Executive Spotlight: The Technology Every Executive Needs To Know How To Use Right Now

Executive Spotlight: The Technology Every Executive Needs To Know How To Use Right Now

If you want to be an effective leader in your industry, you need to know how to use technology—specifically, the types of technology that are relevant to your job. Nobody wants to work for a manager who isn’t tech savvy. Not knowing how to use technology is the surest way to become irrelevant in your career. For executives, the need to stay up to date on technology is greater, since there is always a younger, more relevant leader moving up the ranks who knows how to use the technology that could take your company to the next level.

We recently asked our successful leaders what they think is the technology every executive should know how to use right now.

Here are their responses…

Michael Willis, Sports Business Operations Executive

In finance/accounting, the Microsoft Office Timeline is a handy tool for what I do. It is easy to understand how multiple possibilities for creating a timeline are. With them, we can better understand the relationship between important events, analyze the evolution of individual stories, understand turning points, and, ultimately, visualize how one event influences, or does not influence, the other. Timelines can show not only current data but I can also create a visual history of multiple years.

Timelines can take on many different displays. You can design linear timelines with flags of important dates or deadlines.

You can also create a vertical timeline to show top-down or bottom-up data.

What I like most about timelines is the visual way I can tell a compelling story.

I can quantify these stories with visual effects.

Lastly, timelines in Microsoft keep expanding its reach in all types of visual possibilities. The possibilities are endless!

Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M – $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.

Maria Grandone, Director In Higher Education

Woman on laptop uses a new technology for work

As an educator and administrator, I enjoy helping young adults as well as adult learners with their academic journey. In my role, I oversee policies and procedures that help support student learning and success. Therefore, I implement multiple innovation projects to support students and meet them where they are.

My solution is Monday.com. The Work OS work management platform helps my team manage projects and workflows more efficiently. The project management includes the scope, time, and budget. What I like about Monday.com is that is a very easy and intuitive all-in-one work platform that uses apps and integrations to create a custom workflow for the project. Its versatility helps me (as well as my team) stay on track and the integrations with apps such as Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and Excel, allow me to easily continue working with my favorite tools from within the platform.

Since I work on several projects, Monday.com software allows me to assign tasks and prioritize what’s most important for the team to execute. To do this, I break down the components by color and timeline. For example, our digital badge project had a short implementation timeline, milestones, and deliverables. The platform allowed me to manage the entire workload all in one space.

My biggest takeaway: the platform fosters creative collaboration with my team and other departments. More importantly, the collaboration is seamless and provides visibility into the progress of our work. It saves time and money. You may want to give it a try!

Maria Grandone is dedicated to student access and success, particularly of underrepresented students in higher education. She loves to wake up early to meditate, go for an early morning run, and meet people from all walks of life.

Steve Barriault, Global Technical Sales Management

Google Calendar

Sales and field engineering have in common that they both are customer-facing positions. You get to meet lots of people in customer meetings.

If you are an executive in these types of occupations, you also must recruit at times. That means even more meetings—aka interviews.

Add necessary internal meetings to the mix, and it makes for a busy calendar.

Clients get priority, and I negotiate mutually agreeable timings. But for interviews, I go with Calendly.

There is simply no way I can spend valuable time negotiating interview timings piecemeal. Instead, I send candidates links. They pick and choose their own time. Problem solved!

Calendly integrates with my Google calendar, meaning it won’t double-book me. It will also enforce time zones when I am not available (4 am is a tough sell for me!) and not let candidates book time over “focus time.”

I wouldn’t say that this tech is all-purpose. I would not dream to ask clients to pick a time on my Calendly link. But if you need to recruit folks into your team, it can be a lifesaver.

Steve Barriault is a multilingual presales, sales, and business development management professional with 20+ years of experience in the sales and marketing of software & technological solutions worldwide. He’s built sales infrastructure from the ground up, going from $0 to millions of $ through both direct sales and distributors.

Mark Taylor, Product & Operations Executive

Microsoft Excel

Reporting and analytics. The primary means of gaining insight into your business. The challenge is, it’s easier for them to be wrong than right. Incomplete data, stale data, the wrong data source, the list goes on.

How might you “trust but verify” that the information you are making business decisions on is correct? Taking a dump of the raw data and creating a pivot table in Microsoft Excel is a simple way to gain insight.

There are added benefits too. For example, you see firsthand the quality of the underlying data. You might unearth assumptions that were made when the reports were initially created that are now incorrect. Again, the list goes on.

Sixty minutes of pivot table creation and analysis every reporting cycle seems like a small price to pay for the sense of security that comes from knowing that key business decisions are based on firm data foundations.

Mark Taylor has 20+ years of risk, technology, and product management experience working in global and regional financial services firms in the UK and the U.S. He’s managed teams of 40+, successfully addressed 100+ regulatory issues, and has saved companies $15M+.

