Top Tips for Increasing Your Employee's Morale

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Your employees work hard, day in and day out, and there may be times when you notice they aren't exactly pleased with their job or satisfied with their current position. While acknowledging this problem is a good first step, you are no doubt wondering what you can actually do about it. After all, as the old saying goes, "you can't please everyone," right?

Wrong. There are simple steps you can take to improve your employees' morale, which in turn will increase their job performance, productivity, and loyalty in your company.

Steps for Increasing Your Employees' Morale

Acknowledge Special Events in Their Lives- The birth of a new baby, a wedding, their birthday- all of these events you should recognize in your employees' lives. Celebrate joyous times together, whether you simply purchase a card for everyone in the office to sign, or you give your employees an extra half hour on their lunch break to enjoy the cake and ice cream you brought in. Any effort you make, no matter how corny it may seem, is guaranteed to put a smile on their faces.Encourage Conversations- The individuals wearing your company clothing want to feel as if they are a valued part of your business, so encourage conversations and the exchange of ideas to benefit the company. Supply them with the information they need to develop ideas about business relations and financial matters to help influence the success of your business.Reward Your Employees- In order for your employees to feel as if they are truly valued, you need to recognize and reward the work they do for you. If they accomplish something, let them know verbally or through a written note. If you want to take it one step further, you can also provide them with other types of rewards. For instance, you could purchase their lunch, give them a bonus, or give them a small corporate gift.Make Them Comfortable- A comfortable environment can easily boost your employee's happiness. Start with the location where all the action takes place: their desk. Provide them with comfortable chair, ergonomic desks, and as much natural light as possible. If your employees wear work uniforms, makes sure these are not only professional and stylish, but comfortable enough to work in all day.Make Them a Team- If you haven't purchased uniform clothes for your employees, now is the time to do so. Your employees may not know what to wear for work, and may feel ostracized if they are unable to afford brand-name clothing like their co-workers. By purchasing unified clothing for them, your employees will feel as if they are part of a team instead of by themselves.Encourage Breaks From Work- Your personnel will be much more refreshed and happy if they are allowed to take breaks. However, some of your more motivated employees may have to be pried from their office chairs to take them. Make breaks mandatory and encourage your employees to grab a cup of coffee, take a walk outside, or get something to eat. They will feel much better after a short time-out and will have a much easier time getting back work after some time away from their desk.

These simple steps can help you increase your employee's morale, so they are more productive, loyal to your company, and happy with their job. Begin implementing them today!

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Email Management for Writers

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An interesting post on CBS MoneyWatch explores ways to streamline your email workflow. I found the article useful, yet there are some recommendations I feel don't work well for writers. I'd like to suggest some modifications that fit better with a writer's life. There's no doubt that an organized email system enhances productivity.

The author recommends that email be handled like an appointment. You only deal with email at specific times and for a specific span of time. This is a good strategy.

Open your day with a 30 - 60 minute session. Occasionally, you'll have to take longer if you have several clients needing responses. The number of additional clock-in times will depend upon the nature of your writing business.

There are specific tasks you'll want to work through during your opening email-handling session.

1. Scan your messages from the bottom up. During this step you'll see emails that you need to respond to and emails that aren't worth bothering with. You'll also see if there are several messages from the same client.

2. Delete emails you know you'll never read. Spam, offers that you aren't interested in, etc. just clutter up your inbox. Use Shift and your mouse to quickly delete blocks of emails that aren't important to you.

3. Flag and drag mail you want to read later. If there's mail you'd like to read later, flag it. Then drag it into its own special folder. For example if you are a content writer, there might be a good article that's come in on SEO that you don't have time to read during the session. By flagging it, you give it priority as an investment in your personal development. When the list of flagged items gets too long, make it one of your tasks to scan through the list, and delete anything that no longer seems important.

4. Read and respond to client emails. Always start from the oldest email before reading the newest. Read all email from a client, then determine whether you can reply to the most recent email or whether it would be better to respond to each email separately.

5. Schedule appointments for mail you need to respond to in the next session. If you run out of time, flag lower-priority responses for your next session. Set these up as appointments so you don't overlook them. Or mark emails as unread so they remain in your unread mail folder. What is lower priority in the morning will increase in priority as time passes.

6. Delete or file anything you have read. Create folders for each client and move correspondence into the client's folder after you have read and responded to the email. Finding a client message is as simple as clicking on the folder and scanning. Even though Outlook has a user-friendly search feature in 2007 and 2010, having a client folder is more efficient.

