Navigating the Current Landscape: Admin and Office Support Recruitment in Today’s Climate
27th November 2023
Here we take a look the resolutions you should be making for your business, and how to make sure that 2019 is a winner.
“Never fear: we’ve got a business plan” we hear you cry. Of course you do, you run a successful business after all. But when was the last time you updated it? In fact, when was the last time you even looked at it? If you last saw your business plan prior to the Millennium Bug, it’s time to get it out of storage.
A business plan is a ‘living document’ – a buzz phrase, but an accurate one all the same. It should be reviewed, and often. Make sure you hold regular – at least weekly – business planning meetings where you can discuss anything from financial targets to staffing concerns.
If you don’t keep your business plan fresh in your mind, you’ll never how well you’re doing in relation to the goals you originally set yourself. You won’t know if those goals need to change or adapt and most importantly, you won’t know what’s working for your business and what isn’t.
We don’t mean to sound like your mother but seriously, this one’s more important than you think. Come 2019, make it compulsory for every member of your staff to tidy their general working space, getting rid of all unnecessary clutter. Make your office as paperless as possible (as long as this works for the nature of your business of course). This will not only reduce costs, it will make the day-to-day running of your business more secure.
If there’s equipment that’s on the blink, get it fixed or replace it. You and your staff will have so much more energy to put into your actual day job if you’re not dealing with a ‘paper jam’ on the hour every hour.
In the words of the immortal Mr Spock, “the more we share the more we have” (it was Leonard Nimoy, but you catch our drift). You have every right to enjoy your success, and if you’re seeing results and doing well then by all means go wild – take a holiday, treat the ones you love, and re-invest in the business to secure growth moving forward.
However, if you want to avoid a visit from the ghost of Jacob Marley come Christmas Eve 2019, it pays to share the wealth a little. Why not nominate a charity to support throughout the year? Donate to a cause close to your heart, or that is important to a member of your staff. You could even start a mentoring scheme or volunteer at a local resource centre a couple of days each year – there are so many things to choose from.
Here at Headway, we chose to support Heart Research UK, in memory of a very dear friend. We’ve made this a lot of fun; hosting social events like our quiz in February. Of course we had to take it to the next level and ‘actively encouraged’ our MD Mark Gill to jump out of a plane all in the name of charity.
We don’t mean to sound sentimental, but the real satisfaction of success comes from giving back to the community that has helped your business to thrive, and lets face it, whoever heard of a little altruism being bad for business?
Think of all the things you’d like to do to improve your business. You might want your website to have a regular blog, or your website may need updating. You may want to have a social media strategy in place, or start being active on platforms like LinkedIn to raise your company profile. And we’re guessing that’s just a starter for ten.
The only way you’re ever going to turn all those ideas into a reality is to delegate. It’s impossible to be all things to all people so you may as well stop trying. Consider what needs to be done, and then think about how much time you have to achieve it – not the time you THINK you have, the time you ACTUALLY have. You’ll soon realise that the numbers don’t add up.
Delegate the things you don’t enjoy or don’t have the time for, even if this means employing new members of staff to do it. Your time is much better spent focussing on the growth of your company and winning new work. In short, stop micro managing and see the quality of your output and your bottom line go up.
We spend a lot of time at our desks, with 13% of UK workers clocking up over 49 hours per week at the office. There’s no getting away from it, no matter how much you love what you do, work is tiring and can be a major cause of stress.
If you’ve found yourself working to the bone this year, why not take a fresh approach in 2019? We don’t mean down tools and retire immediately, but we do mean making sure that you have a year that doesn’t leave you completely exhausted with no work-life balance.
Make it your aim to get to the end of 2019 in a state of blissful relaxation. Do the howls of laughter mean this is unrealistic? Well at least make it your aim to leave the office before 8pm on Christmas Eve next year.
So there you have it; 5 New Year’s Resolution’s that we think will help your business achieve success in 2019. This list is by no means exhaustive; there are so many things we could have written about and we’re sure you’ll have your own goals to add.
For now though, all that’s left is for us to wish you a happy and prosperous New Year – we’ll see you on the other side.
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