Don Schulz, Senior Operations & Commercial Real Estate Executive

Executive uses a new technology on his laptop

Executives need to ensure they are operating at a strategic level and avoid getting buried in day-to-day details. To do this well requires a clear understanding of your company’s rhythm of business (ROB). It is therefore imperative that executives have a good ROB technology tool to help them easily see the “big picture.”

TeamUp is a free, easy-to-use tool that allows for easy displaying of ROB events of various durations and frequencies throughout the year. For executives, they are strategic and include things like annual planning, budgeting, product releases, financial reporting, shareholder meetings, significant company events, etc. Events are color-coded by function, type, team, etc., making them easy to see in aggregate and giving executives a quick, easy-to-digest understanding of key events over the next month, quarter, or year. It is very easy to turn events on or off to simplify or add to a display as needed. We used TeamUp to manage a midsize company’s ROB very effectively.

Rhythm Systems is a more complex and robust tool. It takes a greater time investment up front to get data in and to build proficiency. Although we reviewed it but, ultimately, did not implement it, I know of others that swear by its value.

The primary point here is that all businesses need to effectively manage their ROB and a good technology tool is key to doing it well.

Don Schulz is a 25+ year commercial real estate executive & COO. On the personal side, he likes to ski, hike, golf, and run, and is an occasional homebrewer.

Melodie Turk, Learning Experience Executive

Group of leaders talk during a virtual and in-person business meeting

Every executive needs to know how to post on social media platforms, as well as use their unique features.

With the amount of information being exchanged publicly, as well as within an organization, having a good understanding of how social media platforms work is essential.

Whether it’s short messages, longer articles, infographics, or even a video message, knowing how to post it yourself will save time. No need to work with the marketing team or some other tech-savvy individual. Your message can be posted to make an immediate impact on your audience.

In addition, knowing how to set up a new group, start a video chat, record a video chat, and share from any of those features will make your life and those that work with you much easier.

Externally, you’ll want to learn how to post on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and even Tiktok. Internally, Slack, Yammer, Workplace Facebook, and Microsoft Teams. Once you get familiar with a couple of platforms, the learning curve isn’t so fierce, and before you know it, others are coming to you for advice.

Melodie Turk is a learning experience executive with a unique background in the learning and development arena as well as change management. She is passionate about bringing change to the workplace—change that is meaningful and change that will last.

Lisa Perry, Global Marketing Executive

Woman uses virtual reality (VR) headset at work

The global augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) market is expected to grow to $209 billion by 2023. Consumers currently own 26 million VR headsets globally. VR and AR is the technology that marketing executives need to consider to drive innovation, consumer engagement, and relationship building.

Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated real-world experience that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way using special electronic equipment. VR is an excellent opportunity for businesses to create an immersive experience that promotes engagement through:

  • Employee Training: Virtual training environments, doctors trying out new tools, pilots utilizing flight simulators, teachers testing teaching methods in a virtual classroom, and virtual boot camps.
  • Events: 360-degree view of an event room set up to attending an event in the form of an avatar.
  • Marketing, Sales, & Retail: Visit virtual showrooms and pop-up or retail locations, interact with sales reps, and try out the merchandise.

Augmented reality (AR) augments your experience of the real world, enhancing it with sound, touch, and smell. AR is designed to add to the things you already do, like work, play, shop, explore, and have fun.

  • Try Before You Buy: Excellent way for customers to try products before they buy (clothing, cosmetics, jewelry, cars).
  • User/Instruction Manuals: Digital interface that displays the content visually during setup, configuration, troubleshooting, maintenance, and demonstration.
  • Marketing Materials: Scan marketing materials with your mobile device to access various features (video, speak with customer service, access a digital coupon).

The potential is enormous. Are you prepared for the future?

Lisa Perry helps companies build leadership brands, driving loyal customers & delivering profitability. She does this through a process that builds brands consumers love. Her goal is to help companies develop, monetize, and grow their brands.

What technology do you think every executive needs to know how to use right now? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily’s Executive Program.

No. 1 Way To Get A Job WITHOUT Applying Online

No. 1 Way To Get A Job WITHOUT Applying Online

Are a person looking for a brand new job but not hearing back again from employers? Have an individual been signing up to countless work online with little for you to no success? If therefore, performs this drain almost all of your energy, and they are you curious about just what other tips you could incorporate?

Well, we’re going to help share a big magic formula with you… the amount one way to obtain a job is simply by circumventing the applicant monitoring system!

Within this training, you’ll learn to:

  • Be familiar with disruptive job search strategy that will get anyone results fast
  • Develop a personal brand name to market yourself successfully
  • Set yourself in the route of recruiters and employing managers

Join our own CEO, J. T. O’Donnell, and Director of Coaching Development & Coaching, Christina Burgio, for this reside event on Wednesday, Nov 30th at 12 evening ET.