If you are an independent contractor, develop a system for sorting all your mail. You can add folders to Outlook to manage every type of email you receive. Here are some of the folders I've created to keep important information accessible.

Amazon BusinessAmazon PersonalAmazon KindleBusiness PurchasesClient Sign-in InformationMembershipsMarketingNeed to ReadResume Clients (Each client has a sub-folder.)SEOWebinar ReplaysWriting Clients (Each client has a sub folder.)

7. Stop when time runs out and get back to earning income. Unless you are paid for the time you respond to emails, stick to this guideline. Check for any unfinished emails. Save them to draft. I've moved on to other tasks thinking I've responded to an email, only to discover at the end of the day that it's sitting there underneath another window. This can happen when you switch to your browser to research a point, or a phone call interrupts your process. Keeping your email time within certain time parameters will prevent you dribbling your day away on efforts that don't pay your bills.

Successive Sessions

All of your following email sessions will open with completing any drafts you saved during the previous session. The steps after that remain the same. I like to leave my office at the end of the day with all emails responded to. If this just isn't possible, I schedule the response for the next morning.

The original article, Email Workflow Designed to Optimize Your Time, may be found at CBSNews.com.

Email management is an important part of Denise Rutledge's work as a ghost writer. She offers a number of writing services designed to help her clients achieve their full business potential. Her work includes SEO articles, eBooks and CreateSpace books, sales letters and website content.You may learn more about her services at Writing as a Ghost.com.

Admin Professionals: Discover Hot Time Management Tips to Increase Productivity and Get More Done

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The reality is: Increased workloads are here to stay. However, there's powerful ways to manage your workload through calendar management and productivity tools so that administrative professionals and employees at all levels of an organization can take on new, expanded roles to achieve peak productivity.

It's time to rethink the way you work. In recent years, businesses have been asking employees at all levels to take on new projects or roles, and basically do more work.

The reality is: Increased workloads are here to stay. If your job has turned into a "stretch job," you may be wondering if there's a better way to get more done in less time, relieve stress and avoid taking work home at night. And while you can't create more hours in the day, you can learn how to use your time to the best advantage.

Here are few ways employees can work reasonable hours, prioritize tasks, track productivity, organize their calendars and use tech tools and software to manage projects efficiently.

--Manage projects, not time. Match the task with the person. Give snappy introductions. Cluster related projects. And make 'just in time' decisions.

--Managing interruptions. Don't allow your open door policy to be abused. Let people know when you really can't be interrupted. Discourage upward delegation. Encourage workers to make decisions for themselves. Put a curb on venting time. Arrange your office strategically. Stand up when an unannounced visitor enters. Learn to dismiss irrelevant interruptions. Use silence as a weapon.

--Master Delegation. Learn what to delegate versus give to yourself such as: Routine and repetitive jobs. Jobs requiring special expertise. Pet projects. Crises. Policy making. Personnel matters. Symbolic acts.

--Embrace technology. Simplify with apps: Getting the right apps can help you get lots of things done without ever needing to open the computer. Apps can make it much easier than navigating websites. Digital archiving: The Internet is great for keeping track of content and capturing ideas. Sites like Del.icio.us let you bookmark websites to come back to later. Having a digital archive can save you time when you need to go back and find something later.

How Top Performers Employ Their Time

Most people think the key to being productive is working flat-out 100% of the time. Not so. A recent study on highly productive people indicate a few techniques to help virtually anyone increase their productivity:

-Vary the pace. For unfamiliar new activities, they slow down and work methodically until they've learned what they need to know. Yet, in activities in which they're already experts, they work quickly-sometimes, with blinding speed.

-Orient themselves toward garnering big returns, fast. When possible, their goal is to seek the biggest advantage in the least amount of time.

-Eschew monolithic project management. When handling complex projects, they multitask by letting different implementation teams handle different parts of the project.

-Take frequent breaks to rest and recharge. That might be why top execs haven't abandoned lunches.

-Accelerate different parts of big projects, whenever possible. Example: If the research they conducted last year gives them a leg up on a big project currently on their plate, they plug it in.

Employees need to work smarter while embracing technology to speed tasks. The payoff is more efficiency, less stress, improved performance and career wisdom - which ultimately helps you, your boss, your staff, and your organization's bottom line.

For more information visit http://www.amazon.com/Time-Management-Rescue-Business-Daily/dp/B007V4HSNK/. E. Hall is a senior online editor for Business Management Daily (BMD). BMD is based in Falls Church, Virginia, has been providing sound news and advice since 1937, giving business professionals the news, skills and strategies they need to grow their businesses, avoid legal pitfalls and advance their careers.