When a team is remote, it can be harder to accurately measure activity and results. But that doesn’t mean regular feedback is less important. Whether it’s in a formal review or a simple weekly or monthly check-in with their manager, employees want more feedback on their performance. According to a Joblist study, nearly 60% of employees said getting feedback on a regular basis is very motivating. When a team is remote, however, it can be harder to accurately measure activity and results. Should performance reviews be put on hold during COVID-19? Read Full Story

As a manager, awareness is an absolute key to running a successful operation with remote teams. Here are five things to consider. Performance management requires a lot of planning and attention, so that everyone in an organization can benefit from it, including employees working remotely. Now more than ever, leaders need to focus on adapting and altering their processes to fit a new normal of working from home. Read Full Story

Here are the adjustments we made to performance reviews, while prioritizing employees’ well-being and emotional stamina. Entering 2020, my company, a video marketing firm, announced major changes to our HR systems, processes, and calendar. The team wanted our HR operating system to be more predictable and align better with our overall operating system. This meant introducing a semi-annual performance review cycle, moving everyone onto one fall compensation review cycle, and spreading out other HR activities to better support the business cycle. Read Full Story

What a study of work from home employees reveals about the keys to employee safety, happiness and productivity.

While looking through your business objectives, you suddenly feel your organization needs to shake things up a bit. Unfortunately, your in-house team doesn’t have the required expertise to push through change. So what do you do? Hire a consultant, hands down. A consultant can provide your company with specialized knowledge to help solve specific problems, allowing you to gain a competitive advantage. In a nutshell, they can give you expert opinions, analysis, and recommendations that can help ensure a more objective-based approach to grow your business and maximize sales – all at the same time. Plus, an outsider’s perspective can likely improve strategizing and troubleshoot problems effectively too. Our team at Neil Patel Digital has compiled the ultimate guide below to help you understand the nuances of working with a consultant for the best results. Let’s start by reviewing how you can find the best consultant for your company. How …

Make these performance management improvements to boost your employee's strengths and your bottom line as well.

Statista says 52 percent of global internet traffic is mobile . A third of all mobile searches on Google are local. Microsoft says the same thing — 53 percent of mobile searches on Bing have local intent . This is pretty big on its own. Then we see data showing that local searches are growing 50 percent faster than mobile search. This growth is amazing for local businesses, but many companies aren’t prepared to take advantage of this growth. If you have the right local SEO agency, that’s not a problem. Do you know how to choose the right agency? Here are some simple tips you can use to help you choose the right local search agency for your business. Know Your Goals and Desired Outcomes for Local SEO According to a BrightLocal survey , the top local search metrics for businesses were: Google rankings: The better your rankings, the …

The annual performance review may finally be dead. Executives at Intel, Udemy, Nintex, and Keystone Partners on how their companies have shifted away from this formality and embraced processes that work now. For Fast Company’ s Shape of Tomorrow series , we’re asking business leaders to share their inside perspective on how the COVID-19 era is transforming their industries. Here’s what’s been lost—and what could be gained—in the new world order . Read Full Story

30-second summary: Keap is an email marketing and sales platform for SMBs with CRM tools that include: SMS text management, appointment scheduling, and invoice/payment automation. Keap’s sales-focused tools include pipeline management and marketing automation features. The strategic planning eBook is informed by Keap’s internal and very successful strategic planning process which has helped grow the company over 10 years into a $100 million enterprise. Keap’s planning process involves five steps: identify your business’s purpose, analyze results, understand how strategy guides planning, establish a meeting rhythm, and involve and motivate your employees. Keap’s 2020 Strategic Planning Guide is available as a free download from ClickZ for a limited time. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Keap is an automated email marketing and sales platform for small businesses. The platform provides tools focused on CRM such as SMS text management, appointment scheduling, and invoice/payment automation. Their platform also includes sales-focused tools including pipeline management …

30-second summary: Data paralysis is a natural consequence of the marketing technology businesses use daily, but there are tools that can help manage the proliferation of data so that it can be used efficiently and effectively. In this post, we review five tools, each of which help mitigate the data paralysis connected to a specific area of data usage including CRM, lead management, business insights, customer experience, and website traffic/campaign analysis. The tools listed here are examples of the technology that exists to help manage and leverage data. There are many more tools available, so be sure to research solutions that fit within your budget and business type. Data paralysis is a real problem. The proliferation of martech tools and marketing touchpoints has created a wealth of data which, while a boon for businesses, can also present challenges when it comes to data management, analysis, security, and consistency. A 2018 …