CAN’T ATTEND RESIDE? That’s alright. You’ll have access towards the recording as well as the workbook after the session!

Sign-up button

Navigating Strategic Roadmaps In Business

Navigating Strategic Roadmaps In Business

Roadmaps are beautiful. Not just because they are aesthetically pleasing but because of what they represent. Roadmaps clearly show what you want to achieve and how you will get there. You can create excitement for a big idea and package it in a way that others can understand. But a roadmap is still just a visualization. You need to have a vision and strategy behind the plan.

Vision, Strategy, And Roadmapping

Colleagues work on a roadmap project together

You need to understand the purpose of each to build something lasting deeply. All three are clearly defined on successful product and project teams.

A Simple Analogy — Making a Case for All Three

Think of a skyscraper.

1. Vision is the initial thought about what kind of place it will be and why it will matter.

  • Vision is your view of the future.

2. Strategy is the blueprint for the foundation and framing.

  • Explains the approach that you’ll take to realize that future state.

3. The roadmap builds upon the blueprint with a detailed plan for erecting a fully functioning structure.

  • The roadmap is the more tactical plan for what you will do to get there (and when you arrive), informed by the vision and strategy.

Build Your Strategic Roadmap!

vision, strategy, execute, success, roadmap concept

No matter where you work or how your organization approaches strategic planning, it is essential to have a firm grasp on each term and what it is not. Here is a helpful way to think about vision, strategy, and roadmapping.

Vision

Vision is about the future and, hopefully, a better world. It is the essence of what you hope to achieve and forms the beginning of your strategy. For example, our vision at the National Football League was to deliver a great fan experience.

Vision is not a statement that you define once and forget about it. Vision is a living and breathing thing. And it should not be overly complex or challenging to parse—everyone in the company needs to know and deeply understand it.

Strategy

Strategy defines the direction you will take to achieve your vision. The plan aligns the entire organization around what you want to accomplish and guides how to turn the idea into reality. It lays out your goals and the key strategic initiatives to be successful.

Strategy is not the tactical work you will do. But it is not in the background either; it informs every decision about which activities to invest in. Strategy is cross functional for significant efforts. Every team needs to understand how their work is related to their part in achieving critical objectives.

Strategic Roadmaps

A strategy roadmap is a tool that helps you visualize your strategic plan. Strategic roadmaps capture activities you will complete within a given time frame and communicate upcoming work in one view. You can use a roadmap to drive conversations. It can guide prioritizing work, allocating resources, and tracking dependencies.

A roadmap is not static. You can adjust as plans change, show progress as you complete work, and create tailored views for different audiences. A roadmap should be exciting. It is a visual guide that defines the work required for the team to be its best.

Keep a Clear Vision

A vision statement provides much value, even just a few sentences. Not only does it outline the company’s desired outcome, but it can communicate intentions and hopes for the future. The best part is that a vision statement changes with your organization. When a vision is reached or updated, it’s time to create a new vision statement. This encourages everyone toward more meaningful goals and opens your company to more possibilities.

5 Ways To Vastly Improve Strategic Visioning In Leadership

Coworkers talk strategy during a business meeting

Step 1: Clarify Your Purpose

Why does your organization/unit/function exist? What need must be met? What opportunities can be addressed?

Be clear about the purpose and continually use this purpose to center and re-center your efforts while guiding your constituents in seeing the long-term vision you are creating.

  • Choose a focus: In most cases, your vision and strategy should target those areas that define the purpose of your organization and make it valuable. What is most important? What will distinguish you from the competition? Who are the customers, and how do you bring them value?
  • Stay true to your core values: What is the heart and soul of your company, organization, or department? While change is the constant of any forward-looking strategy, many companies fail because they have strayed too far from what has made them successful.

Step 2: Become the King of Information

Stay constantly informed and up to date about your industry and competitors, as well as what’s happening right within your company.

  • Become a voracious consumer of knowledge: Read broadly in your technical or business literature and the more general press. Be aware of what is happening in your industry and the more significant business, social, and political environments.
  • Seek information from everyone: Often, you will get the most valuable information from those who are interacting most closely with your direct customers.

Step 3: Embrace an Innovative Mindset

Innovative organizations are usually more profitable, retain higher caliber employees, and lead by example.

  • Playing devil’s advocate: Ask probing questions, challenge the status quo, encourage others to be creative and stretch themselves, try new things, and take risks.
  • Thinking differently: There are different types of creative thinking. Creativity only sometimes means producing a new concept or idea. On the contrary, most productive creativity occurs when someone looks at an old solution slightly differently to find a better way.

Step 4: Translate Your Ideas Into Specific Actions

The best ideas are worthless unless they are acted upon effectively.

  • Make it simple: Many strategic initiatives fail due to the complexity of the vision. What are the core things that you want to accomplish? How can you make them clear and actionable?

