values while paying special attention to the factors that make the company unique. In case the company has won any awards or accolades, it is essential to provide information about the same in the job postings. Using employee testimonials can also prove to be a highly effective tool for creating a sense of excitement and transparency amongst prospective candidates.

Be Sure To Evaluate All Candidates

The recruiters should make sure that the social recruitment strategies are not used for unfair or biased hiring. They need to set a system for evaluating all the candidates who might have shown interest in a job posting. Even if they do not find the candidates suitable for the specific position, they might consider them for another available option that matches their skill set. The recruiters also need to make sincere efforts about understanding the kind of topics discussed by applicants, learning about their interests and their reaction upon being approached.

5 Reasons Organisation Structure Can Help Companies Grow

Organizational structure is the set of policies and procedures that companies follow in order to ensure continuous growth of the company. Small companies usually do not need any structuring as the business owner is the one handling multiple tasks at a time. However in large organisations, proper structuring is very important in order to ensure smooth workflow and timely achievement of goals. Many companies nowadays hire Organization Development Advisors also.

The type of organisation structure may depend upon various factors such as company policies, size, type of operations etc. Being one of the Organizational Development Consultants, we can say with certainty that organisational structure is a must and here is why :

Reason 1 : In order to Streamline Operations

Small companies have lesser number of tasks and hence everything can be done parallel with a little effort in lesser time. As the company grows in size, the number of operations increases and hence it is very important to prioritize and distribute each task in a right manner. A proper organisation structure ensures, that the work is distributed among various departments under the supervision of business owners, directors and managers.

 

Reason 2 : In order to improve Decision Making

Companies can use organization structure in order to improve the decision making process. A good organisation structure can ensure a streamlined flow of information right from the lower level to higher level and hence the decisions would be made keeping in mind the ground realities rather than assuming an ideal situation in mind.

Reason 3 : In order to operate in multiple locations

When the company expands and grows, it opens up in different locations. Visiting all the locations seem next to impossible for the business owner. In such situations, a proper organisation structure could help ensure that all the branches are run as per company standards and no compromise is being made in utilising the full potential of that location.

 

Reason 4 : In order to improve Employee Performance

A proper organisation structure is a must in improving the performance of employees. As far as an employee is not clear about his task, he won’t be able to give his 100% to it. Moreover, he needs continuous guidance from his seniors. A good organisational structure, not only ensures all this but also makes sure that the decision making is participatory and inclusive.

 

Reason 5 : In order to improve Customer Sales and Increase Sales

Companies that use a well-defined organization structure remain more focused towards customer service rather than wasting their time on petty operational issues. When responsibilities are clearly defined and identified, the chance of errors reduces and hence customer satisfaction increases and a satisfied customer would ultimately lead to increased sales.