Step 5: Communicate Effectively

The best vision and strategy can only succeed if communicated well.

  • Determine your audience: Who needs to know?
  • One message does not fit all: Create different messages for different audiences.
  • Make it real: Communicating your strategy via a story about people or a situation they understand can be much more understandable and memorable.
  • Communicate — over and over: Keep your vision and strategy alive through continuous updates to everyone involved.

8 Survival Tips For The Laid Off And Looking

8 Survival Tips For The Laid Off And Looking

It can be difficult to stay focused, positive, and proactive when you get laid off, but that is exactly what you need to do if you want to get a new job!

If you’re laid off and looking, check out these eight simple tips to get you out of the house and back to work.

1. Get Dressed

It may not seem important, but it is. Changing your clothes can change your mindset.

Just as it is important to have a designated area to “work” on your job search, you should have a job search wardrobe. You never know when you might interact with someone who might have a job opportunity for you. Put your best foot forward at all times.

2. Leave The House Every Day

Happy woman walking stays positive after being laid off

Leaving the house every day will increase your chances of meeting others with job opportunities or even interview opportunities. Even beyond the simple act of reminding people you exist by presenting yourself in public, you get human acknowledgment.

Sitting at home, alone, in front of a computer can result in feeling like you don’t exist after a while. Making eye contact with others and receiving acknowledgment can really improve your confidence and self-esteem.

3. Read Something Career/Industry Related Every Day

Man on laptop reads up on his industry while unemployed

Feed your mind! Keep up to date with your industry so you can continuously know what skills are in demand. Reading job search and career-related articles can also give you some tips and tricks from which you might benefit, and help you stay connected to the working world.

4. Vary Your Job Search Approach

Woman on laptop looks for a job after being laid off

Not only is sitting in front of the computer applying for jobs day after day boring, but it is also ineffective! You will rarely get a response, and if you do, it is often a rejection letter.

The easiest and most effective way to land a new job is by networking your way into the company. Also be sure to follow up on your applications and resume submissions with any connections you may have at the company, to try to go around the ATS and get your job application in the hands of the hiring manager.

Changing up your job search will keep you engaged, fresh, and motivated.

5. Practice Interviewing

Woman practices interviewing during unemployment

I am always so surprised when a new client contacts me to practice for an interview a day or two before the main event. Ideally, you should practice with a career coach or other professional several times before you are even called for an interview.

Mock interviews can be extremely helpful, especially if you’re nervous. Have a trusted colleague ask you behavioral interview questions so you can practice your answers. Once the mock interview is over, listen to their feedback to see what you should work on before the real thing.

6. Keep A Schedule

Man writes down his schedule while unemployed

Paper or electronic—it doesn’t matter. Map out your week ahead and review your schedule daily. This will ensure you don’t miss any application deadlines or opportunities to follow up or network. You also won’t forget to keep your word to call an employer back “next Tuesday.”

Job search is your business right now…unless you want to continue being unemployed.

7. Review Your Resume, LinkedIn Profile, And Cover Letter

Man on laptop reviews his resume and LinkedIn profile after being laid off

Your resume, LinkedIn profile, and cover letter should all be considered living documents. You should also review and update them regularly so you’re always ready for your next career move, no matter if you get laid off or simply decide you want to look for a new job. Even small improvements or corrections can make a surprising difference.

Additionally, it is easy to overlook things you take for granted like the same link that has been on your LinkedIn profile for ages but now happens to be broken. Try to use an objective eye when reviewing these documents. If it’s been a while since you’ve updated them, and you don’t know where to start, a career coach can help!

8. Volunteer

Woman volunteers while unemployed

You may not think you have time to volunteer, but you do. Not only will the organization or individual receiving your time and effort appreciate it, but you will benefit as well.

There is no way for me to describe how good it can make you feel to be able to contribute your time and energy a few hours a week to a good cause. It is good for your self-confidence, builds feelings of relevance, and can be another networking opportunity as well.

You just never know what will lead you to your next job opportunity! While this is by no means a complete list of things that you can do if you are laid off and looking, it is a good start.

Need more help with your job search?

We’d love it if you signed up for Work It Daily’s Event Subscription! Get your career questions answered in our next live event!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

Monday.com: Project Management Made Easy

Monday.com: Project Management Made Easy

As an educator together with administrator, I enjoy assisting young adults as nicely as adult learners along with their academic journey. Inside my role, I oversee guidelines and procedures that assist support student learning and additionally success. Therefore, I apply multiple innovation projects to back up students and meet all of them where they are.

Monday. apresentando Is good for Managing Projects

Monday. por meio de, task management management platform

The solution is Monday. contendo. The Work OS function management platform helps our team manage projects not to mention workflows more efficiently. The particular project management includes this scope, time, and spending budget.

What My partner and i like about Monday. junto de is that is a new very simple and intuitive helpful work platform that utilizes apps and integrations to be able to create a custom work flow for the project. The versatility helps me (as well as my team) keep on track and the integrations with apps such since Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Googlemail, and Excel, permit me to very easily continue working with the best tools from within often the platform.

Wednesday. com Capabilities

Project manager purpose project management software

Since My spouse and i work on several tasks, Monday. com software allows me assign tasks and also prioritize what’s most essential for the team for you to execute. To do this particular, I break down your components by color as well as timeline. For example, our own digital badge project any short implementation timeline, breakthrough, and deliverables. The software allowed me to control the entire workload almost all in one space.

Conclusion

Man uses anxiety attack software during a yanks meeting

​My biggest takeaway: the exact platform fosters creative effort with my team and then other departments. More significantly, the collaboration is smooth and supplies visibility into the very progress of our own work. This saves time. You might want to give this a try!

Competing With Spreadsheets — The Joy And The Horror!

Competing With Spreadsheets — The Joy And The Horror!

Bill Gates has a lot to answer for. Every office computer has a spreadsheet application on it. Any task involving numbers is done on a spreadsheet.

Selling contact center technology, I am frequently told, “No problem, they’re only using spreadsheets.”

A professional colleague told me that when people replace existing technology, either they are looking for a solution that does more for the same price that they are already paying, or for something that does the same as their current solution, but for a lower price.

Since everybody’s computer already has a spreadsheet application on it, they see it as a zero-cost application.

How do you compete against a zero-cost application?

Know Your Enemy

Microsoft Excel icon on a laptop

Sun Tzu wrote: “If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.”

Now we’ve identified spreadsheets as our “enemy,” what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses?

The Strengths Of Spreadsheets

Man on laptop looks at a spreadsheet

Their greatest strength is that they are essentially free. Even if a company does buy your solution, they are not going to give up their spreadsheet licenses. They use spreadsheets for so many other parts of the business, so there is no saving by adopting your product.

Spreadsheets are the legacy solution. People have designed and amended their files over the years to meet their needs exactly. People feel as comfortable using spreadsheets as they would wearing their favorite pair of slippers.

The final strength of spreadsheets is their flexibility. The average Excel user regularly uses about 5% of its full functionality. Spreadsheets’ formulae address all aspects of mathematics and contain many tools for analyzing and processing data. Most software cannot emulate all the different functions that spreadsheets have to offer.

The Holes In The Spreadsheets’ Armor

Empty spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel

Spreadsheets were originally designed to make calculations and save them in files. These calculations could be shared by sharing the file.

More than one person can work on a spreadsheet at the same time, but it has its challenges. The key challenge is that the number of users working on a spreadsheet at any one time is limited for practical purposes, to two or three. If you create a database table in Excel, it’s not possible to have 100 users making real-time changes to it simultaneously.

Security is another headache. Spreadsheets can be password protected, but that password protection cannot be integrated into an identity and access management (IAM) tool. The password is unique to the spreadsheet and not to the user If 100 users use the same spreadsheet, then 100 users know the same password. Alternatively, each user can use their own spreadsheet and then regularly merge the files. This requires a lot of manual work, which is prone to error.

Automation is possible within spreadsheets, but it’s complicated. Not many people know how to write macros in VBA. If your product has a functionality that would need a macro to replicate it, then it’s unlikely that your customer’s organization will have someone who can write that macro. On the other hand, if your customer’s spreadsheets use macros to perform certain functions, it’s pretty unlikely that your product will perform the same function as the macro. I have often worked with customers using spreadsheets with macros. When I ask how they work, they will tell me that the person who wrote the spreadsheet has moved on. No one in their company knows how it works, but they have to keep using it.

Replacing Spreadsheets — Including The Value In (Return On Investments) ROI Calculations

Woman looks at a spreadsheet on her computer

As discussed, people look for solutions that do more for the same price that they are already paying, or for solutions that do the same as their current solutions, but for a lower price.

The trick is to understand what are the units of work being done on the spreadsheet and to attribute a financial value to them based on the manual labor. This is usually based on the time it takes to do the work. If you can show that your product can do the same units of work in a shorter period of time, or with the reduced attention of a human worker, then you can estimate a cost saving.

This manual work can include the costs of someone checking the work, and also the costs of rework to rectify mistakes.

The second way to calculate the ROI is to look at the consequences of non-compliance. Keeping customer data on a spreadsheet is not very secure for the reasons mentioned above. It is likely to violate data protection laws. You can also factor the likely penalties, fines, and legal costs into the ROI.

The wrap-up

If you’re selling to small and medium-sized customers, spreadsheets can be a fearsome incumbent to beat. You need to reveal the effect of the spreadsheet’s weaknesses on the business while being ready to handle objections based on the spreadsheet’s strengths.

Are you competing against spreadsheets? Why are your customers considering replacing them? How are spreadsheets holding them back? What do they hope that your product can do that spreadsheets can’t? How does the value your product creates compare to the value spreadsheets generate?

Internal Controls To Safeguard Your Assets

Internal Controls To Safeguard Your Assets

When you hear the words “internal controls” does the early 2000s, Enron scandal, and SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) come to mind? It probably does especially if you work in finance or accounting. Internal control as defined by COSO is “a process for assuring of an organization’s objectives in operational effectiveness and efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws, regulations and policies. A broad concept, internal control involves everything that controls risks to an organization.”

Many people will focus on the financial aspects when they think about internal controls, but as the COSO definition states, internal controls are for the entire organization. This includes operations and information technology (IT) and may not have realized that some things being done are internal control related. For example, if you work at a manufacturing plant, the equipment is critical, and you want to make sure that it’s working properly. So, you’ll have inspections and routine maintenance, which are considered internal controls.

Technology is at the center of most organizations, so you definitely want to make sure your IT assets are working and protected. If there is security breach or ransomware, the CEO will want to know how it happened. You might not think of internal controls, but it certainly could be related to an internal control weakness.

Types Of Internal Controls

internal controls /safeguard assets concept

Internal controls are typically divided into three categories:

  1. Preventative controls – policies and practices designed to “prevent” problems from occurring.
  2. Detective controls – procedures designed to “detect” if a problem occurs. It identifies that something has happened.
  3. Corrective controls – these are implemented after the fact to “correct” so that it doesn’t happen again. It could be offering training, applying a software patch, or rebooting a system.

There are two types of IT-related internal controls – general controls and application controls:

  1. General controls – are for the overall environment and include physical hardware, software, security, etc. For example, make sure you schedule (and test) routine backups. In the event of a disaster, you want to be confident that you can restore the system. Other general controls are antivirus, firewalls, and change management processes.
  2. Application controls – are specific for input, processing, and output for each application. Examples are required fields, correct date format, and data completeness checks.

How To Identify And Mitigate Internal Control Weaknesses

internal control concept

Some elements to help identify and mitigate control weaknesses are:

1. Defining and inventorying risks. While some risks may be common across an industry, some will be specific to an organization. It’s important to identify which risks are mission critical to your organization. There are some individuals who specialize in identifying ongoing risks.

  • One of the top risks is cybersecurity! Many organizations have a dedicated CISO (chief information security officer). Also, individuals can obtain the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) certification.
  • Some organizations have a specific GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) group.

2. Frameworks and conducting risk assessments. There are numerous tools, processes, and templates available. You’ll want to determine and document the risks, the likelihood of the event happening, the impact including potential cost, if/how to mitigate the risk, etc. Some frameworks and considerations are:

  • If you work in healthcare, how do you ensure you are HIPAA compliant?
  • How often do you perform penetration tests?
  • If you have an ERP partner, have you reviewed their annual SOC2 (System and Organization Controls Type 2) report to review their internal controls, and any client considerations you may be responsible for?

3. Involvement by Internal Audit (internal controls is practically their middle name). They can be a valuable business partner and provide an independent perspective to make sure the internal controls are effective (including cost effective) and working properly.

4. Continuous monitoring. Both your organization and the threat landscape are constantly changing. You want to regularly conduct assessments and reviews to ensure the controls are effective. Don’t make controls so rigid that it’s impossible for the business to function.

  • There are tools that can systematically monitor, identify, and remediate issues such as Norton identifying viruses and malware.
  • Conduct phishing training and testing for all employees to increase security awareness.

You can’t make the organization 100% secure without shutting the business down, but you can create and maintain a framework of internal controls to safeguard the organization’s important assets.

There are great resources regarding internal controls provided by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), and Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).

For more information on internal controls, follow me on LinkedIn!

Are You Committing Unemployment Insurance Fraud By Accident?

Are You Committing Unemployment Insurance Fraud By Accident?

Unemployment insurance fraud takes place when an individual conceals or misrepresents some information to get or increase unemployment insurance payments.

Most often, unemployment insurance frauds imply making a false statement about one’s work and earnings. Sometimes the cases can also include work refusals, unreported travel, check forgeries, identity theft, inability to work, incarceration, perjury, non-availability for work, incorrect claims for dependent allowance, etc.

Here’s everything you need to know about unemployment insurance fraud.

Types Of Unemployment Insurance Fraud

Woman on laptop researches the types of unemployment insurance fraud

  • Failing to report your employment. This includes cash jobs, commission, self-employment, 1099, or temporary.
  • Making a false statement or misrepresenting information to increase or receive benefits (for example: not reporting school attendance when receiving benefits).
  • Not reporting your work refusals.
  • Fabricating job searches or not conducting a solid work search.
  • Not reporting a work separation.
  • Using another individual’s identity (social security number and/or name) to work and file for insurance payments.
  • Failing to report being incapable and not available to work (for example: sick or injured, abroad, etc.) and receiving benefits.
  • Not reporting other types of reimbursement (for example: workers’ compensation payments).
  • Helping somebody file a fraudulent insurance claim.

What Happens If You Commit Unemployment Insurance Fraud?

Couple on laptop tries to avoid unemployment insurance fraud

If you commit unemployment insurance fraud intentionally or accidentally (not knowing the regulations, for example), you have to pay back all the benefits that you received plus a penalty (50% of that sum).

In most cases, a person is going to be disqualified from getting unemployment benefits in the future (minimum 6 weeks for every week of receiving benefits). There can also be imprisonment and fines included depending on the sum of the received fraudulent benefits.

Unemployment fraud punishment may differ between U.S. states. The Department of Unemployment Insurance in Arizona, for example, has different periods of disqualification from collecting unemployment insurance benefits than in Colorado. You should check your state’s law to get the full picture.

Repaying Overpayments

Woman on laptop pays back her unemployment insurance overpayment

There can also be overpayments, which you must pay back. Some of the typical cases of overpayments include:

  • You report some information wrongly when you file for benefits, and that information is corrected after.
  • The Unemployment Insurance Program processes your claim erroneously.
  • Your income was wrongly reported by your employer.

There can be a repayment plan organized for you if you cannot repay the whole sum at once.

How Can Unemployment Insurance Fraud Be Detected?

Man on phone reports a case of unemployment insurance fraud

There are a lot of ways in which unemployment insurance fraud is identified. Here are some of them:

  • Public tips by internet, mail, or phone
  • New employer’s hire reports
  • Cross-matches with some government records
  • Quality control audits
  • Claim center referrals
  • Other investigative efforts
These days, unemployment insurance fraud seldom goes unpunished. We hope this article has informed you about unemployment insurance fraud and helps you avoid any potential mistakes while you’re unemployed.
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30 Tips For Your First Day Of Work: Preparing For Success

30 Tips For Your First Day Of Work: Preparing For Success

Your first day of work can feel like a whirlwind, so being as prepared as possible will make a big difference. This list of tips for your first day on the job will help you keep your nerves at bay, make a great impression, and hit the ground running. 1. Make Sure You’re Well-Rested Having […]

The post 30 Tips For Your First Day Of Work: Preparing For Success appeared first on Career Sherpa.

How To Reduce Average Handling Time (AHT) In Contact Centers

How To Reduce Average Handling Time (AHT) In Contact Centers

It’s common knowledge that approximately 65% of contact center costs are staffing costs. Inbound staff get paid by the hour. If your cost per call is USD 3.82, then USD 2.90 of that cost is for staffing costs.

If you can reduce AHT by 10%, staffing costs reduce to USD 2.06, and the overall cost per call reduces to USD 3.59—a USD 0.23 cost reduction per call.

Let’s scale these numbers up for a 100-seat contact center. Assuming that each agent handles 50 calls a day, and there are 90 agents working at any one time, then the contact center handles 4,500 calls a day, so it will save approximately USD 1,033 per day, USD 23,000 per month, and USD 276,000 per year.

Common Root Causes And Solutions

Call center employee talks to a customer on the phone

​To reduce AHT, the best way to do it is to listen to a selection of calls that are longer than AHT, and a selection that are shorter. You can then see how many of the common root causes listed below you find in the longer calls as opposed to the shorter calls.

If you have speech analytics software available, you can make this task a lot easier.

Transfers And Routing Strategy

Person dials a phone number

​How many calls are agents transferring to Tier 2?

Let’s say your AHT is 4 minutes (240 seconds) and 10% of calls are routed to a Tier 2 agent.

Customers spend 2 minutes with a Tier 1 agent, 1 minute on hold while the Tier 1 agent explains the problem to a Tier 2 agent, and 3 minutes with a Tier 2 agent. Total time = 6 minutes.

If that call was routed directly to a Tier 2 agent, he could handle it in 4 minutes. This is a net saving of 2 minutes or 33% on the longest calls in the contact center.

Why not redesign the IVR to route customers with common Tier 2 problems directly to Tier 2?

“Dead Air”

Call center employee talks to her manager

This is when neither side is talking. Customers do not like it because they don’t know what is happening and they are paying for the call.

It’s often caused by slow computer systems or poorly trained agents who are not familiar with the tools or workflows.

It’s worth finding calls with “dead air” and investigating why this is happening. If computer systems are the problem, do they affect all categories of cases or specific cases where specific tools are used?

Can the tools be sped up in some way? Can the process be adjusted so that agents are running the tools while doing something else? Could this category of issues be handled by chat instead of a call, so that agents can handle multiple chats at the same time?

Call Handling Skills

Call center employees answer phone calls

Most contact center agents are nice people. They are trained to be polite to customers. They are not always so good at taking control of a conversation when a customer is upset or simply wants to talk about something else.

Agents need to be assertive to keep the conversation on track. They need to be trained to control the conversation by asking the right questions and not getting drawn into other directions.

Workflow: How Much Can You Reduce Call Length By?

Empty call center

Listen to a selection of your calls. If you reduce the call to the bare minimum of greeting, verification, needs analysis, response, and goodbye, how many seconds will it shave off of the call length?

How will this affect customer satisfaction (CSAT)? How will they react to a shorter, brisker call?

Can Some Calls Be Automated, And What Will That Do To Your AHT/CSAT?

Woman in call center talks to a customer on the phone

Some simple requests can be handled by automated “bots.” Contact center costs are a function of cost per call and call volumes.

If we reduce AHT, we reduce the cost per call.

Automating simple processes will reduce call volumes but may lead to an increase in AHT.

Let’s say we can automate 10% of calls, but this will lead to an increase in AHT by 5%. What is the net effect? Let’s do a “before” and “after” comparison.

“Before”

Assume the cost per call is USD 3.82. (See above)

90 agents normally work at any one time, and each agent handles 50 calls per day.

Total costs per day = USD 17,190 per day.

“After”

Assume the cost per call is USD 4.00 because AHT on human-handled calls has been increased by 5%.

90 agents normally work at any one time, and each agent now handles 45 calls per day.

Total costs per day = USD 16,200 per day.

This is because call volumes have been reduced from 4,500 to 4,050 per day.

This saving of USD 990.00 per day represents 69 employee hours that can be realized by redeploying them to other tasks.

Multiplying this up, savings of USD 990 per day is USD 22,770 per month or USD 273,240 per year.

Over to you!

Are you trying to reduce your AHT? How much can you cut your call length by? Which root cause looks most likely?

5 Tips For Getting A Job During The Holidays

5 Tips For Getting A Job During The Holidays

Finding a job during the holidays is no easy task. You have to navigate vacations, slow hiring processes, and increased competition. Yet with the right strategy, it can be done.

Here are five ways you can stand out from the competition this holiday season and find a job before the end of the year.

1. Showcase The Right Skills On Your Resume

Hiring manager on laptop reads a resume during the holidays

Make sure your resume highlights and draws attention to any experience you have in the industry. Look at job descriptions and the core responsibilities of the positions you’re applying for. That’s where you’ll find the skills employers are looking for in job candidates. By including the right skills on your resume, you’ll stand out to hiring managers and have a better chance of getting your resume past the ATS. It’s all about keywords!

The holidays are hectic, so share with the potential employer how you’ll be a positive addition to the team by leveraging your strengths.

2. Dress The Part

Well-dressed man interviews for a job during the holidays

Don’t underestimate the power of a great first impression. Dress for the interview in professional attire. Even if the job indicates you’ll be wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, you need to show respect for the employer by visiting them in clothes that show you are committed to being seen as one who cares about their appearance and the impact it has on others.

Not sure what to wear? We recommend dressing conservatively in clothing one level above what the current employees at the company are wearing. You want to look professional, but not like you don’t fit in with the workplace culture.

3. Show Your Connection To The Company

Woman answers an interview question during her holiday job search

Employers like to hire candidates who have a passion for what they do. Why? Because they know that excitement will translate into better performance.

In your disruptive cover letter (and during your job interview), demonstrate how and why you admire the company. Highlight what you love most about their products and services. Give examples of how you have personally used them in your own life with success. The more you can show them you understand and respect the business, the more likely you’ll impress the hiring manager and move forward in the interview process.

4. Demonstrate Your Value

Man has a phone interview during the holidays

It’s important to remember that you’re a business-of-one, and you’re trying to sell the service you provide as a business-of-one to employers (the customers who will be paying you for the service).

To find a job during the holidays, it’s critical you adequately demonstrate your value as a business-of-one and potential employee in the hiring process. How? Well, make sure to quantify your work experience on your resume. Use numbers to showcase your accomplishments. Clearly state how you’ll make or save the company money with your employment. Do this, and you’ll easily become one of the top job candidates for the position.

5. Express Gratitude

Woman interviews for a job during the holiday season

The holidays are busy for everyone. When you’re applying for jobs during the holiday season, keep gratitude in mind.

After every job interview, always send a thank-you note. It’s just the polite thing to do, and you’ll score more points with the hiring manager. Even if you get rejected, or never hear back about a position, make sure you send an email thanking the employer for the opportunity and wish them the best of luck with finding the right job candidate.

Don’t be bitter. Be gracious. You never know what will happen in the future. You might want to apply for another job at the company down the line. So, don’t let your frustration get the best of you.

Remember: if you get rejected, they didn’t say, “No, not ever.” They just said, “No, not today.”

A successful holiday job search depends on a solid strategy. Follow the guidelines above and land a job this holiday season!

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.